Israel’s Bar Association sets strict rules for lawyers using AI agents

While artificial intelligence offers tempting shortcuts, the National Ethics Committee of the Israel Bar Association has established a clear rule: autonomous systems and AI agents must not be permitted to make substantive legal decisions, provide independent legal advice, draft legal pleadings, or advance legal proceedings without close human supervision and approval.

In an updated position paper published on Thursday and signed by Adv. Menachem Moskowitz, Chair of the National Ethics Committee of the Bar Association, the committee clarifies that AI may serve as a supervised technical aid, but full legal and professional responsibility remains with the human lawyer. There is no substitute for human judgment. There are currently approximately 100,000 lawyers in Israel.

Artificial intelligence systems are no longer limited to tools that generate a specific output in response to a user prompt. They can also include components or systems capable of operating with a higher degree of autonomy. These systems are sometimes referred to as “AI agents.” As a result, the committee says lawyers must recognize that as a system’s level of autonomy increases, so do the ethical, professional and procedural risks associated with its use.