Poland's Bar Council Adds AI Rules to Advocates' Code of Ethics

The National Bar Council (Naczelna Rada Adwokacka, the governing body of Poland's advocates) adopted amendments to the Code of Ethics and Professional Dignity for Advocates on June 12, 2026, at a plenary session in Rzeszów, marking the first time the rules explicitly address attorneys' use of artificial intelligence tools. The code now includes a new paragraph 23e, which spells out when and under what conditions a lawyer may rely on AI while working on a client's case.

What the new rule changes

The new paragraph 23e states that an advocate's use of technology tools, including artificial intelligence systems, must not violate the rules of professional ethics. The code lists three situations it treats as disciplinary offenses: failing to adequately protect information covered by professional secrecy, undermining the advocate's independent judgment in handling a case, and neglecting to personally assess and verify AI-generated output.

In other words, an advocate may use a chatbot or a document-analysis tool, but cannot hand substantive decisions over to it or sign off on content they haven't checked themselves. Disciplinary and professional responsibility remains entirely with the attorney, no matter how much of the work the software performed.

Obligations toward clients

The amendment does not require attorneys to inform clients in advance that AI tools are being used in their case. However, if a client asks, the advocate must disclose which technology tools were used and explain their purpose. The provision is meant to balance the practical convenience of new technologies with the client's right to know who, or what, is actually working on their case.

At the same time, the council amended paragraph 19(6) of the code, which covers the electronic transmission of confidential information. The revised wording is meant to require advocates to exercise particular caution when transferring client data to external systems, including cloud-based AI tools.

Why the bar association acted

The LegalTech Institute at the National Bar Council had spent months preparing the changes, consulting with the legal community along the way. The bar is responding to the fact that a growing number of Polish law firms already use AI tools for document review, case-law research, and preliminary contract analysis, while the previous code of ethics made no mention of the practice at all.

Updating the rules of ethics is necessary given how the world is changing, and as the world changes, so do the ways and areas in which we practice our profession - Paulina Rzeszut, advocate, director of the LegalTech Institute at the National Bar Council

What comes next for the legal profession

For now, the change applies only to advocates (adwokaci) registered with the National Bar Council. According to press reports, radcowie prawni (legal counsels, a separate Polish legal profession with rights similar to advocates) are not currently planning an analogous update to their own code of ethics, meaning the two legal professions in Poland could operate under different AI rules for some time, even though in practice they perform very similar work for clients.

The new paragraph 23e sets out no penalties of its own, but violations will be handled through the standard disciplinary process for advocates, the same as other ethics breaches. Disciplinary courts of the regional bar chambers now have a formal basis for assessing whether an advocate misused AI, for instance by reproducing unverified, fabricated content generated by a language model in a court filing.

For law firm clients, the regulation above all provides a clear point of reference: they can request an explanation of which technology tools were behind a legal opinion or filing, and the advocate is obligated to answer. It is the first regulation of its kind within Poland's legal self-governing bodies, and likely a model other professions of public trust will look to as they face similar questions.