OpenAI "accused" of practicing law without a license in civil lawsuit

OpenAI (the makers of Chat GPT) has been accused of practicing law without a license in a lawsuit brought by Nippon Life Insurance Co. of America.  

The lawsuit alleges that, after agreeing to a settlement with Nippon, the defendant asked ChatGPT for a second opinion and used its response to fire her attorney and attempt to challenge the settlement herself. She asked ChatGPT to generate proposed legal arguments and documents, which she used in a motion seeking to reopen the case.  Nippon argues that urged by ChatGPT, the defendant filed dozens of motions that “serve no legitimate legal or procedural purpose."

The ABA Journal has the story here.

Court Kicks Lawyers Off Case After Finding Fake AI Cases In Filings

 As more and more cases of fake citations, and faulty use of AI in lawyering pile up, judges may be ready to start imposing stronger sanctions.  Read the story here.

How not to practice law, Trump lawyers edition - UPDATED

 It has been a long time since I posted an entry into the long running series of "how not to practice law" featuring stories illustrating dumb things lawyers do that they should know better not to do...  So here we are today with a Trump edition, courtesy of the team of lawyers representing [sic] Trump in a case in Iowa against a pollster.  

In a nutshell, aside from the fact that the case is almost certainly frivolous, the story of the litigation reads like a script for a law related blooper reel.  You can read the details of the story in Above the Law here.

UPDATE, July 6: TechDirt has an update on the lastest details on this developing story here.

California Judge recommends disbarment for John Eastman

 A California judge has formally recommended that attorney John Eastman be disbarred for his role in Donald Trump's legal effort to remain in power after losing the 2020 presidential election.  You can read the decision and order here.  The judge concluded that 

While attorneys have a duty to advocate zealously for their clients, they must do so within the bounds of ethical and legal constraints. Eastman’s actions transgressed those ethical limits by advocating, participating in and pursuing a strategy to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that lacked evidentiary or legal support. Vigorous advocacy does not absolve Eastman of his professional responsibilities around honesty and upholding the rule of law. While his actions are mitigated by his many years of discipline-free practice, cooperation, and prior good character, his wrongdoing is substantially aggravated by his multiple offenses, lack of candor and indifference. Given the serious and extensive nature of Eastman’s unethical actions, the most severe available professional sanction is warranted to protect the public and preserve the public confidence in the legal system.

More details and commentary here:

The Legal Profession blog

Politico

The Hill

Coutrhouse News Service

NPR

MSNBC

Yet another instance of ChatGPT hallucinating cases -- UPDATED

February 18, 2024

As reported in Courthouse News:  An appeals court in Missouri lambasted a pro se litigant for submitting multiple “fictitious cases” conjured up by the A.I. chat bot ChatGPT, which offered citations “that have potentially real case names — presumably the result of algorithmic serendipity,” that pointed to either non-existent rulings or to irrelevant ones. The litigant must pay $10,000 to opposing counsel for wasting their time with the “frivolous appeal.”  The court's ruling is here.  For other instances of similar conduct in Courthouse News go here and here.

UPDATE 2-20-2024:

Legal Ethics Lawyer has more on the story here.

Judge orders Trump to pay legal fees to opposing side for frivolousness

 A New York judge has ordered former President Donald Trump to pay nearly $400,000 in attorneys fees to the New York Times and three reporters following a frivolous lawsuit over the publication of Trump’s finances.  You can read the order here.  You can read more about the story here.

Lawyers for Kari Lake may face discipline for frivolous cases challenging election results

The Hill recently reported (here) that a committee overseeing attorneys in Arizona has found probable cause that lawyers who represented Kari Lake in election cases should face discipline.  Each one of the lawyers has been already been sanctioned by Arizona judges for cases where Lake challenged the election results after she lost to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2022.  The Attorney Discipline probable cause order now allows the state bar to formally file complaints against the lawyers and pursue further actions. 

