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# Super Intelligence (SI) for Law Firms: AI Disclosure Guide

> Super Intelligence (SI), formerly AI, is now the federal term. State bar guidance still says AI; see why law firms can adopt SI without new client disclosures.

AI-to-SI Terminology Shift • Law Firms

# Super Intelligence (SI) for Law Firms: AI Disclosure and Engagement-Letter Guidance

A managing partner reviewing a vendor’s renewal agreement — or drafting next quarter’s
marketing copy — hits a word that wasn’t there last year. Here is what state bar guidance,
engagement-letter practice, and malpractice-insurance underwriting actually require, and why adopting
the new name does not reopen any of them.

Published October 11, 2026
•
10 min read

Picture a managing partner reviewing a legal-tech vendor’s renewed software agreement who hits a
line that wasn’t there last year: “powered by our Super Intelligence platform.” No
contract-review, legal-research, or eDiscovery vendor has made that switch yet — but when one
does, the tool behind the words won’t be any different. The real question is whether the
firm’s engagement letters, conflicts-check descriptions, and client-disclosure language will need
new words to match it.

Super Intelligence (SI), formerly called artificial intelligence (AI), is the term Executive Order
14434 directs federal agencies to use for the technology defined at 15 U.S.C.
§9401(3) (Source: [Federal Register, Executive Order 14434, FR Doc. 2026-20321](https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2026-20321)).
ABA and state bar ethics guidance for lawyers still governs that same technology under the name
“AI” as of October 11, 2026.

It is not a new disclosure requirement, and it does not reopen a malpractice-insurance questionnaire
your firm already answered. State bars and the ABA still write in “AI”; engagement letters
and client disclosures track what a tool does; and none of that moves when a firm adopts the new name.

On This Page

1. [What EO 14434 Does — and Doesn’t Reach](#eo-scope)
1. [Where State Bar and ABA Guidance Stands Today](#bar-guidance)
1. [Engagement Letters and Client Disclosure](#engagement-letters)
1. [Malpractice Insurance and Bar-Compliance Filings](#malpractice)
1. [Reading a Rename Without Re-Disclosing Anything](#rename-checklist)
1. [Where This Is Headed](#whats-next)
1. [The Full AI Guide for Law Firms](#full-guide)
1. [FAQ](#faq)

90%+

Of legal professionals report using at least one AI tool daily (Source: [Wolters Kluwer, 2026 Future Ready Lawyer Report](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/legal-ai-adoption-time-savings-revenue-growth))

7 of 13

Major legal-malpractice insurers reported rising AI-related claims, per EPIC’s 16th Annual LPL Claims Survey (Source: [Insurance Business Magazine, AI Claims Reach Legal Malpractice Market](https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/professional-liability/ai-claims-reach-legal-malpractice-market-576535.aspx))

14+

Federal courts had issued official AI guidance, per a November 2023 Bloomberg Law review (Source: [Bloomberg Law, AI Standing Orders Proliferate as Federal Courts Forge Own Paths](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/ai-standing-orders-proliferate-as-federal-courts-forge-own-paths))

0

ABA or state bar ethics opinions using “Super Intelligence” or “SI” as of Oct 11, 2026

## What EO 14434 Does — and Doesn’t Reach

**What it does.** Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era of Super
Intelligence,” signed September 29, 2026 and published in the Federal Register October 2, 2026 as
FR Doc. 2026-20321 (Source: [Federal Register, EO 14434, FR Doc. 2026-20321](https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2026-20321)),
directs federal executive departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and
“SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official
correspondence, public communications, and policy documents, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Section 3(a) does not hand agencies a blank slate to decide what “Super Intelligence” covers
— it borrows the boundary Congress already drew at 15 U.S.C. §9401(3) and gives that boundary
its new federal name, which matters for a profession regulated by bodies outside the executive branch:
there is no new technical category for a bar examiner, a court, or a malpractice underwriter
to someday decide also falls under their existing AI-specific
rules (Source: [Cloud Security Alliance, Research Note: EO 14434 and CAISSI](https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-eo14434-super-intelligence-caissi-20261007/)).
The order itself creates no private-sector obligation.

