The modernisation of the legal profession, driven by artificial intelligence and the cloud, is one of its greatest challenges: it cannot take place without confronting head-on the questions of lawyers’ sovereignty and independence. It still relies too often on large vendors subject to extraterritorial laws, notably the American CLOUD Act. Although the data exchanged by lawyers is extremely sensitive, many have little choice of tools, for want of knowing the alternatives being developed by lawtech start-ups that gravitate around the institutions of the profession. The authors of this open letter are two lawtech start-ups, this year’s winners of the prizes awarded by the Incubateur du Barreau de Paris (Paris Bar Incubator) and the Conseil National des Barreaux (French National Bar Council), joined by the association Data Ring. They are launching a consultation for concrete action, open to professionals and citizens alike.
Modernisation and dependence
A first analysis in a matter of minutes; files, diaries and invoices managed in the cloud; dealings with clients that have gone digital: never have lawyers had such powerful tools at their disposal. A large share of these tools, however, belongs to large foreign groups, which are buying up even French players: the British group RELX, owner of LexisNexis, has just completed its acquisition of Doctrine, one of the leading French legal platforms, while the Swedish group Karnov has taken over Lamy Liaisons1. The modernisation of the profession can no longer rest, as it did in the past, on these large players alone, especially when they are subject to foreign law.
Yet the data that lawyers exchange, whether it concerns a divorce, a dismissal, criminal proceedings or the acquisition of a company, is as sensitive as health data. The law reserves the hosting of health data to certified providers2, whereas no comparable certification is required for lawyers’ files. The Patriot Act of 2001 extended the surveillance powers of the American authorities; the CLOUD Act of 2018 allows them to require any provider subject to their jurisdiction to hand over the data it holds, wherever that data is stored3. The Conseil National des Barreaux itself observes that a significant proportion of lawyers use consumer email services such as Gmail or Outlook4; a new version of Outlook is even said to route emails, attachments and login credentials through Microsoft’s servers, including those of accounts held elsewhere5. Professional secrecy, which covers every document in the file6, cannot be allowed to depend on a foreign government.
On 21 October 2026, the opening day of the Convention nationale des avocats (National Lawyers’ Convention), a cascade of critical vulnerabilities was revealed in software used all over the world, extending even to the certificates meant to guarantee the authenticity of websites7. Organised by the Conseil National des Barreaux with the bars of Toulouse, Albi and Montauban, the Convention was at that very moment devoting a large part of its proceedings to artificial intelligence8. How long will the profession accept modernising with tools of which it controls neither the security, nor the hosting, nor the law that applies to them?
A profession on the move
Throughout the profession, a movement is under way, driven by institutions determined to take back control for the sake of the independence, digital sovereignty and modernisation of lawyers. The Conseil National des Barreaux provides every lawyer with a secure email service under the avocat.fr domain9 and, on 13 October 2026, put out to consultation an obligation for every lawyer to have a secure email address10. The Conférence des bâtonniers (Conference of Bar Presidents) supports the bars in meeting their digital challenges and on 27 August 2026 committed itself, together with the Association des maires de France (Association of Mayors of France), to access to justice throughout the country, right down to rural municipalities11. In May 2026 the Barreau de Paris (Paris Bar) adopted a digital sovereignty strategy, ‘Vers un barreau souverain’ (‘Towards a sovereign Bar’)12, then opened Themisia, the practice management tool launched on its initiative, to every bar in France13.
These signs are encouraging: the institutions are recalling and highlighting what has always been true, namely that there is no professional secrecy without control of one’s tools. They can also draw on the incubators that bars such as those of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse or the Hauts-de-Seine have created14, from which alternatives are already emerging that law firms still know little about.
Ecosystem, AI and access to justice
The start-ups and software vendors that work for lawyers must continue to unite around the institutions of the profession, making extensive use of Open Source solutions and building blocks. With artificial intelligence, innovation has changed in nature: what matters now is the ability to inspire trust, both in the data and in the services produced by the AI systems that feed on it. In this respect, the institutions enjoy the trust of lawyers and their clients: an asset to which no vendor can lay claim without offering very strong guarantees. This trust gives them a profound role to play together with the profession as a whole.
Backed by this trust, artificial intelligence can transform law firms without exposing them, on three conditions: that lawyers remain in control, that they know where their data is processed and under which law, and that documents are protected before any processing.
Modernising the profession also serves access to justice, because the time saved through reliable tools goes back to clients. A well-equipped lawyer can also better serve the areas where lawyers are scarce: on 1 January 2024 the Meuse had 1.1 per 10,000 inhabitants, Paris 156.815. The Convention nationale des avocats moreover lists ‘inequalities of access to justice across the whole country’ among the weaknesses of the justice system16.
A consultation open to professionals and citizens
Today we are launching a spontaneous consultation for concrete action. It builds on a strength that is already there, since in France nearly one lawtech start-up in four counts a lawyer among its founders17; we submit two initial proposals to it.
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A permanent forum for exchange between the profession and lawtech start-ups, extending the incubators, whose support has given so much to lawtech start-ups, as well as the demonstration spaces now taking shape18. Lawyers acting as beta testers would try out new tools there before their launch, on the model of the programmes that already bring lawyers and tool designers together in England and Singapore19.
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A showcase for young French and European software vendors, which the institutions of the profession could host, so that every lawyer can discover the alternatives to the large foreign groups and know where their data is hosted, as the Conseil des barreaux européens (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe) already recommends20.
This consultation is open to professionals and citizens alike, because the secrets that lawyers protect are first and foremost those of their clients. It will officially open on Thursday 29 October 2026 at souverainete-avocats.fr/en/consultation, where everyone, whether lawyer, law firm, bar, institution, company or private citizen, will be able to submit their ideas, stating in what capacity they are responding. Until then, anyone may already take part and share their first ideas from that same page or by writing to propositions@souverainete-avocats.fr. The open letter can be read and signed at souverainete-avocats.fr/en, in a personal capacity or on behalf of a law firm, a company, an association or an institution: bars, departmental councils for access to justice, public institutions, researchers and software vendors all have their place in this movement. The results of the consultation will be set out in a report, to be published on 25 May 2027, the anniversary of the date on which the GDPR became applicable21, and then submitted to all the institutions of the profession.
France has the lawyers, the institutions and the companies to modernise the profession without surrendering any of its independence or of the secrecy owed to its clients, provided that it organises itself now, together.
Authors
Contact: Raoul Delpech, 06 19 60 75 92, propositions@souverainete-avocats.fr