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Good morning. A Texas federal judge just opened up about a new rule he’s imposing that restricts lawyers’ use of AI to draft filings. Plus, AI performance on bar exams draws differing views, and a tech executive says a new venture will make artificial intelligence safer for law firms. On the docket, Dechert defeated a sanctions order; Sam Bankman-Fried is focused on Fenwick; and American Airlines says it will press its JetBlue alliance in an appeal after the DOJ’s trial win.
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A federal judge in Texas appears to be the first in the country to crack down on the use of ChatGPT and other AI programs, requiring lawyers who have cases before him to certify they did not use AI on their briefs without a human checking their accuracy, reports Jacqueline Thomsen.
“These platforms in their current states are prone to hallucinations and bias,” U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas told lawyers. Starr did so after a New York lawyer came under criticism for turning in a brief drafted by ChatGPT that was filled with citations to nonexistent cases.
In an interview with Reuters, Starr said he created the requirement to warn lawyers that AI tools can create fake cases and that he may sanction them if they rely on AI-generated information without verifying it themselves. “We’re at least putting lawyers on notice, who might not otherwise be on notice, that they can’t just trust those databases. They’ve got to actually verify it themselves through a traditional database,” Starr said.
Read more about AI in the legal industry:
> Stellar or so-so? ChatGPT bar exam performance sparks differing opinions
> Legal tech exec says new venture makes AI safer for law firms
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- An 11th Circuit panel overturned sanctions against Dechert partners Kimberly Branscome and Jay Bhimani, finding a trial court judge did not give them adequate notice and failed to consider whether the lawyers had acted in bad faith. The trial judge entered the sanctions after saying the partners flouted a court order during a civil trial over 3M Co’s allegedly defective combat earplugs. (Reuters)
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Fort Worth attorney John Scott as interim attorney general to fill in for Ken Paxton, who was impeached last week on allegations of corruption and other irregularities. Scott is a former Texas secretary of state under Abbott. (Reuters)
- Conservative lawyer Sidney Powell should be sanctioned for her lawsuit alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election, lawyers for Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers told the 7th Circuit. Evers is looking to revive his state’s bid to recoup $106,000 in attorney fees from Powell and a team of other lawyers who alleged massive election fraud. A trial judge declined to sanction Powell. (Reuters)
- Court documents show Sam Bankman-Fried is preparing to argue that he is innocent in a U.S. fraud case over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency empire because he relied on the advice of Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West. Bankman-Fried asked a judge to order prosecutors to turn over documents related to Fenwick’s legal advice on matters central to the government’s case, including allegedly false information provided to a bank and FTX’s use of disappearing messaging services. (Reuters)
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That’s the OSHA fine an 11th Circuit panel threw out against Chewy, after ruling that the pet supply retailer did not violate federal workplace safety law by failing to prevent a forklift accident that killed a warehouse worker. OSHA fined Chewy $13,260 in 2019 after an employee at an Ocala, Florida, warehouse drove a forklift underneath a shelving unit and was crushed. Another worker had been injured in a similar incident a few months earlier. Chewy’s lawyers at Littler said Chewy had provided required training.
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Indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried seems to be gearing up to blame the lawyers who helped him establish the crypto exchange for providing bad advice on key issues in the government’s fraud, conspiracy and bribery case against him. That’s the subtext, writes Alison Frankel, of a motion filed on Tuesday by Bankman-Fried’s lawyers at Cohen & Gresser. They’re asking for access to documents from Fenwick & West, the Silicon Valley law firm that represented FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda from the companies’ inception through their collapse in November 2022. The new motion claims that Fenwick & West’s advice undermines prosecution theories in at least four matters at the heart of the Manhattan federal court indictment against the onetime crypto billionaire.
