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September 30 is National AI in Work Day, started by LinkedIn to spotlight the importance of using artificial intelligence responsibly in professional settings. For attorneys, that conversation is not abstract. It is showing up in sanctions, disciplinary referrals, and court orders.
Our New World: AI and Legal Ethics, presented by Bruce L. Adelson of Federal Compliance Consulting LLC, is a one-hour beginner-level program that takes the professional responsibility framework around AI seriously and applies it to the cases that are already happening. It is designed for attorneys who are using AI in their practice, or planning to, and who want to understand exactly what the ethical rules require before something goes wrong.
The Risks Are No Longer Hypothetical
The course opens with something that should get every attorney's attention: AI-related ethical misconduct is not a future concern. It is a current one, and it is accelerating. In just the first months of 2026, Department of Justice attorneys were admonished by federal courts for AI errors in pleadings and legal research. At least one attorney resigned as a result. Others were ordered to appear before courts to explain why the mistakes had not been caught and disclosed.
These are not isolated incidents. Attorneys across practice settings are submitting AI-generated work product that contains hallucinated citations, flawed legal research, and outright errors, sometimes without reviewing it carefully enough to catch the problem before filing. The sanctions being imposed are significant, and the State Bar referrals that follow are real. The course uses these cases as the starting point for a broader examination of what the ethical rules actually require, and what happens when attorneys fail to meet them.
What the ABA and State Bars Are Doing About It
The regulatory response to AI in legal practice is moving faster than many attorneys realize. The ABA, federal and state courts, and state bars are actively implementing new professional responsibility requirements and disciplinary frameworks specifically governing AI use. This course gives attorneys a current picture of where that regulatory landscape stands and where it is heading.
The through line connecting most of the enforcement actions discussed in the course is ABA Model Rule 3.3, Candor Toward the Tribunal. When an attorney submits a brief containing a fabricated citation that an AI tool generated, the professional responsibility question is not just about competence. It is about candor. The course traces how judges and bar authorities are applying existing rules to AI-related conduct, and what new requirements are being layered on top of them.
Reading the Case Law: What Judicial Sanctions Actually Look Like
One of the most valuable sections of the course is its detailed treatment of high-profile judicial reprimands and sanctions arising from AI misuse. For attorneys who learn best from real-world examples, this is where the abstract rules become concrete.
The cases covered include instances where attorneys were sanctioned for submitting AI-generated research without verification, where courts ordered supervisors to appear and explain their oversight failures, and where the consequences extended beyond the individual attorney to the broader firm or agency. Understanding what judges have actually done, and why, gives attorneys a much clearer picture of where the lines are and what it costs to cross them.
Integrating Rule 3.3 Into Your AI Workflow
The course does not stop at identifying the problem. It gives attorneys a framework for integrating the ethical mandates, particularly Rule 3.3's candor obligations, into the way they actually use AI in practice.
That means understanding what verification looks like in the context of AI-generated research, how disclosure obligations apply when AI has materially contributed to a work product, and what supervisory responsibilities attach when junior attorneys or staff are using these tools on client matters. The goal is not to discourage AI use but to ensure that it happens within a framework the attorney can defend, to a client, to a court, and to a bar disciplinary committee if it ever comes to that.
What Biased and Discriminatory Data Means for Legal Practice
The course also addresses a risk that gets less attention than hallucinated citations but carries significant liability: the use of AI tools trained on biased or discriminatory data. When an AI system produces outputs that reflect historical biases baked into its training data, and an attorney uses that output in a legal context, the professional responsibility exposure is real.
This section of the course helps attorneys understand how to evaluate the tools they use for this kind of risk, what questions to ask before deploying an AI system in a client matter, and how to think about liability when biased outputs cause harm. It is a dimension of AI ethics that the regulatory framework is still catching up to, and the course gives attorneys the grounding to stay ahead of it.
Key Takeaways
AI is already part of legal practice, and the ethical framework that governs it is already in place and being enforced. Attorneys who use AI tools without understanding the professional responsibility obligations that attach to that use are not just taking a reputational risk. They are taking a disciplinary one. Rule 3.3's candor obligations apply to AI-generated work product. Competence under Rule 1.1 requires understanding the tools you use. And supervisory duties extend to the AI-assisted work of everyone in your practice, not just the attorneys you directly supervise.
The cases being decided now are establishing the contours of what responsible AI use in legal practice looks like. This course gives attorneys the framework to stay on the right side of those decisions.
For a deeper dive, watch the full Lawline course Our New World: AI and Legal Ethics, presented by Bruce L. Adelson of Federal Compliance Consulting LLC.
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