Agentic workflows in the practice of law—AI agents as ethics counsel

• Pages: 247-272
• Date: 01 April 2025
• Published date: 01 April 2025
• Author: Catherine Gage O'Grady,Casey Sims O'Grady

Agentic Workf‌lows in the Practice of Law—

AI Agents as Ethics Counsel

CATHERINE GAGE O’GRADY* AND CASEY SIMS O’GRADY**

ABSTRACT

Generative AI is reshaping legal practice as law f‌irms invest in AI technology

and prepare for a future where AI agents operate alongside human lawyers.

While such a future raises numerous ethical concerns, it also opens new oppor-

tunities for ethical practice. This article explores the potential for AI agents to

improve ethical decision-making within legal practices. We start by def‌ining

key concepts such as AI agents and agentic workf‌lows. We then provide a brief

overview of the role of ethics counsel in law f‌irms and discuss critical behav-

ioral challenges in the human practice of law. Finally, we introduce a new

model of AI agents acting as dedicated ethics counsel. These agents should be

specialized, accountable, and systematic to provide comprehensive ethical guid-

ance in a f‌irm’s legal workf‌lows. These ethical agents have the potential to miti-

gate the human biases in traditional legal practice and offer an eff‌icient and

scalable approach to ensure ethical compliance in an increasingly AI-driven

legal landscape. To demonstrate this model, we end with real-world examples

of what initial ethical agent contributions could look like in practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: GENERATIVE AI AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW . . . . . 248

I. AGENTIC WORKFLOWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

A. DEFINITION OF AI GENERALLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

B. DEFINITION OF AI AGENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

C. DEFINITION OF AN AGENTIC WORKFLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

D. THE AGENTIC LAW FIRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

* Professor of Law, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona.

** Founder and CEO of Blueshoe, a legal technology company (Y Combinator X25). We thank Joan

Casciari, Mark Casciari, Scott Killingsworth, Cas Laskowski, Megan Nichols, Andrew M. Perlman, Stanley

S. Reynolds, Keith Swisher, and Kai Yee Wan. © 2025, Catherine Gage O’Grady & Casey Sims O’Grady.

247

II. HUMAN LAWYERING—BEHAVIORAL CHALLENGES AND

ETHICS COUNSEL IN A LAW FIRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

A. INDIVIDUAL ATTORNEY RESPONSIBILITY AND

BEHAVIORAL MOTIVATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

B. LAW FIRM ETHICS COUNSEL AND ETHICAL

INFRASTRUCTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

III. A NEW VISION: AI AGENTS AS ETHICS COUNSEL . . . . . . . . . . 260

A. REDUCING THE IMPACT OF DECISION-MAKING BIASES

AND BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

1. MOTIVATED REASONING AND SELF-INTEREST .............. 262

2. CONFIRMATION BIAS ................................. 263

B. SPECIALIZED ETHICS AGENTS IN LEGAL WORKFLOWS . . 265

1. ADVANTAGES OF SPECIALIZED ETHICS AGENTS............. 266

2. ACCOUNTABILITY AND OVERSIGHT OF AI SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . 267

3. SYSTEMATIC BENEFITS OF AI IN ETHICAL PRACTICE . . . . . . . . . 267

C. AI AGENTS AS ETHICS COUNSEL—ILLUSTRATIVE

EXAMPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

1. ETHICAL REMINDERS IN RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . 269

2. INDEPENDENT AND TIMELY ETHICAL REMINDERS . . . . . . . . . . . 271

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

INTRODUCTION: GENERATIVE AI AND THE PRACTICE OF LAW

Even in its infancy, generative AI is impacting the practice of law. Although

traditionally reluctant to adopt new technologies, law f‌irms are already making

signif‌icant investments in internal and third-party approaches to generative AI.

1

See Lisa Shuchman, Gen AI Adoption Is Taking Off. Law Firms Are Finally Ready, LAW.COM INT’L (June

2, 2024), www.law.com/2024/06/02/gen-ai-adoption-is-taking-off-law-f‌irms-are-f‌inally-ready/ [https://perma.

cc/G5XT-W62T] (noting that large law f‌irms are increasingly hiring experts in generative AI to lead their

technological transformation efforts); CoCounsel: The Legal AI Assistant and Tool Essential for Legal Teams,

THOMSON REUTERS LEGAL (June 13, 2024), https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/legal-ai-tools-essential-for-

attorneys/[https://perma.cc/X7AG-5BV6] (explaining that law f‌irms are increasingly adopting AI tools to

automate routine tasks, enhance legal research, and improve overall eff‌iciency, making AI an essential part of

modern legal practice).

While the future of AI development in law’s workplaces is far from clear, we

believe legal practice will start to move toward agentic systems that combine

human lawyers with AI agents. This shift will bring undeniable changes to the

1.

248 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 38:247