Sullivan & Cromwell court filing contained AI-generated legal errors
Sullivan & Cromwell apologized to a federal bankruptcy judge after filing a motion on 9 April containing around three dozen errors generated by artificial intelligence, including fabricated case citations and misquoted legal authorities. The errors were discovered by opposing counsel, and the firm acknowledged that its AI policies were not followed and its secondary review process failed to catch the mistakes.
What happened
Sullivan & Cromwell filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on 9 April containing errors generated by artificial intelligence, including inaccurate citations and misquoted passages from the U.S. bankruptcy code.
The errors, totaling around three dozen, were discovered by lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner. Andrew Dietderich, co-head of S&C's global restructuring group, apologized to Judge Martin Glenn in a letter on 18 April and said the firm's AI policies were not followed and its secondary review process failed to catch the errors.
Reported impact
The filing errors affected a case involving S&C's representation of liquidators in actions against Prince Group, owned by Chen Zhi, who was charged by US prosecutors with wire fraud and money laundering.
Index analysis
Sullivan & Cromwell states it maintains comprehensive policies and training requirements governing AI tool use in legal work, but acknowledged those policies were not followed in preparing this motion and did not prevent the hallucinated citations from reaching the court.
The firm later filed a corrected version to the court. The letter did not disclose which AI program was used or which lawyers prepared the document.
Governance controls
The American Bar Association has instructed lawyers to exercise caution when using AI models. Lawyers are ethically bound to ensure the accuracy of court submissions.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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