The AI Legal Privilege, And Professional Risk

UK v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2026] UKUT 00081 (IAC),

The decision in UK v Secretary of State for the Home Department represents an important judicial intervention into the use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in legal practice, highlighting the risks such tools pose to core professional duties, particularly client confidentiality and legal professional privilege. Although arising in an immigration context, the Tribunal’s observations are of general application across all areas of legal practice.

The Tribunal clearly recognised the limitations of generative AI, particularly freely available, non-specialist tools, which may produce superficially persuasive but entirely inaccurate outputs, including fabricated authorities and incorrect citations. Such “hallucinations” are not treated as novel or excusable errors but as foreseeable risks which legal professionals are under a positive duty to guard against. Lawyers remain under an absolute obligation to ensure that