ANALYSIS: The AI Black Box in Legal Subcontracting

As artificial intelligence tools become entrenched in legal workflows, questions of data control and accountability move to the forefront. The complexity is most evident in the relationship between in-house counsel and outside counsel, particularly when law firms introduce third-party vendors into the mix.

From the corporate client’s perspective, retaining outside counsel often means entrusting highly sensitive company data. When the law firm outsources tasks like discovery or document review to external vendors, the client’s control over data handling diminishes. If those vendors rely on AI tools for document sorting, analytics, or even training, the risks multiply. What assurance does ...