The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned that lawyers supervising junior staff may be breaching regulatory requirements and professional duties when false AI-generated material is presented to the courts. The legal regulator, which oversees over 200,000 solicitors in England and Wales, issued a warning notice on Monday.
Under the SRA's code of conduct, solicitors who supervise or manage others providing legal services are accountable for the work carried out through them. The code also specifies that solicitors using AI are responsible for all outputs it creates.
The Law Society of England and Wales vice president, Brett Dixon, stated that the notice provides clarity on how AI use interacts with legal services, particularly concerning courts and client confidentiality. This warning follows criticisms of City law firms for using AI-generated material without proper verification.
In May, Pinsent Masons, a London-headquartered law firm, was criticised by a High Court judge after a junior solicitor reportedly sent AI-generated letters containing false legal information to the court.