Trouble with AI 'hallucinations' spreads to big law firms

Attorneys from Mississippi-founded law firm Butler Snow apologized to U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco in Alabama after they inadvertently included case citations generated by ChatGPT in two court filings.

Butler Snow partner Matthew Reeves said in a Monday filing that he regretted his "lapse in diligence and judgment" for failing to verify the citations.

The 400-lawyer firm, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is defending former Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn in an inmate's lawsuit alleging he was repeatedly attacked in prison. Dunn has denied wrongdoing. The judge has not yet said whether she will impose sanctions over the filings.

Jamila Mensah of Norton Rose Fulbright, one of the lawyers representing plaintiff Frankie Johnson, declined to comment.

AI-generated fictions, known as "hallucinations," have cropped up in court filings and landed attorneys in hot water ever since ChatGPT and other generative AI programs became widely available more than two years ago. Courts have sanctioned and admonished attorneys around the country for violating professional rules that require them to vet their work however it is produced.

Many of the cases have involved small law firms or self-represented litigants. But examples of big firms or big companies grappling with AI hallucinations are growing.

Last week a lawyer at law firm Latham & Watkins, which is defending AI company Anthropic in a copyright lawsuit related to music lyrics, apologized to a California federal judge after submitting an expert report that cited an article title invented by AI.

Lawyers for the music publishers suing Anthropic have asked the judge to exclude the report. The judge has not yet ruled on the request.

Earlier this month, a court-appointed special master imposed sanctions and ordered law firm K&L Gates and a smaller firm, Ellis George, to pay $31,100 for what he called a "collective debacle" in which they included inaccurate case citations and quotations stemming from the use of AI in a filing.

Lawyers from the two firms are representing former Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey in a dispute with insurance giant State Farm. A spokesperson for K&L Gates and a lawyer at Ellis George did not immediately respond to requests for comment. State Farm and its lawyers at Sheppard Mullin did not immediately respond to similar requests.

The special master, retired judge Michael Wilner, wrote in the order that he had been "affirmatively misled" by the filing. "I read their brief, was persuaded (or at least intrigued) by the authorities that they cited, and looked up the decisions to learn more about them – only to find that they didn't exist," he wrote. "That's scary."

Daniel Linna, a senior lecturer and director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern's law and engineering schools, said the inclusion of AI-generated fabrications in court briefs is in part a result of a lack of education and training.

Despite the perils, AI also has the potential to increase the quality of legal briefs and improve access to justice, he said.