US judge says senior lawyers must pay for mistakes by subordinates using AI tools

Header: U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Kang in San Francisco

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) – A federal judge has sanctioned the manager of a California law firm over a junior attorney’s artificial intelligence-assisted court brief that contained a false case citation, saying the responsibility for such errors extends to supervising lawyers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Kang in San Francisco in an order on Tuesday, opens new tab said ?the attorney, Lenden Webb, should have exercised greater oversight of a lawyer in his small law office who said she used AI ?to help craft the brief.

“Managers in law firms have an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure all lawyers in the firm make ethical representations to the court,” the judge said.

Webb, managing partner of Southern California-based Webb Law Group, was admonished in the order, fined $1,001 and required to complete training on supervising attorneys and the ethical use of AI.

In a statement on Wednesday, ?Webb said “our firm has doubled down to continue to improve, and I believe we are at the forefront of creating value for our clients, ?which isn’t without the hiccups of issues such as a hallucinated citation.”

Courts across the country are contending with lawyers’ increasing ?use of AI programs for legal research and document drafting, which has led to sanctions and rebukes against attorneys who rely on the technology without fully vetting the ?results.

Kang’s ruling addressed a more novel issue: the culpability of supervising attorneys when lawyers working under them use AI programs carelessly.

“At minimum, a supervising lawyer should read ?and understand the content of all pleadings and check citations to ensure their accuracy,” the judge wrote.