Sullivan & Cromwell apologizes for AI hallucinations in court filing
Sullivan & Cromwell, one of Wall Street's most prominent law firms, told a New York federal judge that a major court filing contained errors generated by artificial intelligence. The firm submitted the flawed document in a case involving liquidators pursuing claims against Prince Group, a company whose owner faces US criminal charges including wire fraud and money laundering.
Andrew Dietderich, co-head of the firm's global restructuring group, apologized in a letter to Judge Martin Glenn on Saturday. The filing made on April 9 included inaccurate case citations and misquoted the US bankruptcy code in multiple places.
Boies Schiller Flexner, another firm working on the case, discovered the errors and flagged them to Sullivan & Cromwell. Dietderich called the opposing counsel to thank them for catching the mistakes.
What went wrong
Sullivan & Cromwell said it maintains policies and training requirements for using AI tools in legal work. The firm stated that those policies were not followed in this instance and that a secondary review process also failed to catch the inaccurate citations.
The letter did not identify which AI tool produced the errors, which lawyers prepared the document, or whether any internal action followed the mistakes.
Sullivan & Cromwell filed a corrected version with the court. Lawyers are not prohibited from using AI but must ensure the accuracy of all court submissions under ethics rules.
The underlying case
Sullivan & Cromwell represented liquidators appointed by British Virgin Islands authorities in actions against Prince Group, owned by Chinese businessman Chen Zhi. US prosecutors charged Chen with directing forced-labor scam operations across Cambodia that allegedly stole billions from US victims.
Chen was arrested in Cambodia earlier this year and extradited to China. US authorities have also filed to seize nearly $9 billion in bitcoin they say represents proceeds from Prince Group's criminal activity. Prince Group has denied the allegations.
For legal professionals managing AI tools in document preparation, AI for Legal offers guidance on risk management. Those in paralegal roles may find AI Learning Path for Paralegals relevant for understanding where errors can occur in AI-assisted legal research and document review.
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