**What it doesn’t.** The order binds federal executive agencies, full stop. It
“does not alter any statute” and “does not bind state governments, courts, foreign
regulators, or private parties” (Source: [Cloud Security Alliance, Research Note: EO 14434 and CAISSI](https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-eo14434-super-intelligence-caissi-20261007/)).
A law-firm alert analyzing the order independently confirms it “does not immediately alter
previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, [or] grants” (Source: [Wiley Rein, Executive Order Rebrands AI as Super Intelligence](https://www.wiley.law/alert-Executive-Order-Rebrands-AI-as-Super-Intelligence-and-Signals-Potential-Federal-Legislative-Changes)).
State bars, the ABA, and state and federal courts regulate the legal profession through self-regulating
professional bodies and rulemaking authority — not as federal executive agencies — so they
fall outside Section 2’s rename directive by definition. No bar, court, or professional-responsibility
body has stated that it considers itself covered by the order.

For the order’s full text and general scope, see Iternal’s breakdown of
[Executive Order 14434](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/executive-order-14434).

## Where State Bar and ABA Guidance Stands Today

The ABA and five state jurisdictions below have each published widely cited AI ethics guidance for
lawyers over the past three years — a representative sample, not an exhaustive list (New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Kentucky, the District of Columbia, and Michigan are among several other jurisdictions with
their own guidance). Every document below is still written entirely in “AI” or
“generative AI” terminology; some are binding rule amendments, others are advisory-only
opinions:

| Body | Current document | Date | Terminology used |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ABA Standing Committee on Ethics | Formal Opinion 512, “Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools” | Jul 29, 2024 | “Generative artificial intelligence (GAI)” |
| The Florida Bar | Ethics Opinion 24-1 (advisory) | Jan 19, 2024 | “Generative artificial intelligence” |
| State Bar of California (COPRAC) | Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative AI | Nov 16, 2023; revised 2026 | “Generative artificial intelligence” |
| New York State Bar Association | Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Report and Recommendations | Apr 6, 2024 | “Artificial intelligence” |
| State Bar of Texas | Ethics Opinion 705, “Generative AI in the Practice of Law” | Feb 2025 | “Generative artificial intelligence” |
| Rhode Island Supreme Court | Rule 1.1 amendment & interim AI guidance | Jun 17, 2026 | “Artificial intelligence” |

**ABA Formal Opinion 512**, the ABA’s first formal opinion on lawyers’ use of
generative AI tools, addresses six duties: competence, confidentiality, communication, candor to the
tribunal, supervision, and fees (Source: [American Bar Association, ABA Issues Guidance on Lawyers’ Use of AI Tools](https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/07/aba-issues-guidance-lawyers-use-ai-tools/)).
On client consent, the opinion is explicit that “merely adding general, boiler-plate provisions to
engagement letters purporting to authorize the lawyer to use GAI is not sufficient” (Source: [American Bar Association, ABA Issues Guidance on Lawyers’ Use of AI Tools](https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/07/aba-issues-guidance-lawyers-use-ai-tools/)).

**Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8** was amended in 2012 — a decade before generative AI
— to require that competence include keeping “abreast of changes in the law and its
practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology” (Source: [Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, technology-competence summary](https://www.law.georgetown.edu/legal-ethics-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2026/04/GT-GJLE250057.pdf)).
Roughly 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have adopted some form of the duty of
technology competence it describes, per the tracker maintained by legal-technology journalist Bob
Ambrogi (Source: [Bob Ambrogi (LawNext), 40 States, D.C. and P.R. Have Adopted the Duty of Technology Competence](https://www.lawnext.com/tech-competence)).
A 2026 ABA Young Lawyers Division resolution has separately urged the Standing Committee on Ethics and
Professional Responsibility to clarify that competence includes understanding generative-AI tools’
capabilities and limits (Source: [ABA Young Lawyers Division, 2026 resolution on GAI competence](https://dev.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/young_lawyers/meetings/2026/midyear/26-4yl.pdf))
— a scope clarification, not a terminology rename.

