EDITED BY:
Professor Michael H. Hoeflich, PhD, Editor-in-Chief
Carrie E. Parker, Legal Editor
Luzianne Jones, Design & Publishing Editor
PUBLISHED BY: Joseph, Hollander & Craft LLC
PUBLICATION DATE: September 30, 2026
READ & DOWNLOAD FULL-TEXT PDF OF LEMR Vol. 7, No. 9
FEATURE ARTICLE: The Right to Be Wrong
A great deal of attention has been focused on generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and the dangers of the documents produced being error prone. The vast majority of this attention has been focused on one kind of mistake: so-called hallucinations, situations where AI cites a non-existent case in its work product. Judges have unanimously condemned the use of documents containing hallucinations, and lawyers are now attempting to find ways to prevent this. But AI problems in document production are not limited to hallucinations. AI also makes substantive mistakes, including mistakes in interpretation, vocabulary, and intent.
In a recent letter from Sullivan & Cromwell apologizing for submitting documents with multiple hallucinations, the firm also acknowledged the existence of non-hallucinatory mistakes (although the letter does specify what these were). Still, the letter focused almost entirely on hallucinations and the process used to eliminate them. Should lawyers focus on hallucinations primarily? Or should the profession recognize that the problem of mistakes in documents and other work product may go beyond hallucinations?
. . .
OPINION: Law School Accreditation
The current administration in Washington is attempting to change the accreditation process for law schools. This has caused a tidal wave of protest by law school administrators and faculty as well as by the American Bar Association, which is currently the primary law school accreditor. Although many reasons for these changes have been proposed, one focus has been accreditation rules are viewed by the administration as unacceptably liberal, such as the rules on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Further, the current administration has had rocky relations with the ABA on such matters a judicial selection. There is an old cliché that seems applicable: “don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.” Accreditation is about far more than DEI. It is about assured consistency in legal education, maintenance of educational standards, and lawyer mobility.
The ABA is the primary accreditation body that works with the American Association of Law Schools (an organization of law deans and law faculty) and state accreditation bodies. The most practical aspect of the current system is that law students who attend ABA/AALS accredited law schools may take an examination to be admitted in any state bar anywhere in the United States. By contrast, law students who attend a law school without ABA/AALS accreditation but that has state accreditation may take the bar exam only in the state in which the school is accredited.
The accreditation process does more than increase lawyer mobility, though. It also works to assure that law schools meet minimum standards set by the ABA (and generally the AALS). When the accreditation machinery was first adopted, there was an immense variety of law schools—ranging from work-study law schools run by the YMCA, to practitioner-run night and weekend schools, to traditional Harvard or Columbia model schools. The quality of instruction, facilities, and graduation requirements were inconsistent and variable. Law school applicants did not have the guarantee of a minimum instructional level. Accreditation rules were aimed at improving law school instruction and assuring that every law student would receive an acceptable, minimum level of legal education to protect the public from incompetent lawyers.
The imposition of consistency and minimum standards through the accreditation process also make law firm, corporate, and judicial hiring more efficient and reliable. Law firms can hire students from any accredited law school without doing deep research into a law school’s curriculum, practical training, and other factors since they knew that every accredited law school has minimum standards for graduation.
The value of a national accreditation system run by lawyers and judges far exceeds the three benefits listed above, but these should be enough to suggest that doing away with the present system of ABA/AALS accreditation is ill-considered. Regardless of how one views issues like DEI, the answer is not to dismantle the whole system. Similarly, unhappiness with other ABA activities should not motivate disruption of legal education.
ETHICS & MALPRACTICE RESEARCH TIP: New Articles on Legal Malpractice & Ethics
1.) Sierra Kayland Bernard, Note, From Courtroom to Content: Attorneys as Social Media Influencers, 50 J. Legal Prof. 73 (2025).
Increasingly, social media has become a source of significant celebrity –and income—for many lawyers.
2.) Elizabeth R. Carter, Joint Representation of Spouses and Romantic Partners: Ethical Considerations for Estate Planners, 79 Ark. L. Rev. 1 (2026).
Representation of couples is a perennial problem for lawyers and requires careful navigation of ethics rules.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST: Dos Passos on Lawyers
It is a principle of universal jurisprudence, that lawyers in their dealings with their clients, and with the court, must observe the strictest rules of honor, fidelity, respect, and obedience. They are held, therefore, to a standard of morals, above and not below the average; a proof that their morale at some time, and in some way, was fixed at a level with their presumed attainments, and corresponding to their opportunities. Popularly, this is always lost sight of, when a member of the profession incurs censure.
— John Dos Passos, The American Lawyer: As He Was, As He Is, As He Can Be (1907)
READ & DOWNLOAD FULL-TEXT PDF OF LEMR Vol. 7, No. 9
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