Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of Law

“Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of Law” (updated through 2026), is a 50-slide primer designed to give attorneys and legal professionals the technical fluency needed to competently counsel clients on AI-related matters, spanning the foundational mechanics of AI and generative/agentic systems through to the legal and regulatory frameworks now governing their deployment  including a dedicated section on the legal treatment of AI covering tort and liability theory, intellectual property disputes over training data and AI-generated output, contract and commercial law considerations for AI vendor agreements, comparative regulation across the EU, US, UK, and China, and a timeline of key 2023–2026 tech law developments.
 
Learning Objectives By the end, attorneys should be able to:

1. Explain core AI concepts and architectures (LLMs, generative AI, agentic AI) in terms sufficient to advise clients and opposing counsel competently, satisfying technology-competence obligations under Model Rule 1.1.
2. Identify the principal theories of liability applicable to AI-caused harm, including negligence, products liability, and vicarious liability, and assess how they allocate risk among developers, deployers, and users.
3. Analyze intellectual property exposure arising from AI training data, model outputs, and inventorship/authorship questions under current U.S. Copyright Office and patent office guidance.
4. Draft and negotiate AI-related contract provisions addressing data provenance, IP indemnification, service-level commitments, and liability allocation for hallucinated or erroneous output.
5. Compare and apply the EU AI Act’s risk-tiered obligations against UK, Chinese, and U.S. state-level regulatory approaches when advising multinational clients.
6. Track and anticipate emerging tech law developments including pending copyright litigation, state AI statutes, and international treaty obligations that are likely to affect client risk profiles through 2026 and beyond.

 
 
 
 
Presenter Bios
 
Joseph Bambara, Esq., is a key member of Withers artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and blockchain practice in New York.  Joseph’s clients deeply appreciate the counsel and care he brings to their cutting-edge law and technology matters, and the exceptional results he has achieved. He has successfully guided prominent individuals, industry leaders and leading companies in many of the emerging technology and regulatory matters, and parallel civil litigation.
 
Joseph is expert in the legal issues surrounding cryptocurrency and digital assets, blockchain and distributed ledger technology, social media, affiliate marketing and all forms of emerging technology. His experience includes emerging legal issues in the AI, IoT, blockchain and the physical web space. He is an expert in developing privacy policy, notice and state and federal compliance for media, advertising, retailing and Big Data. He has counselled in all matters relating to privacy compliance, policy and notice for US and European Union, contracting, cybersecurity, blockchain ICO’s, ICO White papers, Intellectual Property and compliance as well as trademark, service mark, patent applications, asset acquisitions, consulting, cloud and outsource contracts within the enterprise and mobile devices space.
 
Joseph has developed in a forty-year career the skills to offer his clients the business perspective born of his experiences serving in the roles of General Counsel, Wall Street Technologist, New York County Law Association chairman of Law and Technology and Compliance Officer for an enterprise level multi-jurisdictional media company. His experience provides Joseph with the expertise to construct comprehensive and proven management strategies and solutions.