Working Groups

Being impactful—producing real solutions for AI in legal services—is a core pillar of RAILS. We hope participants will lean in and actively contribute to moving our mission forward. The responsible use of AI to advance the practice of law and delivery of legal services to all will take the collective efforts of our dedicated participants taking up an oar and rowing together.

By volunteering your time and talents, you have an opportunity to directly shape the future of AI in legal services for the benefit of both lawyers and the clients they serve. 

When you apply to participate in RAILS, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for one or more Working Groups or Committees. Apply now. 

If you are already a participant in RAILS and want to sign up for a Working Group or change your affiliation: go to My Profile, Login, and Edit the Working Groups section. 

 

Current Working Groups

While there are innumerable practical issues to tackle regarding AI in legal services, we kicked off our RAILS WORKING GROUPS by diving deep into current priority areas:

  • WORKING GROUP 1 (WG1) – Client Engagement – How do we engage with clients and their data to unlock AI opportunities while maintaining trust, transparency, and confidence?
  • WORKING GROUP 2 (WG2) – Courtroom Admissibility – What standards and rules are needed to demonstrate reliability of AI-generated artifacts as evidence?
  • WORKING GROUP 3 (WG3) – Duties for AI-intermediated Legal Services – What trust models and duties are needed for AI systems to deliver legal services and information directly to consumers?
  • WORKING GROUP 4 (WG4) – AI Policy Guidelines and Best Practices for In-House Law Departments – How can Law Departments craft AI Policies that encourage and further AI adoption without raising risk and concern for their business clients and their own department?

We invite participants to join working groups. Together, through discussion and research, we will develop best practices, standards, questions for policymakers, open letters, draft commentaries, model rules, draft voluntary guidelines, or whatever might be most appropriate and impactful in the particular domain.

Our goal is to produce tangible, impactful results that move the needle on priorities requiring a diversity of perspectives. We hope you’ll add your voice and ideas to this effort.

Join a working group by updating your RAILS profile here.

Read more about our in-progress Working Group efforts (login required). 

Propose Additional Focus Areas

While our existing RAILS Working Groups tackle urgent issues on AI in legal services, there are many other areas ripe for constructive exploration. We invite you to propose additional RAILS Working Groups to take on other high-impact topics requiring multi-stakeholder perspectives.

Guidelines: 

  • Proposed RAILS Working Groups should have clearly defined goals and outcomes that can realistically be advanced through volunteer efforts. RAILS will help resource and facilitate the work of each RAILS Working Group that is moved from proposed to active.
  • Just as with our initial working groups, the success of new working groups depends on motivated participants leaning in to do the work. We hope you’ll bring your expertise and energy to push the boundaries of what we can accomplish together. Progress won’t happen without you – so please propose and participate!

If you have a topic about which you’re passionate to drive progress, let us know if you would be interested co-chairing the working group too. We welcome ideas that further the responsible and ethical integration of AI in legal services broadly.

Please submit your idea here.

Engage on a Short-Term Committee

Special Committee on Communications & Resources – We’re seeking volunteers to serve on a Special Committee on Communications & Resources. Special Committee members will work virtually with RAILS staff to provide quick feedback on RAILS communications (newsletter, website, etc.), advice on the infrastructure and substance of RAILS resources, and big ideas to address the diverse needs of RAILS participants. Read the Committee’s Charge. Please email us at RAILS@law.duke.edu if this is of interest to you or sign up when you apply to participate in RAILS.