AI settings for a small law firm in Missouri

Checked against the source documents on October 26, 2026

Missouri Informal Opinion 2024-11 tells lawyers to review a platform's terms and conditions and assess its data handling before using it. The settings that answer that are on the main checklist. This page says which ones Missouri points at, and why.

What Missouri has said

Office of Legal Ethics Counsel and Advisory Committee of the Supreme Court of Missouri: Informal Opinion 2024-11, Artificial intelligence; candor to the tribunal; competence; confidentiality; supervision of nonlawyers (generative AI firm policy), 2024-04-25.

1. Confidentiality. Rule 4-1.6: assess platform security and how it uses inputted data before use; make reasonable efforts against unauthorized disclosure; privacy laws may add duties.
2. Competence. Rule 4-1.1 cmt. [6]: get education and training to judge which generative AI tools are appropriate.
3. Supervision. Rule 4-5.1 and 4-5.3: AI output treated like nonlawyer work; firms should set an ethical framework and train lawyers and staff.
4. Fees. Rule 4-1.5(a): consider how AI use affects reasonableness of fees.
5. Disclosure. Not discussed for clients; Rule 4-3.4(c) requires obeying any tribunal rule or order on AI use.
6. Verification. Rule 4-5.3 and 4-3.3: lawyer must verify accuracy and content of AI output; tools are not always accurate.

One line from it: "verify the accuracy and content of the product" (Informal Opinion 2024-11, Rule 4-5.3 (supervision of nonlawyers) paragraph).

The settings that answer it

1. Use the business plan, not a personal one. On Claude Pro, Claude Max and ChatGPT Plus, training on chats is each user's own setting. On Claude Team, ChatGPT Business and Microsoft 365 Copilot with a work sign-in, business data is not used for training by default. On the checklist
2. Turn off the training and feedback exceptions an admin can still turn off (Claude feedback, ChatGPT personal accounts that are still in use). On the checklist
3. Set retention on purpose instead of taking the default. On the checklist
4. Turn on single sign-on so a lawyer who leaves loses access the same day. On the checklist
5. Decide on connectors, apps and agents before staff add them. On the checklist
6. Put the vendor's written terms on training, retention, subprocessors and breach notice in the file. On the checklist
7. Write the one-page staff instruction and a note for each new hire. On the checklist
8. Keep a verification step before anything is filed. That is a procedure, not a setting, and no vendor sells it. On the checklist
9. Decide what the engagement letter says about AI use and billing. That is yours to write; I only flag that the opinion raises it. On the checklist

Rules around it

Technology competence: Yes. Mo. Sup. Ct. Rule 4-1.1 cmt. [6] (benefits and risks associated with relevant technology), amended effective 2017-09-26;

What this page is not

This is a tech settings page, not legal advice. The state document above is the ethics half and it is yours to read and decide on. I am not a lawyer. I link the source so you can check me.

Send me one screenshot

Crop out client names, send me a screenshot of your Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft 365 admin settings page, and I'll write back what I'd change. Free. I never need a login.

If you want this kept current for your firm, that is the monthly desk: I watch these settings as the vendors change them and as your state changes its guidance, answer staff questions in writing, usually within one business day, and write up setup notes for each new hire. $500 a month, cancel any month.

Email nick@kaufmanops.com

Who wrote this

I'm Nick Kaufman. I've spent six years in customer-facing technical support for SaaS, payments and CRM software, including three years at Tier 2 on a CRM built for financial advisors, whose firms work under SEC and FINRA rules. I'm not a lawyer and I don't give legal advice. I set up software so it does what the people responsible for it decided it should do.

Other states: the full list.