ILTA launches generative AI guide to support litigators in England and Wales
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) has taken a significant step in supporting litigators practising in the courts of England and Wales by launching a Generative AI (GenAI) Guide. This new publication is designed to accompany ILTA’s earlier Active Learning Best Practice Guide and aims to provide clear, practical guidance on the use of GenAI technologies in compliance with the Practice Direction 57AD within the Business and Property Courts.
The launch comes at a crucial time, addressing a notable gap in the existing regulatory framework. Practice Direction 57AD encourages the use of technology-assisted review (TAR) methods in legal disclosure, yet it falls short of offering detailed prescriptive advice on their implementation. This has resulted in inconsistent practices and frequent negotiations between parties, often leading to inefficiencies and increased costs in disclosure processes.
The guide is the product of collaborative efforts from a team of legal and technological experts, co-chaired by Fiona Campbell of Fieldfisher and Tom Whitaker of Burges Salmon. Other contributors include David Wilkins of Norton Rose Fulbright, James MacGregor of Ethical eDiscovery, as well as Jonathan Howell, Jamie Tomlinson, and Imogen Jones of DAC Beachcroft. Their collective expertise helps to build upon the foundation laid by the Active Learning Best Practice Guide, which was submitted to the Master of the Rolls in 2024 and is currently under review.
Fiona Campbell highlighted the synergy between the validation techniques used in Active Learning and their applicability to GenAI outputs, stating: “GenAI presents both significant opportunities and unique challenges for legal disclosure. What’s particularly valuable is that the validation methodologies developed for Active Learning, such as elusion testing and precision/recall metrics, can be applied to validate GenAI outputs as well. This natural synergy is why building the GenAI guidance as an addendum to the Active Learning Guide makes perfect sense.”
Tom Whitaker further emphasised the complementary strengths of combining Active Learning with GenAI, explaining that “By deploying Active Learning alongside GenAI, legal teams can enhance the defensibility of their disclosure process while preserving efficiency gains. Active Learning’s transparent, measurable, and reproducible nature helps mitigate the risks associated with GenAI’s non-deterministic foundation models.”
The GenAI Addendum covers vital areas including:
- Appropriate use cases for GenAI in legal disclosure
- Best practices for prompt design and management
- Technical guardrails and validation methodologies
- Integration with existing Active Learning workflows
- Recommendations on documentation and maintaining transparency
James MacGregor, Chair of ILTA’s Litigation Special Interest Group and a co-chair of the original Active Learning Guide, pointed out the practical industry benefits: “These complementary guides provide a comprehensive framework for how to run a technology assisted review (TAR) disclosure, which aligns with the spirit of PD57AD while filling in the practical details it lacks. By standardising approaches across the industry, we aim to reduce unnecessary costs associated with negotiating methodologies on every case.”
David Wilkins also remarked on the broader applicability of the guide beyond its immediate jurisdiction, noting that “While this guide has been written for application in litigation in the business and property courts of England and Wales, the principles articulated in it could be applied in disputes in different jurisdictions. This provides a framework for parties to agree the mechanics of using technology to conduct a document review, which should reduce the cost and time taken to complete disclosure/discovery, which is in the interests of all parties.”
The official launch event for the Generative AI Guide will take place on 6 May 2025 at Fieldfisher’s London office. It will feature a panel discussion with the guide’s authors, providing an opportunity for industry professionals to engage directly with the material. Following this, the guide will be open for public industry review and feedback until the end of June 2025. The ILTA working group will then consider the input received before publishing the finalised document in September 2025.
This development represents a significant stride in supporting the legal profession’s adaptation to emerging technologies, offering detailed frameworks that promote effective, efficient, and transparent use of AI tools in legal disclosure. Through these guides, ILTA continues to serve its members by fostering innovation and consistency in legal technology practices.