Can a law firm put client files into ChatGPT? Professional secrecy and AI
Late evening, the day before a deadline. A lawyer pastes a draft submission into ChatGPT to tighten the wording. It works, and nobody in the office would call it a breach. But the draft names the client, the other side, and what the client admitted in confidence. Where is it now?
The short answer: professional secrecy covers everything a client entrusts to you, and it doesn't end with the case. Handing it to an AI provider needs a solid basis: the client's consent, or a provider you can hold to your secrecy the way you hold your own staff. Accounts that people open on their own give you neither.
Checked against the law on 30 September 2026
What could it cost me?
- 3 years
The maximum custodial sentence for a lawyer or notary, or their staff, who reveals a secret entrusted to them or learned in their work (art. 321 SCC). Prosecuted on complaint; the client's consent removes the offence.
- Your licence
For lawyers under the Lawyers Act, a breach can lead to a fine of up to CHF 20,000, a ban on practising for up to two years, or a permanent ban (art. 17 LLCA).
- US law
US providers can be required to hand data they control to US authorities, even when it is stored in Switzerland (CLOUD Act).
The checklist
0 of 10 checked
Associates, trainees and assistants included. Look at browser extensions, phone apps and expense claims: the tool you don't know about is the one that breaches secrecy.
Statutes, court decisions and your own templates are not client secrets. Submissions, correspondence, the facts a client told you, and even the fact that someone is your client, are.
A free or personal account runs on consumer terms. A business plan comes with a different contract. Which one is each person really using?
Some consumer plans may use conversations to train their models, and keep them for a while, unless a setting is off. Read the terms of the plan in use, not the homepage.
You answer for your auxiliaries keeping the secret (art. 13 LLCA). A provider you can bind to confidentiality by contract, instruct and check is a different thing from an app anyone can sign up to.
Many AI tools process data in the United States. Sending client data there needs a legal basis, for example Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework certification or standard data protection clauses (arts. 16 and 17 FADP).
The client's consent removes the offence (art. 321 SCC). If you rely on it, have it in writing, for the tools and purposes it covers, and keep it with the file.
Replace names of clients, parties and witnesses when you can. It lowers the risk, but the facts of a case can identify a client on their own, so it doesn't replace the other checks.
Which tools, for which tasks, with which data, and what never goes in. A page people can find is a page they can follow.
Secrecy binds assistants and trainees too. Go through the rules with everyone, repeat them for every newcomer, and give them a tool they're allowed to use.
Ticked them all? Rules that exist only in your head don't stop anyone. The next step is to write them down for your office: the kit has a one-page policy and a consent clause to adapt. Get the kit
Which tasks can go where?
The kit sorts six everyday tasks in a law firm. Two of them:
- Looking up a public statute or court decision
- A public tool is fine, then check the source.
- Rewording a template with no client details
- A public tool is fine.
- Summarising a client's email
- In the kit
- Drafting a submission from the file
- In the kit
- Reviewing a contract the client sent
- In the kit
- Preparing a client or witness interview
- In the kit
Secrecy has no end date
Lawyers under the Lawyers Act are bound by professional secrecy without time limit and towards everyone, for everything their clients entrust to them because of their profession, and must make sure their auxiliaries keep it too (art. 13 LLCA). Being released by the client doesn't oblige them to disclose anything. Notaries are bound by the Criminal Code's professional secrecy (art. 321 SCC).
Data protection applies as well
Client files are also personal data. The Data Protection Act's rules on providers that process data for you (art. 9) and on sending data abroad (arts. 16 and 17) apply on top of secrecy, with fines of up to CHF 250,000 for intentional breaches, imposed on the person responsible (art. 61).
What works in practice
A common setup has three tiers: public AI tools for research and templates without client details, nothing client-related in any tool your contracts don't cover, and a private AI run in Switzerland, under your instructions, for work on client files.
Where does your firm stand?
The self-check takes two minutes and says which first step fits. Or talk it through in a free 15-minute call.
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What happens in 15 minutes
- 0–5 min
Your situation
What AI should do for you, and what it must never see.
- 5–10 min
What's possible
Which tasks can run privately, roughly what it costs, and what should stay human.
- 10–15 min
The next step
A test on your own documents, an assessment, or nothing yet.
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