Bill 25 and AI: What Your Firm Must Know Now
Since it came into full force in September 2024, Bill 25 has changed the rules for every Quebec organization handling personal information. For law firms wanting to integrate AI, this law isn’t an obstacle — it’s a framework that protects both your clients and your practice.
The key obligations affecting AI
Bill 25 requires a privacy impact assessment before any project involving personal information. Concretely, if your AI system processes client data — names, addresses, case details — you must document the risks and protection measures.
Consent is another pillar. Your clients need to know their data will be processed by an AI system, even if it’s hosted on your own servers. Transparency isn’t optional.
Finally, transferring data outside Quebec is strictly regulated. Using an AI tool with U.S. servers without required safeguards? That’s a potential breach that can cost dearly — up to 25 million dollars in fines.
The free tool trap
ChatGPT, Google Bard, Claude via web — these tools are tempting for their simplicity. But for a law firm, they represent significant legal risk. Data you enter is transmitted to foreign servers, often used to train models, and you lose all control over how it’s handled.
When a lawyer pastes a contract excerpt into ChatGPT, they’re technically making a cross-border personal information transfer without required Bill 25 safeguards. It’s that straightforward — and that serious.
Compliant AI is possible
Compliance doesn’t require abandoning AI. It requires deploying it correctly. An AI system hosted on Canadian servers, dedicated to your firm, with appropriate access controls, fully complies with Bill 25.
The essential elements of compliant AI include Canadian server hosting with certified data centers, encryption of data at rest and in transit, complete audit logs demonstrating due diligence, clear data retention policy with automatic deletion, and documented privacy impact assessment.
The personal information officer
Bill 25 requires each organization to designate a personal information officer. In a small firm, that’s often a partner with added responsibility. This officer must understand how AI processes data and answer personal information access requests.
Training this person on AI-specific issues is a worthwhile investment. They need to understand what a language model is, how RAG works, and where data flows.
Turn compliance into competitive advantage
Firms taking Bill 25 seriously with AI stand out. Being able to tell a corporate client “Our AI system is hosted in Canada, compliant with Bill 25, and we’ve completed our privacy impact assessment” is a powerful selling point, especially with institutional clients and companies serious about compliance.
Act now
At Laeka, we deploy AI solutions designed from the ground up for Quebec compliance. Canadian hosting, complete documentation, guidance through your privacy impact assessment — we cover every aspect so you can adopt AI with confidence.
Book your 30-minute discovery call to audit your AI compliance. → laeka.org/services