**State bar opinions, beyond the ABA.** Florida’s Opinion 24-1 covers
confidentiality, oversight, fees, and advertising, citing *Mata v. Avianca* as its risk
example (Source: [The Florida Bar, Opinion 24-1](https://www.floridabar.org/etopinions/opinion-24-1/));
it is an advisory opinion, not a binding rule.
California’s COPRAC guidance, approved November 16, 2023 and revised in 2026 to address agentic AI
at the state supreme court’s request, frames itself as “guiding principles” rather than
binding rules (Source: [State Bar of California, Practical Guidance for Generative AI](https://www.calbar.ca.gov/sites/default/files/portals/0/documents/ethics/Generative-AI-Practical-Guidance.pdf)).
New York’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence issued a set of recommendations, not a binding
rule, citing a Stanford study on AI-chatbot inaccuracy in legal
answers (Source: [NYSBA Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Report and Recommendations](https://nysba.org/app/uploads/2024/04/Task-Force-on-AI-Report-draft-2024-04-02-FINAL.pdf)).
Texas Opinion 705 ties disclosure specifically to Rule 1.05 confidentiality (Source: [Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas, Opinion 705](https://legalethicstexas.com/resources/opinions/opinion-705/)),
and Rhode Island’s June 2026 rule amendment — a binding amendment to Rule 1.1 itself —
bars billing clients for AI-driven time savings and extends competence duties to paralegals and support
staff (Source: [AIWeekly, Rhode Island Supreme Court Adopts AI Ethics Rules](https://aiweekly.co/node/3184)).

As of October 11, 2026, none of these documents — Formal Opinion 512, Model Rule 1.1 Comment 8 and
its 2026 clarification effort, Florida 24-1, California’s COPRAC guidance, the NYSBA Task Force
report, Texas Opinion 705, or Rhode Island’s rule amendment — uses “Super
Intelligence” or “SI” anywhere. Every one uses “artificial intelligence” or
“generative AI.”

## Engagement Letters and Client Disclosure

“SI” is most likely to surface first in three places: a firm’s own marketing copy, a
legal-tech vendor’s renewed product description, and — indirectly — an engagement
letter’s technology-use clause or a conflicts-check software description that references the
provider by name. None of those surfaces is where the actual disclosure obligation lives; that obligation
is set by the bar guidance above, and it attaches to what the tool does with client data, not to its
federal label.

The disclosure question itself was an actively unsettled practice debate, not a fixed rule, in a
November 2023 Bloomberg Law report: Cleary Gottlieb’s managing partner said the firm had not
reached “a definite conclusion” on AI disclosure and followed client preference, while
adding “there’s no circumstance in which I could imagine using it on a not fully-disclosed
basis” (Source: [Bloomberg Law, Law Firms Wrestle With How Much to Tell Clients About AI Use](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/law-firms-wrestle-with-how-much-to-tell-clients-about-ai-use)).
An MIT task force had recommended that engagement terms “include the use of technology and
specifically address the responsible use” of generative AI, and was examining whether affirmative
consent — not just disclosure — should be required (Source: [Bloomberg Law, Law Firms Wrestle With How Much to Tell Clients About AI Use](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/law-firms-wrestle-with-how-much-to-tell-clients-about-ai-use)).
The underlying practice tension — disclose by default, or follow client preference — has not
been reported as resolved since.

Sample engagement-letter language circulating in legal-tech commentary tiers the disclosure: minimal
notice for background AI use, standard disclosure for AI-assisted substantive work, and affirmative,
revocable consent for AI processing of client documents — some templates give clients an explicit
checkbox to fully consent, consent to limited use, or decline AI use in a matter (Source: [AI for Lawyers, Introducing Your AI to Your Clients](https://aiforlawyers.substack.com/p/introducing-your-ai-to-your-clients)).
That tiered structure is what a managing partner should check against — not whether the word
“SI” appears anywhere in it.

