This week, we’ve had K&L Gates sanctioned over fake AI cites. It spread to Canada. Latham admitted to an AI screw-up in a case WHERE THEY WERE REPRESENTING AN AI COMPANY. And we’re not too far removed the DOJ probably used AI to gin up a self-serving but very fake Supreme Court quote.
And so it’s absolutely on brand for May 2025 that we end the week with yet another “lawyers file papers with fake citations” story.
This time it’s Am Law 200 firm Butler Snow potentially in trouble over AI. So is this the start of the Butlerian jihad?
This case is before the court on a motion for leave to depose an incarcerated person by Defendant Jefferson Dunn, the former Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, Doc. 174, and the response of said incarcerated person, Plaintiff Frankie Johnson, see Doc. 186. Mr. Johnson opposes the request to depose him the week of June 3rd for several reasons, including that counsel for Defendant Dunn appears to have fabricated citations to legal authority in his motion for leave, “possibly through the use of generative artificial intelligence.”
Possibly generative AI, seems like a generous carve out but since the alternative is “the lawyers made up falsehoods off the dome,” they’d better hope it’s a generative AI issue.
Earlier this week, we wondered if the courts are under-sanctioning for these errors. We’re a couple years into this and — at least among the Am Law 200 — there are plenty of opportunities for training and plenty of bodies around to give a human review of everything, yet this is still happening!
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.