Case 2:21-cv-01701-AMM Document 203 Filed 06/02/25 Page 1 of 7 FILED
2025 Jun-02 PM 02:06
U.S. DISTRICT COURT
N.D. OF ALABAMA
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA
SOUTHERN DIVISION
FRANKIE JOHNSON, )
)
Plaintiff, )
v. ) CASE NO. 2:21-CV-01701-AMM
)
JEFFERSON DUNN, et al., )
)
Defendants.
)
)
BUTLER SNOW LLP’S SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSE TO COURT’S
ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE
Butler Snow LLP submits this supplemental response to the Court’s Order to
Show Cause (Doc. 187) to provide the Court with an update regarding its
investigation into the use of generative AI by counsel of record in this case. See Doc.
199.
Since the Court’s Show Cause hearing on May 21, 2025, Butler Snow has
undertaken an extensive review of all filings in all Alabama federal courts and the
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on or after April 1, 2023, 1 where counsel of record
from this case, and also Lynette Potter, appeared on any filing. See Ex. 1, Declaration
of Benjamin M. Watson. In each docket, Butler Snow’s team pulled all filings and
reviewed all citations to determine if there were any apparent AI-generated
1
April 1, 2023, is the date counsel of record here joined Butler Snow.
1
Case 2:21-cv-01701-AMM Document 203 Filed 06/02/25 Page 2 of 7
“hallucinations,” i.e., a false citation where a) the cited source does not exist, or b)
the legal proposition appeared to have been invented by artificial intelligence (as
distinguished from likely human error). Id. at ¶ 3. In total, the Butler Snow team
reviewed 52 Alabama federal court dockets; of those, 40 dockets contained
substantive citations for review. See id. Butler Snow attorneys examined every
citation in those 40 dockets and did not find any additional apparent AI-generated
“hallucinations.” See id.
In addition to its review, Butler Snow also engaged an outside law firm,
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (“Morgan Lewis”), to independently conduct its
own review 2 using its own independent protocols. Id. at ¶ 4. Morgan Lewis used a
team including 28 attorneys to verify all citations in those same 40 dockets in
Alabama federal courts and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. See Ex. 2,
Declaration of Scott A. Milner, ¶¶ 13–18. In all, Morgan Lewis reviewed more than
2,400 separate legal citations across 330 filings. See id. at ¶ 35. Morgan Lewis did
not find any instance where a legal citation was fabricated or where the citations
were comparable to what prompted the Show Cause Orders, i.e., a citation to a
2
Butler Snow has engaged Morgan Lewis at its own cost and expense. The State of
Alabama will incur no expense or charge of any kind generated or incurred by the firm in
connection with the erroneous filings, the proceedings related to those filings, or the remedial
actions taken by the firm to respond to this matter, including the fees paid to Morgan Lewis.
2
Case 2:21-cv-01701-AMM Document 203 Filed 06/02/25 Page 3 of 7
source that was legitimate but did not stand for the proposition for which it was cited.
See id. at ¶ 36. No additional apparent AI-generated “hallucination” was uncovered.
Counsel of record in this case submit with this filing declarations stating that
they have never used any publicly accessible, generative artificial intelligence
chatbot, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to generate legal or other authority citations
for submission to any court (except, with respect to the Declaration of Matthew B.
Reeves, in the instances already known to the Court and subject to the Order to Show
Cause). See Exs. 3-7, Declarations of William R. Lunsford; Matthew B. Reeves;
William J. Cranford, III; Daniel Chism; and Lynette Potter.3
In sum, the results of these investigations, coupled with the declarations of
counsel, indicate that this was an isolated event. The two instances subject to the
Order to Show Cause appear to be the only instances of AI-generated hallucinations
submitted by counsel of record to this or any other Alabama federal court. Butler
Snow says this not to minimize what has taken place in this case, but to provide
assurance to the Court. As demonstrated in Butler Snow’s original filing, and at the
show cause hearing, this was not a situation where Butler Snow did not have
procedures or policies in place warning its attorneys of the dangers of AI. Instead,
here, despite Butler Snow’s policies and procedures, a single attorney failed to
3
Lynette Potter is not counsel of record here but has nonetheless submitted a declaration.
3
Case 2:21-cv-01701-AMM Document 203 Filed 06/02/25 Page 4 of 7
follow those policies and procedures and used unverified AI on the two filings in
question.
In addition to reviewing what has happened in the past, Butler Snow has taken
and is taking affirmative steps to ensure that this will not happen again in the future.
The firm has begun the process of implementing the revised policies and procedures
previously described to the Court. See Doc. 195-1. In addition, Matthew B. Reeves
is, in conjunction with Plaintiff’s counsel and law school professor Anil Mujumdar,
engaging in efforts to educate law students regarding the risks and repercussions of
the use of AI in legal practice to help deter such conduct by others. See Reeves Decl.,
Ex. 4.
“A sanction imposed under [Rule 11] must be limited to what suffices to deter
repetition of the conduct or comparable conduct by others similarly situated.” Fed.