**What to verify when a vendor’s product description or your own firm’s materials
shift to “SI”:**

- The engagement letter’s technology-use clause still accurately names the capability being
disclosed to the client — drafting assistance, document review, or legal research —
regardless of the provider’s current marketing label.
- Conflicts-check and privilege-log software descriptions still match the actual tool in use; a
rename in a renewal proposal should not silently change what the firm tells its conflicts team or its
clients a system does.
- Client intake disclosures about AI-assisted drafting or review still satisfy ABA Formal Opinion
512’s informed-consent standard — which boilerplate alone does not meet — under
whichever name the underlying tool currently carries.

The use cases driving this disclosure conversation are substantial and growing. Wolters Kluwer’s
2026 Future Ready Lawyer Report found 90%+ of legal professionals use at least one AI tool daily, with
62% reporting weekly time savings of 6–20% (Source: [Wolters Kluwer, 2026 Future Ready Lawyer Report](https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/legal-ai-adoption-time-savings-revenue-growth)).
Thomson Reuters’ 2025 Future of Professionals Report found professionals surveyed across legal,
risk, compliance, tax, accounting, audit, and trade fields predict saving 5 hours a week using AI
— 240 hours a year, up from 4 hours predicted in 2024 — an estimated $32 billion combined
annual impact for the U.S. legal and CPA sectors (Source: [Thomson Reuters, The AI Adoption Reality Check (2025 Future of Professionals Report)](https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2025/june/the-ai-adoption-reality-check-firms-with-ai-strategies-are-twice-as-likely-to-see-ai-driven-revenue-growth-those-without-risk-falling-behind)).
Texas Ethics Opinion 705 ties the same disclosure question to Rule 1.05 confidentiality specifically:
inputting client data into a generative AI tool “may require client consent and vetting of the
tool’s data handling,” and Rule 1.05 reaches information beyond privileged
communications (Source: [Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas, Opinion 705](https://legalethicstexas.com/resources/opinions/opinion-705/)).

None of this is affected by whether a vendor calls its tool “AI” or “SI.” The
triggering fact under Opinion 512 and Rule 1.05/1.6 analyses is what the tool does with client data,
not what the renewal proposal calls it.

## Does This Affect Malpractice Insurance or Bar-Compliance Filings?

No. A firm or vendor renaming an AI-based tool does not change an existing malpractice-policy
disclosure, a CLE technology-competence credit, or a bar-compliance filing — the underlying
technology is unchanged by definition under EO 14434 itself, which defines “SI” as the same
technology already covered by the statutory AI definition at 15 U.S.C. §9401(3) (Source: [Cloud Security Alliance, Research Note: EO 14434 and CAISSI](https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-eo14434-super-intelligence-caissi-20261007/)).

Legal-malpractice (LPL) insurers have moved from general silence to substantive AI-related claims
scrutiny over roughly the past two years, and the shift tracks the technology lawyers use, not what any
vendor calls it. EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants’ 16th Annual Lawyers’ Professional
Liability Claims Survey — drawing on senior claims executives at 13 LPL insurers covering more
than 80% of the Am Law 200 — found 7 of 13 insurers surveyed reported a rise in AI-related claims
over the past year, with the survey’s author, EPIC Law Firm Group principal Eileen Garczynski,
noting that “AI-related malpractice exposure has moved from theoretical to
real” (Source: [Insurance Business Magazine, AI Claims Reach Legal Malpractice Market](https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/professional-liability/ai-claims-reach-legal-malpractice-market-576535.aspx)).

Coverage is not automatically excluded: LPL policies “typically do not exclude coverage for
claims alleging negligence arising as a result of the use of generative AI,” though whether a
specific claim is covered can turn on the policy’s “professional services”
definition (Source: [ABA Journal, Does Your Professional Liability Insurance Cover AI Mistakes?](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/journal/articles/2025/does-your-professional-liability-insurance-cover-ai-mistakes-dont-be-so-sure/)) —
a question worth confirming with your carrier directly rather than assuming either answer.