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“It seems the court will seize opportunities to weaken regulatory protections and agency power even if forced to do so in legally questionable ways.“
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- Oath Keepers members Roberto Minuta and Edward Vallejo, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, will face sentencing in D.C. federal court before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, our colleague Sarah N. Lynch reports. Last week, Mehta sentenced the far-right militant group’s founder Stewart Rhodes to 18 years in prison, the longest Jan. 6 sentence yet. Other Oath Keeper members also have been sentenced to prison. Minuta, Vallejo, Rhodes and other members pleaded not guilty and contested the government’s claims.
- U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Corley in San Francisco will hear arguments from a group of video gamer plaintiffs whose lawyers want to depose Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. The plaintiffs want to question Kotick as part of their antitrust lawsuit seeking to stop Microsoft’s $69 billion plan to purchase Activision. Skadden’s Caroline Van Ness and Steven Sunshine are on the team for Activision. Corley on May 19 declined the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to block the proposed deal. Microsoft’s lawyers have defended the tie-up as beneficial to consumers
- In D.C. federal court, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes will hold a status conference in Walgreens’ bid to undo what it has called a “staggering” $642 million arbitration award for insurer Humana. Lawyers for Walgreens at Reed Smith, including Frederick Robinson and Selina Coleman, contend the award in a drug-pricing dispute was the result of a “miscarriage of justice.” Humana’s legal team from Crowell, including Keith Harrison, Justin Kingsolver and Aryeh Portnoy, are defending the award. They contend Walgreens had submitted “millions of falsely-inflated” prescription drug prices for more than a decade, resulting in significant overcharges
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- JPMorgan former general counsel Stephen Cutler wrote in a 2011 email that the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should not be a client of the bank, according to a transcript of a deposition of CEO Jamie Dimon. In the deposition, Dimon said he was not aware of the email at the time but “I know it today.” The bank faces lawsuits seeking damages by women who claim that Epstein sexually abused them, and by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the late financier had a home. (Reuters)
- Amazon.com and its doorbell camera subsidiary Ring reached separate multi-million dollar settlements with the FTC regarding invasion of privacy claims. Amazon agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it violated children’s privacy rights with its Alexa voice assistant, and Ring will pay $5.8 million to settle claims it allowed broad access to customers’ video recordings. (Reuters)
- The DOJ sued West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s coal empire over allegations it failed to pay around $7.6 million in environmental fines from mining violations. The civil action was filed in Roanoke, Virginia, federal court against the governor’s son and 13 coal companies he owns or operates. Justice declined to comment on the lawsuit. But he said his son and the companies “will always fulfill obligations, every one.” (Reuters)
- A unit of utility firm PG&E Corp will pay $50 million to settle certain charges related to the deadly Zogg wildfires of 2020. The company said it had reached an agreement with the Shasta County, California, district attorney to dismiss criminal charges related to the fire, which consumed more than 56,000 acres and killed four people. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso in Chicago ruled that relatives of those killed in a 2019 Boeing 737 MAX Ethiopian Airlines crash may seek compensation for pain and suffering of passengers before the plane hit the ground. “There is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable inference that these passengers experienced pre-impact fright and terror,” Alonso wrote, rejecting Boeing’s motion. (Reuters)
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- Covington brought on Jayni Hein to co-chair the firm’s carbon management and climate mitigation group. Hein was previously senior director for clean energy and infrastructure in the Biden White House, serving on the Council on Environmental Quality. (Reuters)
- Mintz Levin hired IP partner Reza Dokhanchy in San Diego from Kirkland. (Reuters)
- Baker Botts added partner Clay Brett to the firm’s corporate department. Brett, based in Houston, was previously at Millennial Energy Partners. (Reuters)
- Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was named founding director of U.C. Berkeley Law’s new Criminal Law and Justice Center. San Francisco residents last year voted to recall Boudin, a progressive, in a nationally watched election viewed as a referendum on violent crime. (Berkeley Law)
- Thompson Coburn added Carlos Ortiz as a Chicago-based partner in the employment and immigration practices. Ortiz was previously at Polsinelli. (Thompson Coburn)
- BakerHostetler brought on litigation partner David Fertig in New York. He arrives from Morrison & Foerster. (BakerHostetler)
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