In this episode, Technology Partner Tom Maasland and Litigation Senior Associate Oliver Sutton revisit the evolving intersection of artificial intelligence and legal privilege, highlighting some recent court decisions and the impact they may have in this area of law.
[00:58] Tom and Oliver open the episode with a brief recap of their earlier Tech Suite episode on AI and legal privilege, noting that emerging case law is now offering clearer judicial guidance on how legal privilege applies in the context of the use of artificial intelligence tools.
[03:00] Oliver discusses and compares two recent U.S. decisions; United States v. Heppner, 25 Cr. 503 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 10, 2026), and Warner v. Gilbarco, 820 F. Supp. 3d 629 (E.D. Mich. 2026), each of which considered the impact of the use of AI tools on legal privilege. The cases reached different outcomes, highlighting how fact-specific these determinations are likely to be.
[08:38] They then consider a UK Upper Tribunal decision, UK and R (on the application of Munir) v SSHD [2026] UKUT 81 (IAC), in which it was suggested that the use of open-source AI tools is likely to breach client confidentiality and result in a waiver of legal privilege, while noting that closed source enterprise AI systems may present a lower risk.
[10:03] Tom and Oliver discuss the implications of these decisions in a New Zealand context and in the absence of more direct guidance from New Zealand courts.
[10:51] Oliver then talks through four practical takeaways from these cases for practitioners and clients navigating AI use in a legal setting.
Information in this episode is accurate as at the date of recording, 5 June 2026.
Please contact Tom Maasland, Oliver Sutton or our Litigation team if you need legal advice and guidance on any of the topics discussed in the episode.
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