AI × Law

A Munich court asserted jurisdiction over U.S. music generator Suno and applied U.S. copyright law to evaluate actions taken in the United States, including a 31-page analysis of the U.S. fair use defense. The ruling establishes a major precedent for transnational copyright litigation against cross-border AI models.

Federal and state courts are issuing conflicting rulings on whether AI-generated litigation materials and chat logs are protected by attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine. Judges are also increasingly restricting the use of public AI tools during discovery due to confidentiality and data privacy risks.

A lawyer has filed a lawsuit against a judge for allegedly using artificial intelligence to draft or issue rulings. The suit argues that relying on AI for judicial decisions represents an improper delegation of the court's official duties.

A wave of recent court decisions demonstrates how courts are treating generative AI use regarding attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine. Judges are generally finding that work-product protection may apply to AI-assisted materials prepared by pro se litigants or at counsel's direction, but unrepresented or unauthorized third-party inputs—like those using consumer AI tools without counsel—waive protections.

Courts and commissions across New South Wales and Australian federal jurisdictions have outlined strict requirements for using generative AI in legal proceedings. Key rules include outright bans on using AI to write or rephrase evidentiary documents like affidavits in NSW courts, mandated accuracy certifications for citations, and mandatory disclosure requirements when AI is used.

Legal technology and services provider Elevate has acquired Lupl, an open-access matter management platform originally developed with input from law firms and legal departments. The deal continues a multi-year acquisition streak for Elevate as it expands its technology suite.

E-discovery platform Everlaw announced new integrations with Google Gemini Enterprise for Legal, Microsoft Copilot, Harvey, and Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal. Utilizing protocols like MCP, Everlaw aims to act as an 'evidence layer' that allows third-party AI platforms to securely query and analyze massive litigation records.

Newcode.ai secured Series A funding to expand its configurable legal AI platform, bringing its total funding to $20 million. Backed by investors including Relativity and The LegalTech Fund, the startup focuses on 'firm-owned intelligence' that allows law firms to build customizable AI workflows over their proprietary data.

According to Norton Rose Fulbright's midyear survey, nearly half of US in-house counsel report heightened exposure to AI-related litigation at both federal and state levels. Additionally, 41% of respondents identified AI-enabled products and deployments as likely triggers for class action lawsuits.

Lawyers' professional liability insurers report that generative AI has not yet caused a surge in legal malpractice claims, though AI is increasingly appearing in fact patterns related to unverified citations. Insurers are currently holding off on premium hikes or policy exclusions, instead advising law firms to establish strict governance and independent verification procedures.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has expanded its AI capabilities by deploying both Harvey and Microsoft Copilot across the firm. The firm aims for a 90% adoption rate to streamline research, drafting, and document analysis while establishing a secure governance framework using Microsoft's AI Frontier Suite.

Litera has launched Firm AI Search within its Lito legal AI agent, allowing lawyers to query internal firm, matter, and client data through natural language. The company also updated its GrowthTech suite, incorporating email metadata analysis and financial tracking to help law firms evaluate business development opportunities.

New York-based legal tech startup Discernis has raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Newfund Capital, with participation from Triple Impact Capital, Remarkable Ventures, and C2 Ventures. Founded in 2024, the company uses AI to review full document collections and uncover connections across records in large-scale litigation and investigations.

KLDiscovery announced the general availability of Nebula AI Case Explorer, an eDiscovery tool that uses agentic AI to help legal teams analyze data early in a matter. The system features plain-language querying with traceable reasoning, automatically identifies key entities and events, and integrates with Nebula and Relativity platforms.

Reed Smith's integrated legal services unit has launched a strategic collaboration with legal tech firm Lineal to advance AI-enabled corporate and regulatory investigations. The initiative aims to move beyond traditional e-discovery by using AI data analytics to analyze complex enterprise data ecosystems faster and earlier in the investigative process.

Federal district courts are divided over whether sharing case information with AI models waives legal protections. While an Eastern District of Michigan court held in Warner v. Gilbarco that AI tools are not people and preserve work-product protections, an SDNY judge ruled in US v. Heppner that AI exchanges forfeit both attorney-client privilege and work-product protection due to third-party data retention policies.

wikiHow filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in federal court, alleging the company unauthorizedly copied over 11,000 of its instructional articles to train models and power RAG systems. The complaint asserts claims for direct and vicarious copyright infringement and the removal of copyright management information under the DMCA.

A Connecticut state judge sanctioned a pro se litigant for embedding hidden, white-on-white text in court filings designed to trick AI systems into favoring his position. Judge Walter Spader Jr. revoked the litigant's electronic filing privileges, marking a rare judicial ruling addressing prompt injection as a threat to legal proceedings.

Perplexity has asked a New York federal judge to narrow a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by CNN over the AI company's use of network stories, videos, and images. Perplexity argued that it cannot be held liable for automated responses generated by its 'answer engine' in response to user prompts.

Estates of deceased patients filed a class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group alleging the insurer improperly used AI tools to deny post-acute care coverage under Medicare Advantage plans. The lawsuit claims UnitedHealth relied on AI algorithms to override clinical decisions made by healthcare providers, constituting breach of contract and insurance bad faith.