AI and ChatGPT for BC Lawyers: What the Law Society of BC Expects

The Law Society of BC has not banned generative AI - but it has been one of the most thorough regulators in Canada about how lawyers should use it. If you practise in British Columbia and you have pasted a client's contract or affidavit into ChatGPT to get a quick summary, the question is not "am I allowed to use AI?" It is "did that client's confidential information just leave my control?"

This guide covers what the Law Society of BC actually says, the two BC Code duties that govern AI use, and how a Canadian-hosted tool changes the risk picture.

What the Law Society of BC's AI guidance says

In October 2023 the Law Society of BC published "Guidance on Professional Responsibility and Generative AI," one of the more comprehensive AI resources from a Canadian regulator. Its core message is the one every Canadian law society agrees on: AI does not change your existing duties. You stay responsible for the work.

The practical points, paraphrased:

• Get competent before you use it. Understand how the tool works - its benefits and its risks - before using it on client work. This ties to the competence duty below.
• Protect confidentiality in what you feed it. Think carefully about your inputs. Ideally strip out client-identifying and confidential information. If you cannot, get the client's fully informed consent, and weigh the risk that the tool may reuse your inputs or that privilege could be put at risk.
• You own the accuracy. AI output can look polished and still be wrong - including fabricated cases and citations. The lawyer remains accountable for all work product and must review AI content carefully.
• Security and records rules still apply. Assess privacy and cybersecurity and how the tool stores data; AI tools get the same scrutiny as any other technology you use.
• You may need to disclose AI use to a court. Some courts and tribunals require lawyers to disclose that - and sometimes how - generative AI was used. Check the relevant decision-maker's requirements.

The two BC Code duties that govern AI use

Confidentiality - BC Code rule 3.3-1. You must hold all information about a client's business and affairs in strict confidence. A consumer AI tool that sends your prompt to US servers, may retain it, and may use it to train future models sits in direct tension with that duty the moment the prompt contains confidential information.

Technological competence - rule 3.1-2, commentary [4.1] and [4.2]. The competence duty in rule 3.1-2 was expanded in March 2024 with commentary making clear that competence includes understanding and using technology relevant to your practice. In practice, that means you are expected to understand the risks of the AI tools you adopt - not just whether they are convenient.

The real problem: where your data goes

The issue with consumer tools is not the AI. It is the hosting. US-based services process your data on American servers, where it is exposed to the US CLOUD Act - which can compel an American company to hand over data regardless of where the user is. For privileged client material, that is a confidentiality risk client consent doesn't fully resolve.

How Surface is built for this

Surface is designed so the tool itself does not put your BC Code duties at risk:

• All data stays in Canada - documents, embeddings, and storage live on Canadian servers (AWS Montreal, ca-central-1). Nothing leaves Canadian jurisdiction for storage.
• No training on your data. Your documents are never used to train AI models.
• Answers cite their source. Ask a question and get the exact paragraph it came from, so you can verify output against the file - supporting, not replacing, your own review.
• Audit logs and per-matter isolation. Every action is recorded, and each client matter is isolated at the database level.
• PIPEDA-aligned handling, with a Data Processing Agreement available on request.

To be clear about the wording: Surface is not "Law Society of BC compliant" - no software is, because the Law Society regulates lawyers, not tools. Surface is built to help you meet the confidentiality and technological-competence duties the BC Code already puts on you.

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See the national picture in our AI compliance by province guide, or compare with Alberta's Generative AI Playbook.