Can a solicitor use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot for client work? What the business plans cost and what their terms say about your data

Yes, on conditions the firm has to meet itself. The SRA's warning notice of 17 August 2026 says client information should only go into an AI system that has contractual, technical and organisational safeguards, and that a paid tool may still lack them. On 1 October 2026 the business plans of the four large assistants cost a five-person firm between £708 and £1,086 a year.

Our guide to the warning notice covers the policy a firm needs. This page covers the purchase.

What the plans cost

Prices are for one user for one month, read on each vendor's UK pricing page on 1 October 2026.

Three notes on the table:

• Claude's £18 includes VAT, so it is £15 before VAT. ChatGPT's page shows £15 and does not say whether VAT is in it.
• Microsoft's £13.80 is an offer for the first year of an annual commitment, open from 1 July to 31 December 2026. The page gives £16.10 as the original price, which is £966 a year for five.
• Google's page also shows a lower introductory price for new customers. £11.80 is the standard price on a one-year commitment.

The two Business Standard rows include email and office software; a firm already on Microsoft 365 is pricing the add-on.

What the terms say about your data

The SRA's notice lists what a firm should satisfy itself of before client data goes in: it stays in a secure environment, unauthorised third parties cannot reach it, it is not used to train models unless that is explicitly authorised, and it is not kept longer than necessary. Each vendor's own pages say this.

Each line is a published statement. The contract is the terms accepted at sign-up, so save a dated copy and record the admin settings chosen.

Free and personal plans are a different product. OpenAI's page says it trains on data from its services for individuals, and the Law Society's guide says not to put confidential data into a free online tool.

What the SRA and the Law Society have published

• SRA warning notice, 17 August 2026. The firm stays accountable for work done through AI, and supervisors for the work they supervise. Putting client material into a public tool is likely to breach confidentiality, and privilege may be permanently waived.
• SRA Risk Outlook report on AI in the legal market. The notice points to it for governance and training.
• Law Society, "Generative AI – the essentials". The page says it was updated in June 2026, before the notice. It advises supplier due diligence, attention to the limited warranties in providers' terms, and fictional data, never client data, for testing.

Three prompts for routine work that is not advice

Use them inside the firm's approved business account.

1. Plain-English rewrite. "Rewrite this paragraph from our standard client care letter for a first-time buyer. Keep every figure, date and defined term exactly as written. Add nothing. List any sentence you found ambiguous."
2. Chronology. "From the emails pasted below, make a table of every dated event: date, who, what happened, and the line it comes from, quoted. Do not infer a date. List gaps of more than 14 days."
3. Weekly client update. "Draft a four-paragraph update to a purchase client: where the matter is, what we did this week, what happens next and who holds it, when they will next hear. Use only the facts below. Do not suggest a completion date."

The third follows our client update template. The admin scorecard counts the hours jobs like these take.

The job we would not hand over

Finding the law for a document that goes before a court. The notice cites several judgments on fabricated or unchecked authorities, starting with Ayinde in 2025, where the lawyers faced a wasted costs application and were referred to their regulators. It says reliance on an AI output would not be a defence. If a tool suggests an authority, a solicitor reads the judgment itself before it is cited.

Before buying

1. Set retention in the admin console, and switch off feedback sharing where the plan allows it.
2. Add the tool to the approved list in the firm's AI policy, and tell clients in the client care letter.
3. Ask the firm's case management supplier whether its own AI features come under separate terms.

Overlyft is not one of these plans; the assistants it sets up draft client updates and chasers for a fee earner to review. A supervising solicitor reviews and signs anything a tool drafts. This page is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. Prices change, so check the vendor's page on the day.