Things keep getting worse and worse for Rudy Giuliani: two of his lawyers withdraw (or try to) from his representation in Georgia

Oct 4, 2023

If you have been following the news, or this blog, you know that things are getting pretty desperate for Rudy Giuliani, (see here, and here, for example) and they just got worse in the past few days.  Here is the latest:

Last month, Giuliani's former lawyers in one of his many ongoing cases sued him for nearly $1.4 million for outstanding legal bills.  See here.

Last week, the judge overseeing the RICO case in Georgia in which Giuliani is one of 19 defendants, granted a motion to withdraw filed by one of Giuliani's lawyers.

Yesterday, a second lawyer representing Giuliani in that case filed a motion to withdraw.  See here.  If that motion is granted, the Giuliani will be left without a Georgia based lawyer in the case.  The only lawyer left would be a New York-based lawyer.  I don't know if there is a requirement that a defendant must have local counsel to "sponsor" the out of state lawyer.  If so, it is possible the judge will deny the motion to withdraw.  We'll have to wait and see.

It was also reported this week that Hunter Biden has sued Giuliani.  See here and here.

But Giuliani is fighting back.  He denies that he has a drinking problem.  See here and here.  And he has filed a defamation lawsuit against President Joe Biden for calling him a “Russian pawn” during a presidential debate nearly three years ago.  See here and here.   Given everything else, this strikes me as a desperate move, which I predict will be dismissed promptly because the court will find that the statement is political speech, and rhetorical hyperbole or a statement of opinion.  The more interesting question is whether the court will also find that the claim is frivolous and impose sanctions, which will, again, make things even worse for Giuliani.  Someone should remind him he is already in a big hole, and should stop digging.

UPDATE 10-5-23:  MSNBC has a short comment on the most recent news here.

Judge in Trump's NY fraud case imposes sanctions on his lawyers for repeating frivolous arguments

Last January I reported (here) that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sent a note to lawyers for the Trump family and the Trump Organization stating that "[u]pon thoroughly reviewing the papers in support of some defendants’ pending motions to dismiss, this Court is considering imposing sanctions for frivolous litigation . . ., for setting forth the same legal arguments that this Court previously rejected . . ."  

Since then, the judge found Trump liable and started the trial to determine the appropriate sentencing, but in the process, the judge finally decided that pending matter of the sanctions.  As reported in Above the Law, 

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued a blistering broadside, sanctioning defense counsel and granting the New York Attorney General partial summary judgment in the civil fraud case against Trump and his associates.

. . . . 

“Defendants’ conduct in reiterating these frivolous arguments is egregious. We are way beyond the point of ‘sophisticated counsel should have known better’; we are at the point of intentional and blatant disregard of controlling authority and law of the case,” Justice Engoron wrote furiously. “This Court emphatically rejected these arguments, as did the First Department. Defendants’ repetition of them here is indefensible.”

. . . . 

“Unfortunately, sanctions are the only way to impress upon defendants’ attorneys the consequences of engaging in repetitive, frivolous motions practice after this Court, affirmed by the Appellate Division, expressly warned them against doing so,” Justice Engoron wrote, adding that “It is of no consequence whether the arguments were made at the direction of the clients or sua sponte by the attorneys; counsel are ethically obligated to withdraw any baseless and false claims, if not upon their own review of the record, certainly by the time the Supreme Court advised them of this fact.” . . . 

More on the sanctions for Alan Dershowitz

 A few days ago I reported that a federal judge imposed sanctions on Alan Dershowitz and other lawyers for Kari Lake (former Arizona gubernatorial candidate) for violations of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  See here and here.

Today, Above the Law has a follow up on the story.  

The original order stated in part that 

Plaintiffs either failed to conduct the reasonable factual and legal inquiry required under Rule 11, or they conducted such an inquiry and filed this lawsuit anyway. Either way, no reasonable attorney, “after conducting an objectively reasonable inquiry into the facts and law, would have found the complaint to be well-founded.”

