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Technology,
Litigation & Arbitration,
Civil Litigation

May 14, 2025

Law firms sanctioned for using AI to cite fake cases in federal lawsuit

While the attorneys involved were not sanctioned individually, their firms were ordered to pay over $31,000 in legal costs to the defense, and their briefs were struck from the record.

A special master in a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles has sanctioned two prominent law firms, K&L Gates LLP and Ellis George LLP, because attorneys used generative AI in an outline that included case citations with false quotes and, in at least one case, didn't exist at all.

Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Wilner declined to impose sanctions on any of the individual attorneys involved because they apologized and took responsibility for the mistakes.

But he ...

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