The opinion highlights the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) as fostering a professional culture for lawyers resistant to innovation and hindering AI implementation in business. States are experimenting with regulatory sandboxes despite guild-like protectionism and active prosecution of 'nonlawyers' leveraging AI to deliver more efficient legal services. Ineffective 'synthetic departments' are created within organisations attempting to innovate but are stymied due to poor planning and cultural resistance. To allow more extensive implementations of AI in the American legal ecosystem I suggest eliminating ABA MRPC rule 5.5 governing unauthorised practice of law.
Keywords: ABA Model Rules; United States; regulatory sandbox; technology implementation; synthetic departments; legal ops