Topics we will cover include:

• An overview by presenter, Professor Heidi K. Brown, of five categories of cases
• Two concurring opinions issued by Judge Kevin Newsom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, discussing the potentially innovative use of GenAI tools to evaluate the “ordinary meaning” of key terminology
• Cases in which attorneys have improperly submitted court filings containing law “hallucinated” by GenAI tools, courts’ responses (including noting our collective ethical duty to educate ourselves about evolving technology), and the range of admonitions and penalties
• Cases in which pro se litigants have improperly submitted court filings containing law “hallucinated” by GenAI tools—and the range of courts’ responses, admonitions, and penalties
• Cases in which attorneys have attempted to use GenAI tools to support factual arguments regarding fee recovery
• One expert witness’s attempt to use GenAI to support damages calculations
• Lessons learned from the foregoing case law; a glimpse into how jurisdictions’ ethics opinions and judges’ standing rules can help us guard against some of the foregoing pitfalls; and suggestions for workflow protocols we might incorporate into daily lawyering practice

Accompanying Materials: Breaking Bad Briefs: A Snapshot of Lawyers, Litigants, and Experts’ Use (and Misuse) of GenAI in Court Filings | by Heidi K. Brown | Nov, 2024 | Medium

Speaker: Heidi K. Brown

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Professor Heidi K. Brown is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Associate Dean for Upper Level Writing at New York Law School, and a former litigator in the construction industry. Heidi is the author of three books about well-being for law students and lawyers, including The Introverted Lawyer, Untangling Fear in Lawyering, and The Flourishing Lawyer: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Performance and Well-Being. In 2021, Heidi earned a master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the 2023 Recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Well-Being in Legal Education from the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education. Building on a foundation of thirty years of experience in legal practice and academia, Heidi champions the importance of openly discussing stressors, anxieties, and fears in lawyering, and helping quiet and anxious law students and lawyers tap into individual strengths to become profoundly effective advocates—in their authentic voices. Since 2023, Heidi has designed courses, workshops, webinars, and CLEs on GenAI literacy, “prompt engineering,” and the ethical and responsible incorporation of GenAI tools into the legal research and writing workflow.