Indie Law, a Chicago-based trademark law firm serving entrepreneurs, creatives, and growing businesses across the United States, has signed The Higher Bar, a public pledge outlining how lawyers and legal technology companies commit to using artificial intelligence. The pledge was convened by Best Era, a law firm consulting company based in West Hartford, Connecticut. The announcement matters because it signals how smaller, specialized firms are trying to set expectations for AI use at a time when the technology is spreading quickly through legal work and clients are increasingly asking who stands behind the output.
By signing, Indie Law commits to fourteen principles. Among them: using AI to serve clients, courts, and communities, with a lawyer responsible for every use; having a person check every AI output before it leaves the firm; never using AI to harass, intimidate, or bury anyone in filings; never filing evidence it cannot verify is real; protecting client data and treating security as ongoing work; using AI to make its team better at their work, not to replace them; being honest about what AI can and cannot do, and keeping its own voice in everything it sends; and never selling or licensing client files or case data to train anyone's AI.
"Our clients trust us with the name their business is built on," said Joey Vitale, trademark attorney and founder of Indie Law. "Signing The Higher Bar is a public way of saying that no matter what tools we use, a lawyer is responsible for the work and our clients' information stays protected." The emphasis on lawyer accountability is significant for clients evaluating legal providers, because it places responsibility on a person rather than on a tool, even as firms adopt software that can draft, search, and summarize at speed.
The Higher Bar is voluntary. It creates no legal obligation and changes no rule of professional conduct. That limitation is central to understanding the pledge's reach: it is a statement of intent and public accountability rather than an enforceable standard. For the legal industry, the pledge offers a template that other firms and legal technology companies can adopt, and it gives clients a way to compare how firms describe their AI practices. The full pledge and the list of signers are available on Best Era's website, and Indie Law provides more information at www.indielaw.com.
Indie Law focuses exclusively on trademark law, helping clients protect their brands through federal trademark registration, comprehensive searches, and ongoing brand monitoring. The firm reports more than 2,000 trademarks filed and a 99.7% success rate. For readers who rely on legal services, the pledge's most practical commitments are the human check on every AI output and the promise not to sell or license client files or case data to train AI, since those touch directly on confidentiality and the reliability of work product. For the broader business community, the announcement adds to a growing conversation about how professional services firms will govern AI internally and what they will disclose publicly as adoption accelerates.
