Wake Up Call: Oregon Lawyers Tank Client’s Case With AI Filings

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• A federal judge in Oregon dismissed a vineyard ownership lawsuit after discovering that the plaintiff’s lawyers submitted AI-assisted filings filled with citations to non-existent cases, with one attorney attempting to cover up the errors once they were exposed. US Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke not only threw out the case with prejudice, but also imposed $110,000 in fines and legal fees on the attorneys. (The Oregonian)
• Cleary Gottlieb’s subsidiary ClearyX is launching AI-powered software designed to help corporate clients handle routine legal tasks on their own, potentially reducing reliance on outside law firms. ClearyX developed products such as CX+Transact for managing deal reviews and CX+Insights for analyzing contract data, targeting in-house legal teams that find existing AI tools too complex or expensive. (Business Insider)
• The Louisiana Supreme Court permanently disbarred New Orleans attorney Lionel “Lon” Burns Jr. after finding he helped forge documents to secure a fraudulent divorce judgment and refused to correct it. The court cited Burns’ long history of ethical violations in the decision, including prior suspensions and misconduct spanning decades, concluding he showed no willingness to reform. (NOLA.com)
  

Laterals, Moves, In-House

• Joshua Feltman will join Kirkland & Ellis as a liability management partner. He joins from Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.
• Sue Nieto joined White & Case as a partner in its global mergers and acquisitions practice in Washington. She joins from Reed Smith.
• Angus Ford and Martha Williams joined Haynes Boone as partner in its real estate practice in London. They join from Brown Rudnick.
• Leif Dautch joined Morrison Foerster as a partner in its investigations and white collar defense group in San Francisco. He joins from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
• Julia Tarver Wood joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as a partner in its antitrust and competition practice in Washington.