AI Clauses in Protective Orders: Reading the Order and Proving Compliance as the Receiving Party

Jessica L. Copeland, Member | Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC

Jessica L. Copeland chairs the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy practice at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, practicing from the firm’s Buffalo and New York City offices. She advises clients on AI governance and AI-use policies, counsels on compliance with the New York SHIELD Act, HIPAA, HITECH, CCPA, GDPR, and the NY DFS Cybersecurity Regulations, and leads incident response, including forensic engagement and oversight, breach notification, inadvertent disclosures, ransomware, and business email compromise matters. She is a veteran commercial litigator with trial and appellate experience in state and federal court.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Copeland earned her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 2004 and a B.A. in Mathematics from New York University in 2001. She holds a Certificate in Cybersecurity Leadership from Carnegie Mellon University and is an IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US). She is admitted in New York, before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Federal Circuits, and in the Western, Eastern, and Southern Districts of New York and the Western District of Pennsylvania.

• Recognition & Leadership

She co-chairs the AI, Cybersecurity & Digital Technologies Committee of the New York Intellectual Property Law Association and has chaired Bond’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy practice since 2021. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation (2027) and in New York Super Lawyers for IP Litigation (2015–2026).

• Professional Involvement

Her firm publications include “Can ‘Non-Confidential’ Discovery Materials be Uploaded? To an AI Tool for Analysis—Maybe, It Depends!” (2026) and “No Counsel, No Privilege: Courts Signal That Client AI Use May Fall Outside Attorney-Client Privilege” (2026), and she co-authored “Cases Tackle Two Discovery Issues: Privilege Waiver and Sanctions” in the New York Law Journal (2021). She has presented “Navigating the Intersection of Cybersecurity and Litigation” (FBA–NDNY, 2022) and sits on the Local Rules Committee of the Western District of New York.

• Experience

Ms. Copeland has defended a data privacy class action. She has defended patent infringement claims for financial institutions, medical device manufacturers, and software and hardware companies, co-chaired a jury trial in the Commercial Division of Erie County Supreme Court, and was part of the trial team that obtained a $1.5 million federal jury verdict for Loma Linda University (2024).

Michael Yancey III, Managing Attorney | Consumer Justice Law Firm PLC

Michael Yancey III is Managing Attorney at Consumer Justice Law Firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he leads the firm’s legal drafting department, supervises its law clerks, and represents consumers in federal and state courts nationwide with an emphasis on brief writing and trial advocacy. His study of electronic discovery at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law earned a CALI Excellence for the Future Award, and he holds the school’s Certificate in Law, Science, and Technology.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Yancey earned his J.D., cum laude, from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2021, where he was a Willard H. Pedrick Scholar, received the Honorable Redfield T. and Susan H. Baum Scholarship, and served on the Moot Court Executive Board. He holds a B.A. from Hobe Sound Bible College. He is admitted in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas, and before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Arizona, District of Colorado, Northern District of Iowa, Eastern District of Michigan, District of Nebraska, District of Nevada, District of North Dakota, and Western District of Texas.

• Recognition & Leadership

He received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award for his work in electronic discovery, was named a Willard H. Pedrick Scholar, and was awarded the Honorable Redfield T. and Susan H. Baum Scholarship. At Consumer Justice Law Firm he leads the legal drafting department and supervises the firm’s team of law clerks.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Yancey is a member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

• Experience

Admitted in 2021, he joined Price Law Group, APC, a national consumer protection and bankruptcy firm, as an associate, handling consumer protection, civil rights, and personal injury matters. He wrote briefs at the trial and appellate levels, argued in state and federal courts, helped prepare four federal jury trials, and served as co-counsel in one. After his Nevada admission in 2022 he began representing Nevada consumers and supported an Arizona medical malpractice firm’s state court litigation. He joined Consumer Justice Law Firm in February 2023, where his practice centers on credit report errors, background check errors, identity theft recovery, debt collection harassment, and Electronic Funds Transfer Act and Fair Credit Billing Act violations. Before law school he worked as a paralegal at a South Florida firm defending homeowners in foreclosure actions, and during law school he clerked at Price Law Group on matters in federal and state trial courts and federal appellate courts.

SESSION 1 – Reading and Negotiating AI Clauses in Protective Orders | Michael Yancey III | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session will examine how lawyers can interpret and negotiate AI restrictions in protective orders while protecting confidential discovery and preserving effective litigation tools. The program begins with the legal framework, including protective orders, standing orders, professional duties, and work-product protection. Attendees will then learn how to read AI clauses, focusing on covered information, covered technologies, prohibited conduct, exceptions, and conditions for use. The discussion will cover how AI is used in litigation workflows, including document review, legal research, drafting, integrated assistants, and connected applications, and how to evaluate tools against an order by looking at contractual terms, account settings, data retention, training, access, and third-party processing. The session will also address negotiating practical restrictions before an order is entered, with attention to proportionality and the receiving party’s litigation needs. It will also cover responding to restrictions proposed mid-case and building an evidentiary record, including work-product concerns. The program concludes with practical hypotheticals, key takeaways, and a question-and-answer period.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Governing Opposing-Party Data in AI Tools: A Privacy and Incident-Response Approach to the Receiving Party’s Compliance File | Jessica L. Copeland | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This hour treats an entered AI clause the way a privacy program treats a regulated data set: map where the data goes, govern the tools that touch it, document the controls, and be ready to respond when something goes wrong. It covers tracing an opponent’s production through the firm’s systems and classifying each AI tool against the order’s actual standard; vendor due diligence on training use, retention, subprocessors, and security; tying the AI-tool certification to the firm’s AI governance policy and the records behind it; matter isolation and verifiable deletion at conclusion; and handling material already inside a tool as an incident, with containment, forensic confirmation, clawback, and notice. Where a production carries personal or health information, it also shows how SHIELD Act, HIPAA, and other privacy obligations sit on top of the order. It is built for litigators who receive productions and use AI on matters but have never served an AI-tool certification, answered a demand to name the tool used, or met a five-day clawback clock against a chat history. Attendees leave with three instruments: a compliance-file checklist, a certification template keyed to Orechovesky ¶15, and an unpermitted-upload incident-response playbook.