AI transparency statement
Our commitment
At Shine Lawyers, we’re committed to providing our clients with accurate, high-quality legal services. Our work is guided by our values of justice, fairness, and putting people first.
We believe artificial intelligence (AI) can help improve access to justice. It can make our work more efficient and help us deliver services to clients. In adopting AI technologies, we’re committed to using them responsibly, ethically, and transparently.
How we use AI
When we provide legal services, we may use AI tools to help prepare and manage parts of your matter. AI-generated material is only used as a support tool. A qualified legal practitioner reviews, checks, and approves all work created with help from AI. This helps make sure the work is accurate, relevant, and meets our duties to you and to the court. Your legal team remains responsible for all legal advice and all legal work.
Human oversight and accountability
AI without human oversight is not how we practise law. Our firm has strict protocols to make sure that:
a qualified legal professional reviews every AI-assisted output before we rely on it, act on it, or share it with you
our lawyers use their own professional judgement at all times – to make sure AI supports, but never replaces, their human expertise
our staff receive ongoing training on how to use AI tools responsibly and ethically, including training into confidentiality, data protection, accuracy, and professional judgement.
Protecting your information
Your privacy and the confidentiality of your information are very important to us. When we use AI, we take several steps to protect your data, including:
making sure any AI tools used by our firm are secure business-grade tools or tools owned by us, working in closed systems that have been checked and approved for professional use
avoiding open or public AI platforms like ChatGPT, or similar public tools, to process your confidential information
never using your personal information to train public AI models or datasets
keeping your data confidential at all times, making sure people outside our approved systems can’t access it
checking all AI systems we use to make sure they meet our strict security, privacy, professional, and ethical standards.
using strict controls to make sure legally privileged and confidential material is not put at risk through our use of AI.
Automated Decision-Making (ADM) transparency
Our organisation may use AI and automated decision-making (ADM) in some situations to help deliver efficient and consistent services. ADM refers to decisions made, or helped, by computer algorithms or AI systems. Examples may include fraud detection, sorting client enquiries, and targeted communications.
When we use AI or ADM, we take reasonable steps to meet the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This includes the automated decision-making transparency requirements starting on 10 December 2026. We take reasonable steps to ensure that:
personal information used in AI and ADM is accurate, up-to-date, and complete
AI and ADM systems are regularly reviewed to minimise the risk of unfair, biased, or discriminatory outcomes
People are told when important decisions that affect them are made solely by automated means
where practical, people can ask for a human review of an AI or ADM decision that has a major impact on their rights or interests
we use suitable security measures to protect personal information processed through AI and ADM systems.
AI-generated content disclosure
We will carefully consider why we need to create or publish AI-generated images, videos, or audio that look or sound lifelike. Where relevant, we will tell people when AI was used to create these materials. We will identify AI-generated content if it could reasonably be mistaken for work made by a person.
Our governance framework
Shine Lawyers has a comprehensive AI governance framework to help make sure AI is used safely, ethically, and responsibly across our firm. This includes:
a dedicated AI Working Group that oversees AI governance, risk management, and ethical standards
alignment with the Australian Voluntary AI Safety Standard (AVASS)
regular risk assessments of all AI tools and third-party AI providers before we use them
ongoing monitoring, review, and improvement of AI systems to make sure they stay safe, effective, and compliant.
Contact us
If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about our use of AI or automated decision-making, you may contact us:
Email: privacy@shine.com.au Post: Privacy Officer, Shine Lawyers, PO Box 12011, George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4003, Australia
We’re committed to using AI and automated decision-making in a way that is open, fair, and accountable. This is in line with our duties under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and our professional and ethical responsibilities.
