Click here to read the New York City Bar Association press release
Adams and Reese Partner Lucian Pera has been appointed to the AI and Legal Ethics Subcommittee of the New York City Bar Association Presidential Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies.
The task force includes nine subcommittees focusing on different areas of AI, including access to justice, commerce and finance, national security, healthcare, legal ethics, liabilities and remedies, and the international regulation of AI. A wide range of professionals have been appointed to the nine subcommittees, including professors, computer scientists, industry representatives, business and nonprofit leaders, government officials and regulators, and lawyers and judges.
The AI and Legal Ethics Subcommittee will analyze and report on the Rules of Professional Conduct; bar association ethics opinions; case law; and the laws and regulations governing the unauthorized practice of law. The subcommittee will be co-chaired by David Keyko, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Professional Ethics Committee Chair; and Tyler Maulsby, President, Immediate Past Chair, Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and Partner, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
In addition to Pera, the subcommittee members include: Matthew K. Corbin, Managing Director, Aon; Alison Roffi, Deputy General Counsel, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Roy Simon, former Professor and Director, Hofstra’s Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics, Hofstra University School of Law; and Kaylin L. Whittingham, Managing Attorney, Whittingham Law.
“As a bar association, we of course need to consider the practical issues of how to – and how not to – incorporate AI into the provision of legal services and the administration of justice,” said New York City Bar Association President Muhammad U. Faridi. “But with law being where ethics and morality interact with the regulation of human conduct, and with the potent impact AI is bringing across society with both great promise and great peril, it is incumbent on organizations like ours to facilitate discussion about these issues among thought leaders, lawyers, scientists, technologists, academics, business leaders, ethicists, citizens and policymakers.”
At Adams and Reese, Pera is a leading professional responsibility and ethics law attorney who for close to 40 years has practiced primarily in legal ethics, media law, and commercial litigation. Recently, Pera co-authored a chapter on legal ethics and lawyers’ responsibilities in using AI in a book released by the American Bar Association. Artificial Intelligence: Legal Issues, Policy, and Practical Strategies is the ABA’s first book addressing AI and the law.
The book was a collaboration between the ABA Presidential Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence and ABA Science & Technology Law Section. It features contributions from more than 40 preeminent authorities from in-house legal departments, private practice, nonprofits, academia, government, and judiciary.
Pera was a member of the ABA “Ethics 2000” Commission, which rewrote the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. He chaired the Tennessee Bar Association committee whose work led to the adoption of significantly revised Tennessee ethics rules patterned after the Model Rules. Pera has chaired the editorial board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct and served as President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. He served as chair of the governing board of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility.
The ABA Center for Professional Responsibility bestowed upon Pera the Michael Franck Award, their highest award for work in the field of ethics and professional responsibility. Pera is a past Treasurer of the ABA and a past President of the Tennessee Bar Association. He currently serves as a member of the ABA Board of Governors representing the Section of Business Law.