AI settings for a small law firm in Ohio

Checked against the source documents on October 26, 2026

The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct's AI guide says to use only tools that don't store, train on or share what you type, and to read the vendor's terms and privacy policy. The settings that answer that are on the main checklist. This page says which ones Ohio points at, and why.

What Ohio has said

Ohio Board of Professional Conduct (Board staff): Ohio Ethics Guide: Artificial Intelligence for Lawyers and Judicial Officers, 2026-04.

1. Confidentiality. Prof.Cond.R. 1.6 applies; lawyers must assess each tool, anonymize client information, avoid free or public tools that do not keep prompts confidential (p. 3).
2. Competence. Prof.Cond.R. 1.1 cmt [8]; lawyer must understand the tool's capabilities, limits, hallucination risk and training data, and never rely solely on output (pp. 1-2).
3. Supervision. Prof.Cond.R. 5.1 and 5.3: firm policies, training and oversight of lawyers and staff; vendor-run tools must meet the same obligations and vendors must be bound to confidentiality (pp. 7-8).
4. Fees. Bill only for time actually spent; flat fees must stay reasonable; ordinary AI tools are overhead; per-use sophisticated tools may be passed through if explained in the engagement letter (pp. 5-6).
5. Disclosure. Client disclosure more likely required when AI materially affects the representation, client data is shared with the tool, or costs are billed separately; answer client questions and honor a client's no-AI request (pp. 4-5).
6. Verification. Lawyer must verify citations, quotes, propositions and holdings; a hallucination in a filing must be reported at once to court and opposing counsel; cites State v. Coleman, 2026-Ohio-965 (pp. 6-7).

One line from it: "AI tools use information from user prompts to train their model" (p. 3, Client Confidentiality).

The settings that answer it

1. Use the business plan, not a personal one. On Claude Pro, Claude Max and ChatGPT Plus, training on chats is each user's own setting. On Claude Team, ChatGPT Business and Microsoft 365 Copilot with a work sign-in, business data is not used for training by default. On the checklist
2. Turn off the training and feedback exceptions an admin can still turn off (Claude feedback, ChatGPT personal accounts that are still in use). On the checklist
3. Set retention on purpose instead of taking the default. On the checklist
4. Turn on single sign-on so a lawyer who leaves loses access the same day. On the checklist
5. Decide on connectors, apps and agents before staff add them. On the checklist
6. Pick a rule on memory, and teach temporary or incognito chats for one-off matter questions. On the checklist
7. Put the vendor's written terms on training, retention, subprocessors and breach notice in the file. On the checklist
8. Write the one-page staff instruction and a note for each new hire. On the checklist
9. Keep a verification step before anything is filed. That is a procedure, not a setting, and no vendor sells it. On the checklist
10. Decide what the engagement letter says about AI use and billing. That is yours to write; I only flag that the opinion raises it. On the checklist

Rules around it

Technology competence: Yes. Ohio Prof.Cond.R. 1.1, cmt. [8] (benefits and risks associated with relevant technology), effective 2015-04-01; the Ethics Guide itself cites cmt. [8] at p. 1

In motion: None found. Board of Professional Conduct advisory opinions page states no advisory opinions are pending; no statewide AI rule proposal located. 2026-10-26 source

What this page is not

This is a tech settings page, not legal advice. The state document above is the ethics half and it is yours to read and decide on. I am not a lawyer. I link the source so you can check me.

Send me one screenshot

Crop out client names, send me a screenshot of your Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft 365 admin settings page, and I'll write back what I'd change. Free. I never need a login.

If you want this kept current for your firm, that is the monthly desk: I watch these settings as the vendors change them and as your state changes its guidance, answer staff questions in writing, usually within one business day, and write up setup notes for each new hire. $500 a month, cancel any month.

Email [email protected]

Who wrote this

I'm Nick Kaufman. I've spent six years in customer-facing technical support for SaaS, payments and CRM software, including three years at Tier 2 on a CRM built for financial advisors, whose firms work under SEC and FINRA rules. I'm not a lawyer and I don't give legal advice. I set up software so it does what the people responsible for it decided it should do.

Other states: the full list.