On Monday, the California bar said that in recent weeks, its hearing department had suspended attorney Sepideh Ardestani for one year, with the suspension to be stayed after 30 days, after she entered a motion that included citation errors the lawyer denied were caused by AI. The state bar's Office of Chief Trial Counsel also recently filed charges against lawyers Steven Thomas Romeyn and Omid Emile Khalifeh for alleged AI misuse.
"Courts and clients must be able to trust that the filings attorneys submit are accurate, supported, and compliant with professional standards," California Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement from the bar.
"Technology can assist legal practice, but it does not replace an attorney's duty of competence, diligence and honesty," Cardona said. "These cases underscore that failing to review and confirm the accuracy of one's submissions — regardless of the tools used to create them — can cause real harm and undermine the administration of justice."
The California bar court approved a stipulation on April 6 in which Ardestani admitted culpability for filing a motion on behalf of a client in a wage-and-hour proposed class action that "noted citations to decisions that were non-existent, did not contain the language quoted, or did not support the propositions for which they were offered."
Ardestani stated in a different brief in the underlying case that the errors were "minor" and "typographical" in nature, according to the stipulation. The lawyer later speculated that the errors may have been the result of transposing handwritten notes incorrectly, and in a separate declaration stated that the mistakes were "the result of human error."
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, which presided over underlying the wage-and-hour suit, sanctioned Ardestani $1,500. According to the stipulation, the judge found Ardestani was not forthcoming about the citation errors, wasting time and resources in a court burdened by one of the largest caseloads in the country.
The bar court noted a lack of candor as an aggravating circumstance, finding Ardestani was "not forthcoming to the court" regarding the citation errors, while the attorney's lack of prior discipline over 14 years in practice and good character weighed in her favor. The state bar court found Ardestani was also caring for her ailing father at the time, which weighed as a mitigating circumstance.
Despite the alleged misconduct being limited to just one filing, the bar court found it to be "so extensive that it caused the court to spend significant time and resources to conduct an independent careful review of all the citations in the pleading and thereafter," causing "significant harm to the administration of justice and the public."
The bar court ordered a one-year suspension, stayed after 30 days, with Ardestani on probation for the full year. The lawyer must also complete e-learning and continuing legal education courses and meet other requirements, including abiding by all attorney rules and probation conditions. Ardestani was further ordered to pay $1,000 in monetary sanctions, plus costs.
On April 1, the OCTC charged Khalifeh with failing to perform with competence, failing to perform with diligence, knowingly disobeying the rules of a tribunal and three counts of moral turpitude for allegedly misusing AI during representation of a plaintiff in a trademark suit in the Central District of California last year.
Those charges came two days after the OCTC charged Romeyn for allegedly misusing AI in a personal injury case before the Orange County Superior Court. Romeyn was hit with two disciplinary charges: failure to perform with diligence and moral turpitude for misrepresentation.
Khalifeh, Romeyn and counsel for Ardestani did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Counsel information for Omid Khalifeh and Steven Romeyn was not immediately available.
The State Bar of California Office of Chief Trial Counsel is represented variously by its own Veronica Trejo, Lisa Cummins and Harriet Fischer.
Sepideh Ardestani is represented by Art Barsegyan of Pansky Markle.
The cases are In the Matter of: Sepideh Ardestani, case number SBC-26-O-30271, In the Matter of: Omid Emile Khalifeh, case number SBC-26-O-21783, and In the Matter of: Steven Thomas Romeyn, case number SBC-26-O-31767, in the State Bar Court of California.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
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