Watchdog takes aim at lawyers blaming juniors for AI blunders
The legal watchdog has called out lawyers responsible for supervising junior staff when false AI-generated citations are put forward to the courts, as senior lawyers “remain accountable” for juniors.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, the legal regulator for over 200,000 English and Welsh solicitors, said in a warning notice issued on Monday that those in charge of supervising junior colleagues may also be breaching regulatory requirements and professional duties when false AI-generated material is presented to the court.
The SRA said that, under its code of conduct, solicitors who “supervise or manage others providing legal services remain accountable for the work carried out through them”. The code also states that solicitors who use AI in their work are responsible for all outputs it creates, “regardless of how that work has been prepared.”
“As a regulated profession, solicitors have the responsibility to act in the best interests of their client, which includes using AI and other technologies responsibly. The warning notice is a reminder of how this should be applied in practice,” Law Society of England and Wales vice president, Brett Dixon, said.
Dixon said the notice provides “clarity”, especially “around how the use of AI interacts with the provision of legal services by solicitors, particularly in relation to the courts and the protection of client confidentiality.”
City firms criticised for blaming juniors
This comes after City law firms are increasingly being penalised for using AI-generated material without double-checking it for mistakes.
Pinsent Masons, a well-known London-headquartered law firm, was criticised by a High Court judge in May after a junior solicitor sent AI-generated letters containing false legal information to the court.
Edward Levey KC, a barrister specialising in commercial and regulatory law, told Morning Wire the Pinsent Masons case “was a salutary reminder as to the dangers not only of over-reliance on AI, but of senior lawyers relying too heavily on junior colleagues.”
The SRA declined to comment.