In response to Dershowitz's request to let him off the hook, the judge stated that,

Whether Mr. Dershowitz signed, or intended to sign, those filings as “counsel” or “attorney” or “of counsel,” he signed them. And he effectively conceded that he authorized his signature on these filings without investigating whether they were legally and factually sound. If there was any doubt this brought him within the ambit of Rule 11, the evidence detailed above demonstrates that all parties involved understood the value of his signature. It was an agreed-upon part of his retention. It led opposing counsel and the public to believe he represented Plaintiffs in this matter—a notion furthered by Plaintiff Lake and Mr. Lindell themselves. Mr. Dershowitz did not do anything to dispel this notion until after the Maricopa County Defendants moved for sanctions. Further, he participated in at least one telephonic conference with opposing counsel; . . .

Timetable set for Giuliani disbarment procedure in Washington DC

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting today that Rudolph Giuliani has noted his exception to the disbarment recommendation of a District of Columbia Hearing Committee and that the The Board on Professional Responsibility has now set a briefing schedule, as follows:

Respondent's brief is due on September 28, 2023.

Disciplinary Counsel's response is due on October 16, 2023.

Respondent's reply brief is due on October 23, 2023.

Oral argument is expected to be held in November 2023.

Stay tuned!

Kari Lake’s team ordered to pay more than $122,000 in sanctions for frivolous lawsuit

Following up on my previous post, Alan Dershowitz was not the only lawyer for Kari Lake ordered to pay sanctions for what the court deemed to be a violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  

A couple of days ago, The Hill reported that Kari Lake’s legal team (collectively)  must pay $122,200 in sanctions after a federal court in Arizona found that the former Republican gubernatorial candidate’s lawsuit contesting voting methods was “frivolous.”

The Hill has the story here.

Alan Dershowitz hit with order to pay $12,220 in attorneys fees for his participation in what court deemed to be a frivolous claim

Back in May I reported that the Arizona Supreme Court imposed sanctions on Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawyers for false claims about voter fraud in the 2022 election.  

Now comes news that a federal judge has ordered Alan Dershowitz to pay attorneys fees as sanctions for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  Courthouse News Service has the story here, stating that "[d]espite playing what Dershowitz described as an extremely limited role in Lake’s suit against the Arizona secretary of state and supervisors of both Maricopa and Pima counties, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi ordered him to pay $12,220 in attorney’s fees to the Maricopa County defendants for breaking Rule 11 . . ."

Update on Trump lawyers: Lin Wood retires to avoid disbarment; Hearing committee recommends disbarment for Giuliani

The list of lawyers for the Trump campaign (or for Trump himself) that are under investigation keeps getting longer.  John Eastman, Sydney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Jenna Ellis, among others, have been in the news recently.

So today I am writing to report on two developments this week.

First, you may remember attorney Lin Wood who was sanctioned by a court in Michigan.  (see here, here and here) and who was facing an investigation in Georgia for his involvement in Trump's campaign's attempts to overturn the last presidential election.  (He was also famous for filing a motion in which he claimed it was based on "plenty of perjury," but that is another story).

This week it was reported that, rather than face disbarment, Wood has filed a petition to retire from his practice in Georgia.  As discussed in an article in Above the Law, 

If granted leave to retire, this would end the career of a once-respected attorney whose decision to embrace MAGA craziness dragged him into an ethical quagmire that he had little hope of ever escaping. Rudy Giuliani’s fall from crusading U.S. Attorney to getting his law license yanked and making ends meet on Cameo is rightfully the most dramatic instance of a lawyer throwing away everything for Trump’s adoration, but Wood’s not far off.

And speaking of Rudy Giuliani, the second report of the day is that last week a Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline hearing committee recommended that Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to derail the 2020 presidential election in support of former President Donald Trump.

You can read the report here.  The case will now go before the Board on Professional Responsibility.  

