Jianfei Chen Writes Law360 Article About AI and Attorney Client Privilege Risks
Jianfei Chen, a Quarles & Brady attorney in the Intellectual Property Practice Group, wrote a Law360 article about artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on attorney-client privilege. The article discusses the federal court ruling in U.S. v. Heppner, which found that client use of public AI tools is not privileged, and highlights the ongoing risk when lawyers use AI on confidential matters without protections in place.
An excerpt:
That framework assumes counsel can identify what was disclosed, to whom and when. It works for a privileged document in a production set, a misdirected email or a filing that inadvertently reveals protected content. It fits less cleanly where a system may have incorporated privileged material into later outputs through inference pathways counsel cannot fully trace.
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A critic might note that if the output does not identify Client A, the practical harm may be limited — no one can point to a document and say this is Client A's privileged communication. But a privilege waiver does not require demonstrated prejudice; it turns on unauthorized disclosure.