R. Civ. P. 11(c)(4). “Whatever the ultimate sanction imposed, the district court
should utilize the sanction that furthers the purposes of Rule 11 and is the least severe
sanction adequate to such purpose.” Rubenstein v. Bauman, No. 1:07CV798-MHT,
2008 WL 4277958, at *1 n.1 (M.D. Ala. Sept. 18, 2008) (citation omitted).
Butler Snow again sincerely apologizes to the Court, all parties, and counsel
of record for what has taken place here. However, it notes, as the Court too observed,
that the motions in question were not the types of motions that required extensive
legal citations. See Doc. 200, Tr. at 31:23-32:2. And, as shown by the corrected
4
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briefs, the legal propositions stated were not erroneous. See Docs. 201, 202. Given
the magnitude of the harm, the isolated nature of the harm, the significant publicity
given to these events,4 and the remediation efforts undertaken by Butler Snow and
attorney Reeves, Butler Snow respectfully requests that the Court limit any sanctions
it may impose to a modest sanction upon it and to the exclusion of the affected clients
in this litigation.5
4
See, e.g., THE GUARDIAN, Alabama paid a law firm millions to defend its prisons. It used
AI and turned in fake citations, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/alabama-
prison-lawyers-chatgpt-butler-snow (last accessed May 28, 2025); ABA JOURNAL, AI-
hallucinated cases end up in more court filings, and Butler Snow issues apology for 'inexcusable'
lapse, https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ai-hallucinated-cases-end-up-in-more-legal-
documents-and-butler-snow-issues-apology-for-inexcusable-lapse (last accessed May 28, 2025);
REUTERS, Trouble with AI 'hallucinations' spreads to big law firms,
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trouble-with-ai-hallucinations-spreads-big-law-firms-
2025-05-23/ (last accessed May 28, 2025); REASON, AI-Hallucinated Citation Case Involving
Prominent Alabama Firm (with Over 350 Lawyers Nationwide),
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/05/21/ai-hallucinated-citation-case-involving-prominent-
alabama-firm-with-over-350-lawyers-nationwide/ (last accessed May 28, 2025); ABC NEWS,
Judge considers sanctions against attorneys in prison case for using AI in court filings
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/judge-considers-sanctions-attorneys-prison-case-
ai-court-122056012 (last accessed May 28, 2025).
5
See, e.g., Benjamin v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 2:24-CV-7399 (LGD), 2025 WL
1195925, at *6 (E.D.N.Y. Apr. 24, 2025) (observing that “[a]cross the country, courts have issued
a panoply of sanctions against attorneys who submitted fake cases. In nearly all cases, courts have
imposed monetary sanctions ranging from $1,500 to $15,000.”) (citing cases); see also Mata v.
Avianca, Inc., 678 F. Supp. 3d 443, 466 (S.D.N.Y. 2023) (considering, in imposition of sanction
for citation of false case law provided by ChatGPT, factors including “the significant publicity
generated by Respondents’ actions”).
5
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Respectfully submitted, this 2nd day of June, 2025.
/s/ A. David Fawal
A. David Fawal [ASB-4593-W82A]
[email protected] OF COUNSEL:
BUTLER SNOW LLP
1819 5th Avenue N., Suite 1000
Birmingham, Alabama 35203
Telephone: (205) 297-2200
Facsimile: (205) 297-2201
Attorney for Butler Snow LLP
/s/ Michael B. Beers
Michael B. Beers [ASB-4992-S80M]
[email protected] OF COUNSEL:
BUTLER SNOW LLP
250 Commerce Street, Suite 100
Montgomery, Alabama
Telephone: (334) 832-2905
Facsimile: (334) 832-2901
Attorney for Butler Snow LLP
6
Case 2:21-cv-01701-AMM Document 203 Filed 06/02/25 Page 7 of 7
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that a copy of the foregoing has been served upon all attorneys
of record in this matter, including without limitation the following, by the Court’s
CM/ECF system and/or U.S. Mail on this 2nd day of June, 2025:
Anil A. Mujumdar Tara S. Hetzel
DAGNEY JOHNSON LAW GROUP Vania Latitia Hosea
2120 1st Avenue North ALABAMA OFFICE OF THE
Birmingham, AL 35203 ATTORNEY GENERAL
Telephone: (205) 410-1185 501 Washington Avenue
Facsimile: (205) 419-9701 Post Office Box 300152
[email protected] Montgomery, AL 36130
Telephone: (334) 242-7997
Gary Y. Gould Facsimile: (334) 353-8440
Jamila S. Mensah (pro hac vice)
[email protected]Kelly Potter (pro hac vice)
[email protected]NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT US, LLP
1301 McKinney Street, Suite 5100 Attorneys for Givens, Morgan,
Houston, TX 77010 Smith, Rambo, Matthews, Cook,
Telephone: (713) 651-5151 Stevenson, and Hugh
Facsimile: (713) 651-5246
[email protected] O. Tompkins
[email protected] Christian A. Montgomery
[email protected] Rosen Harwood
2200 Jack Warner Parkway, Suite
Lana A. Olson 200
M. Wesley Smithart Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
LIGHTFOOT, FRANKLIN, & WHITE, LLC Telephone: (205) 344-5000
The Clark Building Facsimile: (205) 758-8358
400 Street North
th
[email protected]Birmingham, AL 35203
[email protected]Telephone: (205) 581-1529
Facsimile: (205) 581-0799 Attorneys for Deaundra Johnson
[email protected][email protected] /s/_A. David Fawal________
Attorneys for Plaintiffs A. David Fawal
