I’m a newly licensed attorney with no prior practice experience (background is in finance). I recently accepted a junior attorney role at a small firm.
During the interview, I was very upfront that I had zero experience in the areas they handle: trust & estates, landlord/tenant disputes, property damage, debt collection, property line disputes, etc. They told me that wasn’t an issue and that they had a two-week training program to get me up to speed. They also said most of their work comes through MetLife legal plans.
Once I started, the “training” ended up being:
- About 2 days of general onboarding and SOP overview
-A MetLife handbook (mostly administrative, not substantive law guidance)
- 3 days shadowing the managing attorney/other attorneys during client consult calls
During those shadowing sessions, I noticed something that concerned me. When complex or unfamiliar legal questions came up, the managing attorney would sometimes use ChatGPT during the call to generate answers. He explicitly encouraged me to do the same, especially given my lack of experience.
I then shadowed two other attorneys who had been practicing for at least 2–3 years (though in different areas of law before joining). They told me they relied heavily on ChatGPT during consults while getting up to speed—and I observed them actively using it during live client calls to help generate legal advice.
The following week, I started taking consult calls myself, initially with the managing attorney shadowing me. I had 3 calls on my first day and was essentially relying on ChatGPT throughout the calls because I genuinely didn’t know how to advise on many of the issues. The managing attorney only stepped in once to handle a more complex/out-of-scope question.
After 2 days of this, I was told I’d soon be taking calls completely on my own. At that point, I felt extremely uncomfortable and resigned.
Is this as problematic as it felt to me (potentially malpractice or ethical violation)? Is using ChatGPT like this during live client consults acceptable in any context? Should I report this to the state bar?
If I do report it, what does that process typically look like, and how involved would I have to be?
I’m trying to figure out if I’m overreacting or if this is something that could actually harm clients.