Obviously, this means that this is not the end of the case.  Giuliani has the right to appeal and the case will likely make its way to the courts eventually.

The committee, comprised of D.C. attorneys tasked with reviewing Giuliani’s conduct, deliberated for months after a weeks-long series of hearings that featured testimony from Giuliani and several of his close associates.

For coverage on Lin Wood's retirement you can check out MSNBC, Above the Law, ethinking.com, Courthouse News Service, NPR, The Hill, Lex Blog, The ABA Journal and the New York Times.

For coverage of Giuliani's case, you can check out MSNBC, Jurist, Lex Blog, Politico, Courthouse News Service, Above the Law, The Hill, and the Legal Profession Blog.

Conference Report: Representing clients in multi-district litigation

 Multidistrict litigation, or MDL, now dominates federal dockets, impacting hundreds of thousands  of plaintiffs and routinely grappling with issues of national import. Though its rise is undeniable, its growth has also exposed, and helped to create, a series of deep cleavages regarding how best to adjudicate cases involving mass harms. Proponents tout MDLs’ procedural flexibility, efficiency, and access-to-justice benefits, while detractors criticize this procedural tool for restricting litigant autonomy, promoting unbounded judicial improvisation, and favoring wholesale settlements over substantive and procedural justice. 

In light of these competing narratives, on May 20, 2022, the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School and the Berkeley Law Civil Justice Research Initiative hosted a small group of distinguished scholars, judges, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss the lawyer-client relationship in MDLs. . . . the Convening sought to analyze contemporary MDLs’ plaintiff-related strengths and weaknesses and to identify practical steps that judges, lawyers, or policymakers might take to address various deficiencies. 

You can read the full report here.

Thanks to the TortsProf Blog for the update.

Court imposes sanctions on Kari Lake's lawyer for lies about the elections

The Arizona Supreme Court recently ordered Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawyers to pay $2,000 in sanctions for false claims about voter fraud in the 2022 election.  The Guardian has the story here.  The Hill also has it here.  MSNBC has more here (with video).

Rudy Giuliani files post-hearing brief in the District of Columbia bar discipline case

The Legal Profession Bog is reporting that Rudy Giuliani recently filed a post-hearing brief in the District of Columbia bar discipline case arguing that Disciplinary Counsel failed to establish any ethics violations by clear and convincing evidence or, in the alternative, that if a violation is found, the proper sanction should be just an informal admonition or reprimand.  The office of the Disciplinary Counsel filed a reply.

You can read the information and follow the links to the documents here.

Program on sanctions imposed on Trump and his lawyers

I recently reported that Donald Trump and his lawyers were fined to the tune of almost a million dollars in one of the many frivolous cases he has filed.  See here, here and here.  

The YouTube channel "Legal Eagles" recently dedicated an episode to the case.  You can watch it here. 

DC Disciplinary Counsel rules that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred

The Legal Profession Blog is reporting that the District of Columbia Disciplinary Counsel just filed a 46-page Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in In re Giuliani concluding that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred.  It concludes that 

The Hearing Committee should recommend that the Court of Appeals disbar Mr. Giuliani because the integrity of the legal profession demands it. The Court must send a message that lawyers who misuse their law licenses to undermine our constitutional form of government cannot continue to practice law. One hopes that no other lawyer will ever engage in comparable conduct. Alas, as divided as our country is and as distrustful as many of us are of the basic institutions of our democracy - a distrust that Mr. Giuliani fostered and continues to foster - that may be a forlorn hope. But at the very least, the bar needs to know clearly that the consequences of such a betrayal of one's oath to support the Constitution is the loss of the privilege to practice law.

 

Another article on the disciplinary claims against John Eastman

 A few days ago I reported that the California Bar has filed a disciplinary complaint against John Eastman, a main player in the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  See here and here. 

As you would expect, the case has attracted a bit of attention and here is yet another article on the subject.