Resource guide
AI roles and supervision guide
Define who may use, review, approve, monitor and stop an AI-assisted workflow. Use it when lawyers, paralegals and operations staff are using or testing AI but accountability is blurred.
Boundary: role design does not replace the firm's professional or regulatory judgment.
Operational guidance, not legal advice. No confidential information is needed. Download the original PDF guide (original ClickoAI edition, v1, 18 August 2026).
1. Frame the work
Separate tool operation from legal approval. The person who produces an output need not be the person qualified to approve reliance on it.
Working rule: write down the current route before discussing software, automation or AI.
Questions to answer:
- Who may submit material to the tool?
- Who checks facts, authorities and legal judgment?
- Who owns access, suppliers and incidents?
- Who monitors drift and recurring errors?
- Who can stop use without waiting for a committee?
Avoid:
- assigning responsibility to "the team"
- using seniority as a substitute for defined checks
- assuming a vendor monitors the firm's use
- training users without recording competence or restrictions
2. Control sheet
Treat a blank evidence field as a reason to pause, not a reason to guess.
| Area | Evidence to collect | Pass condition |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Runs the approved task within the data boundary | Uses only approved inputs and records the run |
| Reviewer | Checks output against source and legal requirements | Qualified for the work and allotted enough time |
| Owner | Approves scope, measures performance and resolves exceptions | Named individual with authority to change the workflow |
| Security or privacy | Reviews access, processor and incident controls | Required checks completed before sensitive use |
| Stop owner | Halts use and coordinates recovery | Contact and stop route are known to users |
Fail closed: if an input, owner or approval is missing, record the gap and keep the affected step outside the proposed change.
3. Working record
Complete this page with counts, dates and named sources. Do not include client names, matter names, contract text or privileged material.
| Field | Evidence or answer |
|---|---|
| Workflow | |
| Permitted operators | |
| Required reviewer | |
| Approval evidence | |
| Monitoring cadence | |
| Stop owner and contact route |
Evidence quality check:
- The source is named and dated.
- An estimate is labelled as an estimate.
- The owner can reproduce the measure.
- The same method can be used after a change.
4. Decision record
Select the outcome that the evidence supports. A stop or no-change decision is valid.
- No use: roles or review capacity are missing.
- Training only: use approved examples without operational reliance.
- Supervised use: every output follows the defined review route.
- Review the role model: volume, risk or tool behaviour has changed.
| Decision field | Record |
|---|---|
| Chosen outcome | |
| Reason and evidence | |
| Owner and approvers | |
| Review or expiry date |
Related reading on this site: what human review actually means (/insights/what-human-review-means-for-legal-ai/), the one-page AI policy template (/insights/one-page-ai-policy-template-small-law-firms/) and the practical guide to legal AI (/resources/practical-guide-to-legal-ai/). The Legal AI Operating Essentials course at /course/ builds on this role model.
Primary sources
- SRA - Effective supervision: sra.org.uk
- SRA - Compliance tips for solicitors on AI and technology: sra.org.uk
- Law Society - How to use lawtech in your practice: lawsociety.org.uk
- Law Society - How AI tools hallucinate and why it matters in law: lawsociety.org.uk
Source status: links checked 15 September 2026 (both SRA pages verified live 200; both Law Society pages block automated fetch with 403 but are indexed - confirm by hand before relying). Confirm the current version and obtain appropriate professional advice before relying on regulated, contractual, privacy or security conclusions.
MARGO LEGAL LTD, company number 17322603. Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 66 Paul Street, London, England, EC2A 4NA. Originally published as a PDF (v1, 18 August 2026); converted to HTML 15 September 2026.