On Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, at 12:30 pm at Duke Law School, Paul W. Grimm, director of the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School, will moderate a conversation with Duke Law Professor Veronica Root Martinez, a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Duke Law Senior Lecturing Fellow Amy Richardson, an expert of legal ethics, and N.C. Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Martin (Marty) McGee, a student in Duke Law’s Master of Judicial Studies program, about the ethical use of generative AI (GenAI) in the legal profession.
In July, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility released its first formal opinion covering the growing use of GenAI in the practice of law. The panel’s conversation will include discussion of this opinion and the broader legal context and ethical questions surrounding the use of GenAI in the legal profession. Judge McGee will provide a judge’s perspective, as he implemented a standing order to guide the ethical use of generative Al in Superior Court in Cabarrus County.
Judge McGee’s standing order was cited in a Bloomberg Law article, Litigators Must Do Court-by-Court Homework as AI Rules Flourish (Nov. 4, 2024), by Jessiah Hulle, a litigation associate at Gentry Locke, about the “patchwork” approach to standing orders on the use of AI.
“To McGee, addressing the authenticity of evidence in the age of deepfakes is a bigger challenge than addressing fake citations,” the Hulle writes. “While it’s clear that existing civil procedure and ethics rules prohibit citing unverified precedent, it’s less clear if evidence rules adequately address generative AI.”
Sponsored by the Bolch Judicial Institute. For more information about the event, please contact Lora Beth Farmer (lora.farmer@law.duke.edu).
Links to Related Resources
- Formal Opinion 512 (American Bar Association)
- Judge Martin B. McGee’s Standing Order on AI (NC Courts)
- Litigators Must Do Court-by-Court Homework as AI Rules Flourish (Bloomberg Law Article)