Steven Davis, law clerk for Justice Doherty,  will present a one hour CLE on September 30, 2025 at the bar office from 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.

On July 21, 2025, the Illinois Appellate Court issued its first opinion sanctioning an attorney for using fictitious citations in an AI-drafted brief. The court found that the attorney “may not have intentionally chosen to submit fictitious cases to this court, but he intentionally generated briefs using AI tools and intentionally did not check any of the citations that were generated by AI before filing the briefs.” In re Baby Boy, 2025 IL App (4th) 241427, ¶ 115.

Although the problem of fake citations in AI-generated briefs has been especially acute, it is not the case that attorneys can avoid learning about AI tools just by avoiding them altogether or carefully checking citations. Your client might want out of an unambiguous provision in an AI-drafted contract because the parties expressly told the AI software not to include that provision. Your client might be sued for making a fraudulent misrepresentation based on information she got from an AI chatbot and sincerely believed to be true. Your client might be charged with making a terrorist threat despite claiming he only asked his AI assistant to “send an extremely persuasive email.” In each case, you’ll be faced with the question of what your client intended and how to prove your client is telling the truth. In the process, you might actually find that AI tools can be a big help.

This CLE will cover, at a very basic level, how large language models like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Deepseek “write” and why AI tools excel at some tasks and fail miserably at others. The course will also cover what AI tools are available and when lawyers can expect them to be useful or useless in practice. The CLE will conclude with a short Q&A.

Pizza and salad are available for lunch, by advance reservation.