Under Seal reference center
The controls, the limits, and the authorities behind the product.
This center separates product facts from legal conclusions. It shows what Under Seal controls, what the firm still owns, how claims are verified, and which primary authorities should be reviewed for a particular deployment.
Authority review: August 12, 2026. State rules, local rules, contracts, and matter facts still require firm-specific review.
Important boundary
Under Seal is software, not a law firm, auditor, records custodian, or compliance certification. Local deployment reduces particular disclosure and vendor-access risks. It does not by itself satisfy professional-conduct rules, HIPAA, state privacy law, trust-account rules, discovery duties, court orders, or a firm's own policies.
01
Professional responsibility
How competence, confidentiality, supervision, candor, fees, and safekeeping duties map to product controls and firm responsibilities.
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02
Security and privacy
The data boundary, HIPAA decision points, access controls, updates, support, backup, incident response, and claims we do not make.
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03
Verification
What a receipt proves, what it does not prove, how source pins work, and the evidence required before a capability is marketed as available.
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04
Deployment
Software-only delivery, firm-owned hardware, local inference, preflight checks, recovery, cancellation, and the pilot acceptance boundary.
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Primary authorities
Sources, not borrowed certainty
These links point to the issuing bar, regulator, standards body, or federal judiciary. The summaries are navigation aids. Read the source and the controlling jurisdiction before relying on it.
American Bar Association
Formal Opinion 512: Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools
Competence, confidentiality, communication, supervision, candor, and reasonable fees when lawyers use generative AI.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 1.1 and Comment 8: Competence
Lawyers should understand the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 1.4: Communications
Requires consultation and information sufficient for clients to make informed decisions about the representation.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 1.5: Fees
Addresses reasonable fees and communication of the scope and basis of charges.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 1.6: Confidentiality of Information
Protects information relating to a representation and requires reasonable precautions against unauthorized access or disclosure.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 1.15: Safekeeping Property
Requires separation, safeguarding, accounting, and retention of client and third-party property records.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 3.3: Candor Toward the Tribunal
Makes the lawyer responsible for the truthfulness of representations to a tribunal.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 5.3: Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistance
Requires reasonable supervisory measures for nonlawyer assistance, including technology-enabled assistance.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.American Bar Association
Model Rule 5.1: Responsibilities of Partners, Managers, and Supervisory Lawyers
Requires reasonable supervisory and firm-level measures for lawyers' compliance with professional duties.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.State Bar of California
Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative AI in the Practice of Law
State-specific guidance on confidentiality, competence, diligence, supervision, candor, fees, and discrimination.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.The Florida Bar
Ethics Opinion 24-1
Addresses generative AI confidentiality, accuracy, billing, supervision, and lawyer-advertising duties.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The HIPAA Security Rule
Administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for electronic protected health information when HIPAA applies.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Business Associates
Explains when legal and data-processing services can create business-associate duties and written-assurance requirements.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
42 CFR Part 2 Final Rule Fact Sheet
Explains federal confidentiality requirements for covered substance-use-disorder patient records and the February 16, 2026 compliance date.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Understanding Part 2
Current HHS overview of the confidentiality protections for covered substance-use-disorder patient records.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
42 CFR Part 2
Current codified text of the federal Part 2 regulations.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.National Institute of Standards and Technology
AI Risk Management Framework
A voluntary framework for governing, mapping, measuring, and managing AI risk.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.National Institute of Standards and Technology
Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
A voluntary security framework organized around Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.National Institute of Standards and Technology
Secure Software Development Framework 1.1
The current final NIST SSDF baseline for integrating secure software-development practices into the lifecycle.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Federal Trade Commission
Start with Security: A Guide for Business
Guidance on testing security features, keeping software current, addressing vulnerabilities, and honoring security representations.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Current Rules of Practice and Procedure
The current national federal rules plus direction to the local rules that may add court-specific requirements.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Includes discovery, disclosure, preservation, and electronically stored information requirements for federal civil matters.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Federal Trade Commission
Advertising and Marketing Basics
Advertising claims must be truthful, non-deceptive, fair, and supported by evidence before publication.
Opens the issuing source in a new tab.Federal Trade Commission
Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business
Explains express and implied claims, material omissions, reasonable-basis substantiation, and disclosures.
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