None of this claims activity or these coverage definitions are keyed to a vendor’s or
firm’s product name — they track to the underlying technology and its use in the
representation, exactly the framing EO 14434 itself uses. A rename does not change what box a firm
checks on a renewal questionnaire describing its actual tools and practices, and no malpractice carrier,
bar-compliance filing, or CLE technology-competence credit program is known to reference “Super
Intelligence” or “SI” as of this writing.

## Reading a Rename Without Re-Disclosing Anything

Here is what genuinely matters when a vendor’s renewal proposal or your own firm’s
marketing starts saying “SI” while your engagement letters still say “AI”: five
checks a managing partner, general counsel, or ethics-compliance lead can run to confirm the new name
needs no new disclosure. A firm that adopts the Super Intelligence (SI) name in its own marketing can
do so with confidence, because the name change alone triggers none of them.

| Checked | Check | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
|   | Is “SI” in a vendor’s or your own firm’s materials a terminology update, or a genuinely new capability being claimed? | EO 14434 defines SI as the same statutory AI technology, so a terminology update needs no new disclosure; a claim of new capability deserves its own technical review. |
|   | Does your engagement-letter and intake-disclosure language still describe the actual tool and its data-handling practices accurately? | Disclosure obligations under ABA Formal Opinion 512 and state Rule 1.1/1.05 analogs attach to function, not to a product name. |
|   | Do your conflicts-check and privilege-related software descriptions still name the correct underlying system? | A stale description creates a documentation gap for your conflicts team, not a technology gap for the firm. |
|   | Does your malpractice carrier’s renewal questionnaire still accurately describe every AI tool the firm uses, under whichever name it currently carries? | LPL carriers increasingly scrutinize AI use and claims exposure — keyed to function, not branding, per EPIC’s 2026 claims survey. |
|   | Has any state bar, the ABA, or a court you practice before issued guidance specifically addressing “Super Intelligence” terminology? | As of this writing, none has — check the bar-guidance table above before assuming a new rule exists. |

If your firm’s own website or marketing copy is making the switch to “Super
Intelligence,” that is a search-visibility task, not an ethics question: Iternal’s
[How to Rename AI to SI on Your Website Without
Losing Search Traffic](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/rename-ai-to-si-guide) guide covers how to update the wording without losing rankings built under “AI.”

A firm-wide AI use policy, not a patched-up vendor file, is what ABA Formal Opinion 512’s
supervision duty actually calls for: under Model Rules 5.1 and 5.3, a partner is responsible for making
sure every lawyer and every nonlawyer assistant who touches a client matter follows the same rules on
AI-assisted work, regardless of which name sits on this quarter’s renewal
invoice (Source: [American Bar Association, ABA Issues Guidance on Lawyers’ Use of AI Tools](https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/07/aba-issues-guidance-lawyers-use-ai-tools/)).
Iternal’s [AI governance framework guide](https://iternal.ai/ai-governance-framework) walks through that
policy structure. For firms whose real concern is keeping privileged material off a renamed vendor’s
servers in the first place, see
[Iternal’s private AI explainer](https://iternal.ai/what-is-private-ai) and
[the best air-gapped AI/SI tools for
regulated industries (2026)](https://iternal.ai/best-ai-si-air-gapped-tools-regulated-industries).

