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03 December 2025
Issue: 8142 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Technology , Artificial intelligence , Risk management
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Bar Council warns against risks of AI

Barristers have been warned to be on guard against anthropomorphism, hallucinations, information disorder, bias in data training, mistakes, data protection blunders and confidential data leaks when using generative artificial intelligence (AI)

These are some of the main risks with large language models (LLMs), highlighted in updated Bar Council ethics and practice guidance. The guidance concludes barristers must remember that they are ultimately responsible for any legal work produced.

AI-hallucinated fake cases and citations have been accidentally included by lawyers acting in a number of cases this year.

The updated ethics guidance highlights the fact that LLMs do not have a conscience or social and emotional intelligence. It refers to recent case law on the subject as well as academic research into the reliability of AI research.

Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, said: ‘As the guidance explains, the best-placed barristers will be those who make the efforts to understand these systems so that they can be used with control and integrity.’

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NEWS
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
In a striking financial remedies ruling, the High Court cut a wife’s award by 40% for coercive and controlling behaviour. Writing in NLJ this week, Chris Bryden and Nicole Wallace of 4 King’s Bench Walk analyse LP v MP [2025] EWFC 473
A €60.9m award to Kylian Mbappé has refocused attention on football’s controversial ‘ethics bonus’ clauses. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law examines how such provisions sit within French labour law
A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
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