Judge sets ground rules for AI, Texas chooses interim attorney general, ex-JPMorgan executive wrote Epstein 'should not be a client' and more ?

?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here are today's top legal stories:

?? US judge orders lawyers to sign AI pledge, warning 'they make stuff up'

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas issued an order that requires lawyers in cases before him to certify that they did not use artificial intelligence to draft their filings without a human checking their accuracy.

Starr said that he created the requirement to warn lawyers that AI tools can create fake cases and that he may sanction them if they rely on AI-generated information without verifying it themselves.

"We're at least putting lawyers on notice, who might not otherwise be on notice, that they can't just trust those databases. They've got to actually verify it themselves through a traditional database," Starr said.

Starr issued the requirement days after another federal judge in Manhattan threatened a lawyer with sanctions over a court brief that?included citations to bogus cases ?generated by ChatGPT.

In March, when Open AI rolled out the latest version of ChatGPT, a particular statistic of artificial intelligence outperforming nine out of 10 human test-takers put the legal profession on its heels. But now, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate says that GPT-4’s bar exam performance that put it in the 90th percentile of test-takers has likely been overstated. The chatbot actually lands in the neighborhood of the 68th percentile of real test-takers —a conclusion the original researchers reject.

Read more about AI in the legal industry:

• Legal tech exec says new venture makes AI safer for law firms
• Legal AI race draws more investors as law firms line up

??? Texas governor names interim attorney general to replace impeached Paxton

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday appointed John Scott as interim attorney general to fill in for Ken Paxton, who was impeached last week on allegations of corruption and other irregularities.

Scott, an attorney and former Texas secretary of state under Abbott, also served as the Texas deputy attorney general for civil litigation from 2012 to 2015, during Abbott's own final term as attorney general.

The Texas Senate will try Paxton on the 20 articles of impeachment lodged against him. If two-thirds of the 31 senators find him guilty, he will be removed from office. If not, he will be reinstated. The Senate has said Paxton's trial will begin no later than Aug. 28 .?

Paxton's impeachment was triggered by his office's request that the House fund a $3.3 million lawsuit settlement he reached with four whistleblowers from his office.

?? Ex-JPMorgan executive wrote Epstein 'should not be a client' in 2011 email -deposition

Former general counsel of JP Morgan Chase, Stephen Cutler, wrote in a 2011 email to other executives that late financier and sex offender Jeffrey?Epstein is "not a person we should do business with, period," according to a transcript of a deposition of Chief Executive Jamie Dimon seen by Reuters.

Dimon said in the deposition he was not aware of the email at the time but "I know it today."

Dimon also said that if the bank had known in the past what is known today about Epstein that he would have been terminated as a client. Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013, remaining so after pleading guilty in 2008 to a Florida state prostitution charge.

?? Dechert lawyers win sanctions appeal in 3M earplug case

The 11th Circuit overturned sanctions against two Dechert partners, Kimberly Branscome and Jay Bhimani, after a trial court judge accused them of flouting a court order during a civil trial over 3M’s allegedly defective combat earplugs.

The court found that the judge did not give the partners adequate notice before imposing the sanction and failed to consider whether the lawyers had acted in bad faith. It also ordered the judge to reassess the penalty after giving Branscome and Bhimani an opportunity to contest it.

U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers of the Northern District of Florida?issued sanctions ?totaling $12,000 against the two lawyers after finding they willfully violated her instruction restricting the use of contested evidence during 3M’s closing argument in a 2021 bellwether trial.

?? That's all for today! Thank you for reading?The Legal File.

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