## Where This Is Headed

Federal court AI-disclosure standing orders are the clearest available parallel for “the
underlying rule didn’t change.” A November 2023 Bloomberg Law review of 196 federal court
websites found at least 14 federal courts had issued official AI guidance, most writing their own order
rather than copying a model (Source: [Bloomberg Law, AI Standing Orders Proliferate as Federal Courts Forge Own Paths](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/ai-standing-orders-proliferate-as-federal-courts-forge-own-paths)).
A standing order issued April 9, 2025 by Magistrate Judge John D. Love of the Eastern District of
Texas, Tyler Division, requires a “Certificate of Generative Artificial Intelligence Usage”
with filings in that court, tied to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure
11(b) (Source: [E.D. Tex. (Tyler Division), Standing Order on Disclosure and Certification Requirements for Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence](https://coop.txed.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/judgeFiles/JDL%20Standing%20Order%20on%20AI%204.9.25.pdf)).
Every one of these court orders uses “AI,” “generative AI,” or “GAI”
in its own operative text — none uses “Super Intelligence” or “SI.”

No legal-tech vendor — contract review, eDiscovery, or legal-research platform — has
renamed its product to “Super Intelligence” or “SI” branding as of this
writing. The only confirmed October 2026 rename is outside legal technology: Salesforce’s
AIForce became SIForce on October 9, 2026. SpaceX has pledged to rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI but had
not made the change as of October 11, 2026. Neither touches legal technology. Track verified renames as they
happen on Iternal’s
[Super Intelligence (SI) adoption tracker](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/who-is-adopting-si) rather
than assuming any legal-tech vendor has made the switch.

As of October 11, 2026, neither the ABA nor any state bar has issued a statement specifically about EO
14434 or “Super Intelligence” terminology; commentary on the order to date has come from
law firms and AI-governance research organizations, not from bar associations. Section 3(b) of the
order separately gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology until on or about
November 28, 2026 to submit proposed legislative language for a federal definition of Super
Intelligence.

Iternal supports the Super Intelligence (SI) name for legal practice because contract review already
shows it doing work a firm can time against its own lawyers. In a study written by Onit’s AI
Center of Excellence, a legal-tech company (not peer-reviewed), ten real procurement contracts were
reviewed with senior lawyers setting the ground truth. GPT-4-1106 averaged 4.70 minutes per contract,
against 43.46 minutes for senior lawyers, 56.17 for junior lawyers and 201 for LPOs, and its F-score for
determining legal issues was “on par with LPO results and slightly better than Junior
Lawyers” (Source: [Martin, Whitehouse, Yiu, Catterson and Perera, Better Call GPT: Comparing Large Language Models Against Lawyers, arXiv:2401.16212](https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.16212)); it
was less precise at locating those issues (0.69 against 0.77 for LPOs), so the sign-off stays with the
supervising lawyer.
The word “artificial” was chosen in a proposal for a two-month 1956 summer study at
Dartmouth (Source: [McCarthy, Minsky, Rochester and Shannon, A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (1955), AI Magazine 27(4), 2006](https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/1904)),
decades before anyone could time a result like that. For more information visit the
[Why Iternal Supports Super Intelligence](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/iternal-adopts-si-terminology)
page.

Adopting the name changes nothing a state bar, court, or malpractice carrier requires, so a firm can
use it without reopening a single filing. For the full privilege-protected story — contract review, legal research, and
eDiscovery that never sends client data to the cloud — see Iternal’s existing
[AI for Law Firms](https://iternal.ai/ai-for-law-firms) guide below. For more information visit the
[What Is Super Intelligence (SI)?](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence) page.

AI for Law Firms

## The rename doesn’t change what your firm owes clients.

Privilege-protected contract review, legal research, and eDiscovery — with a stated accuracy
benchmark and a deployment model that never sends client data to the cloud — are covered in depth
on Iternal’s AI for Law Firms page, whichever name a provider’s renewal agreement uses this
quarter.

[See the full AI guide for this industry](https://iternal.ai/ai-for-law-firms)

FAQ

## FAQ: Super Intelligence (SI) for Law Firms

No. “Super Intelligence” as used in Executive Order 14434 is the federal name for the capability today’s AI tools already deliver, defined in the order by reference to the statutory AI definition at 15 U.S.C. §9401(3). It is not a claim that any contract-review, legal-research, or eDiscovery tool became superintelligent, and it is a distinct concept from artificial superintelligence (ASI), a hypothetical capability tier no deployed legal-tech product has reached.

