In this episode, we are joined by technology partner Tom Marsland and senior associate Oliver Sutton from our litigation team to explore how the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting the application of legal privilege.
[01:20] Oliver outlines the three most common forms of legal privilege encountered in practice: attorney-client privilege, litigation privilege, and settlement negotiation privilege, and explains their basic interaction with confidentiality.
[02:58] Oliver discusses intentional and inadvertent waivers of legal privilege, including disclosure during litigation, sharing information with third parties, and accidental disclosure through email or document processing errors.
[04:49] Next, Tom and Oliver consider whether inputting privileged material into an AI model constitutes a waiver of legal privilege. Oliver notes that while this issue ultimately depends on the facts, there are important differences between inputs to public AI tools and inputs to enterprise-grade AI platforms that are likely relevant in this situation.
[06:16] They discuss recent examples of how the use of AI can expose sensitive information, such as public AI chat data being made searchable online, highlighting real and real risks for legal teams.
[07:40] Oliver considers whether AI prompts and responses are detectable under the High Court Rules.
[11:00] Finally, we discuss various practical considerations for enterprises in deploying and using AI tools in a legal context, highlighting the importance of enterprise-grade AI, careful consideration of terms of use, adopting a privacy-by-design approach, and implementing strong AI governance.
Information in this episode is accurate as of January 19, 2026.
If you need legal advice or guidance on any of the topics covered in the episode, please contact Tom Maasland, Oliver Sutton or our litigation team.
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