In Brief by Swany

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are unique tools that have a place in our businesses when used in the right circumstances. They are not, however, a substitute for a lawyer’s qualified legal advice and counsel. Relying on them as such can invite trouble, even for one of the biggest coaches in college football with a $91 million contract.

One of the best stories in college football this fall is unfolding in our own backyard. North Dakota State has taken the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) by storm, receiving votes in the AP Top 25 poll while rocketing to a 4 – 0 start. The Bison are outscoring opponents by an average score of 35 – 12 in their first year in the Mountain West Conference. Another big story, arguably the biggest story in the sport, is the saga of Lane Kiffin, the controversial head coach of Louisiana State University. Kiffin, a football savant with a proclivity for chaos, bolted to LSU last November after his University of Mississippi team had qualified for the College Football Playoff.

Kiffin recently made news in legal circles for his unprecedented attempt to bring former college players back to LSU after they played in NFL training camps this summer. Kiffin’s win-at-all-cost approach prompted a bipartisan backlash from politicos, along with former coaches like Nick Saban and Craig Bohl, who cited Kiffin as the apocalyptic straw in finally needing guardrails like the Protect College Sports Act. Things reached a boiling point when the Southeastern Conference, better known as the SEC, scheduled a vote in September to expel LSU from the league before Kiffin finally backed down. What had lawyers from coast to coast nodding our heads in unison, though, was attorney and legal heavyweight Tom Mars telling ESPN in an interview that Kiffin was texting him screenshots from ChatGPT supporting LSU’s legal position as this high stakes game of brinksmanship unfolded between LSU, the SEC, and NCAA.

“Usually, when I would express an opinion about what LSU was doing, Lane would reply with a screenshot from ChatGPT that supported LSU’s position, which was almost always wrong,” Mars told ESPN. “Eventually I told him that a guy with a $91 million contract ought to have a top-notch lawyer on speed dial and not be using ChatGPT for legal advice,” said Mars. Preach, counsel! The reason lawyers are nodding our heads at this quote is because, as of late, clients responding to advice or offering their own take on legal strategy are echoing Kiffin, beginning conversations with something along the lines of, “I ran this through ChatGPT and it said … .”

ChatGPT is not—and will never be—a substitute for a lawyer; nor should it be relied on for legal advice. In February, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an Order sanctioning a Maryland attorney for relying on AI in researching and drafting a brief, ultimately affirming the dismissal of her claim. “Our review of [her] brief revealed serious flaws, including citations to nonexistent cases and attribution of propositions or quotations to two real cases that did not stand for the propositions or contain the quotations.” The Court continued, “In response, [she] admitted that she had used a GenAI tool–ChatGPT–as a research and drafting aid, which generated seven fabricated case citations, commonly referred to as ‘AI hallucination[s].’” In legal parlance, AI hallucinations occur when an AI model generates fake sources of information and an output that is fictional, inaccurate, or nonsensical. Literally made-up cases with made-up law. She’s not the only lawyer, or nonlawyer, that has fallen into the trap of overreliance on AI for the law, and she certainly will not be the last.

So, please, do your lawyer friends, including this one, a favor. Next time, skip the ChatGPT when you need legal advice and instead grab the phone, like Mars advised Kiffin, and talk to a real lawyer.

Josh Swanson, Attorney

Read the August 2026 “In Brief” on page 83 of The Money Issue here.

Read the September 2026 “In Brief” on page 76 of The AI Issue here.

Read the October 2026 “In Brief” on page 25 here.