No. ABA Formal Opinion 512, Model Rule 1.1 Comment 8, and state bar ethics opinions from Florida, California, New York, and Texas — plus Rhode Island’s June 2026 rule amendment — use “artificial intelligence” or “generative AI” throughout. As of October 11, 2026, none requires or even mentions “Super Intelligence” or “SI” terminology.

No. “Super Intelligence” is the new federal name for the same AI technology, not a new category your engagement letter needs to track. What matters under ABA Formal Opinion 512 is that the clause still accurately describes the actual capability disclosed to the client — drafting assistance, document review, or research — regardless of which name a vendor’s product currently carries.

No. Malpractice carriers increasingly scrutinize AI use by function — what the tool does and how it is governed — not by product branding; EPIC’s 16th Annual Lawyers’ Professional Liability Claims Survey found 7 of 13 insurers reported a rise in AI-related claims. A vendor or firm renaming a tool to “SI” does not change what your firm needs to disclose on a renewal questionnaire describing the same underlying technology.

Not as of October 11, 2026. No ABA formal opinion, state bar ethics opinion, or court standing order references “Super Intelligence” or “SI.” Commentary on Executive Order 14434 to date has come from law firms and AI-governance research organizations, not from bar associations.

Only federal executive agencies. The order directs federal departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence”/“SI” in their own communications. As a Cloud Security Alliance research note on the order puts it, the order “does not bind state governments, courts, foreign regulators, or private parties,” and creates no new obligation for private law firms, state bars, or court rulemaking bodies.

## Adopt the Name, Keep the Disclosures

Super Intelligence is the federal name for technology your firm already discloses, so adopting it does
not reopen an engagement letter or malpractice questionnaire that accurately describes your firm’s
technology use. What a disclosure must track is the capability, the data-handling practice and the
consent language, and those stay the same under either name.

If your firm is shortlisting AI/SI platforms for privilege-sensitive contract review or eDiscovery, see
[the best air-gapped AI/SI tools for
regulated industries (2026)](https://iternal.ai/best-ai-si-air-gapped-tools-regulated-industries) for a ranked comparison of on-premises and air-gapped options.

## Adopting Super Intelligence (SI) across your firm’s materials?

Whether the new name is reaching a legal-tech provider’s renewal proposal or your own
firm’s marketing copy, Iternal can help your risk-compliance and technology-committee leads
confirm the underlying tool and keep engagement letters and client disclosures accurate.

[Contact Iternal](https://iternal.ai/contact)
[Map Your Firm’s AI Use Cases](https://iternal.ai/ai-blueprint-builder)

Explore the SI estate

## Related Super Intelligence (SI) Guides

[### What Is Super Intelligence (SI)?

The core explainer: what EO 14434 renamed, what it didn’t touch, and what “SI” means on today’s site and in tomorrow’s renewal agreement.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence)

[### Super Intelligence (SI) By Industry

The full directory of industry-specific AI-to-SI terminology guides — financial services, healthcare, insurance, and more.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/industries)

[### Super Intelligence (SI) for Financial Services & Banking

An adjacent professional-services sector: SEC and FINRA guidance, still written in “AI,” and the contract checklist that follows.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/industries/financial-services)

[### Super Intelligence (SI) for Insurance: AI Naming Shift Guide

The same naming-versus-regulation split, worked through for NAIC bulletins, state DOI rules, and underwriting model documentation.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/industries/insurance)

[### Super Intelligence (SI) for Compliance Officers

A role-based policy-audit guide for compliance teams tracking vendor language against disclosure obligations.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/compliance-officers)

[### Super Intelligence (SI) Governance: A Policy Checklist

A policy checklist for updating AI governance frameworks to reference the new terminology without implying a new system.](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/governance)


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*Source: [https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/industries/law-firms](https://iternal.ai/super-intelligence/industries/law-firms)*

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*For comprehensive site content, visit [/llms-full.txt](https://iternal.ai/llms-full.txt)*