AI Rules for Montana Law Firms
Last verified July 8, 2026
Montana hasn't issued a formal ethics opinion, court rule, or standing order addressing how lawyers use generative AI. The state's one enacted AI statute is aimed at computational infrastructure, not legal practice, so your firm's actual exposure still runs through existing conduct rules rather than a Montana-specific AI instrument.
Where Montana Stands
No formal Montana bar ethics opinion or court rule addresses generative AI in legal practice. The State Bar of Montana has published an educational article on generative AI ethics on montanabar.org, but it is informal bar-journal commentary, not a formal ethics opinion or rule, and should be treated as directional only. Separately, Montana enacted SB 212, the Right to Compute Act (2025 Mont. Laws ch. 150), which protects private ownership and use of computational resources from state restriction under strict scrutiny and imposes risk-management and human-shutdown duties only on AI-controlled critical infrastructure. This statute has essentially no direct compliance burden for a typical law firm.
What Your Firm Must Do
Without a formal Montana ethics opinion or rule on point, your firm's AI use is governed by the general Rules of Professional Conduct: competence, confidentiality, and supervision apply to AI-assisted work the same way they apply to any other delegated task. Anchor your firm's AI policy to those existing rules and to ABA Formal Opinion 512 until Montana issues formal guidance of its own. If your firm advises technology, crypto, or data-center clients, know that the Right to Compute Act's critical-infrastructure provisions may apply to them even though they don't apply to your own practice.
Prefer to talk it through?
Get a free consultation from an AI chief of staff.
A 30-minute call. Get a clear read on what Montana's rules mean for your firm and what to do first.
Book a Free ConsultationThis page covers Montana law. The free assessment scores your specific firm across five domains in one minute.