Legaltech Week 09/19/2025: New bluebook rule on citing AI criticized, AI tools match humans in contract drafting
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Sep 25, 2025 
Joe Tries, a witty commentator from Above the Law, joins Victor Lee, managing editor at the ABA Journal, to dive into the evolving intersection of AI and legal practice. They explore a contentious new Bluebook rule for citing AI that has sparked debate among scholars and practitioners. The conversation shifts to a study revealing that AI tools now match, and even surpass, human lawyers in contract drafting tasks. Plus, they discuss the alarming trend of firms prioritizing flashy AI investments over essential technology upgrades.
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Associates Fear AI And Bad Firm Tech
- Midlevel associates worry about AI replacing entry-level legal jobs and about outdated firm technology.
- Many associates buy their own hardware because firm laptops and security software are slow or unusable.
Fix The Foundation Before Buying AI
- Invest in basic hardware and security before buying flashy AI tools.
- Build the foundational tech stack so AI can run reliably on fast, secure machines.
Court Sanctions Over Hallucinated Citations
- A court sanctioned a lawyer for filing hallucinated citations and chastised opposing counsel for not catching them.
- The court fined the filer and denied fee requests to the opponent for failing to spot the fake citations.
