AI Rules for Massachusetts Law Firms
Last verified July 8, 2026
Massachusetts hasn't passed an AI-specific statute for lawyers, but your firm is already operating under real consequences: Bar Counsel is documenting escalating discipline for AI-fabricated citations, the Attorney General has put AI marketing and AI-driven discrimination inside existing consumer protection law, and the Supreme Judicial Court has weighed in on how far AI can go inside the courts themselves. This page lays out what each of those three sources actually requires.
Where Massachusetts Stands
Massachusetts governs lawyer AI use through existing authority rather than a new AI statute. The SJC's Interim Guidelines for Use of Generative AI, announced December 2025, limit judges and court staff to using generative AI only for administrative tasks involving public information, and the SJC Standing Advisory Committee concluded the existing Rules of Professional Conduct already govern how attorneys use AI, so there is no new disclosure duty. Separately, the Attorney General's Advisory on the Application of Consumer Protection, Civil Rights, and Data Privacy Laws to Artificial Intelligence treats deceptive AI marketing, defective AI tools, and AI-driven discrimination as violations of Chapter 93A.
What Your Firm Must Do
Bar Counsel's 2025 report, Two Years of Fake Cases and the Courts are Ratcheting Up the Sanctions, directs firms to adopt written AI policies, staff training, verification workflows for AI-generated citations, and an incident response plan. The Attorney General's Chapter 93A advisory also applies directly to your firm's own claims about AI-assisted services, not just to advising clients who deploy AI.
Malpractice and Carrier Considerations
Bar Counsel's report tracks the sanctions trend firsthand: the Smith v. Farwell fine was followed by a public reprimand, and Dastou v. Holmes resulted in fee disgorgement. That escalation pattern, from monetary fines to public discipline to disgorgement, is the clearest signal in the data of where unverified AI-generated filings are heading in Massachusetts.
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