Danny Wilf-Townsend
@dannywt.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law thinking, writing, and teaching about civil procedure, consumer protection, and AI.
Blog: https://www.wilftownsend.net/
Academic papers: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2491047
Blog: https://www.wilftownsend.net/
Academic papers: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2491047
An update for Sonnet 4.5, released last week: it scored 60.2% on my final exam (with extended thinking on, 54.4% without it). That's a big step up (~20 percentage points) from Opus 4.1's scores, and puts Sonnet 4.5 close to, if slightly behind, other lead models. On a human curve, that's ~ an A-/B+
For my latest round of informal tests of large language models, I looked at how good different models are at taking a law school exam—and also whether they are capable of grading exam answers in a consistent and reasonably accurate way. 🧵
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
ChatGPT takes—and grades—my law school exam
The latest round of informal testing of large language models on legal questions
www.wilftownsend.net
October 6, 2025 at 1:32 PM
An update for Sonnet 4.5, released last week: it scored 60.2% on my final exam (with extended thinking on, 54.4% without it). That's a big step up (~20 percentage points) from Opus 4.1's scores, and puts Sonnet 4.5 close to, if slightly behind, other lead models. On a human curve, that's ~ an A-/B+
One other note: across the five exam answers and dozens of answer evaluations generated here, I did not notice a single hallucination. This test wasn't designed to measure hallucination rates, but it's consistent with the general sense that they have dropped significantly
For my latest round of informal tests of large language models, I looked at how good different models are at taking a law school exam—and also whether they are capable of grading exam answers in a consistent and reasonably accurate way. 🧵
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
ChatGPT takes—and grades—my law school exam
The latest round of informal testing of large language models on legal questions
www.wilftownsend.net
October 3, 2025 at 1:22 PM
One other note: across the five exam answers and dozens of answer evaluations generated here, I did not notice a single hallucination. This test wasn't designed to measure hallucination rates, but it's consistent with the general sense that they have dropped significantly
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
Our office is again hiring one or more attorneys for a one-year fellowship to work directly with the Illinois Solicitor General and her team, beginning in August/September 2026.
www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ilag...
www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ilag...
Job Opportunities | Office of the Illinois Attorney General
www.governmentjobs.com
October 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Our office is again hiring one or more attorneys for a one-year fellowship to work directly with the Illinois Solicitor General and her team, beginning in August/September 2026.
www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ilag...
www.governmentjobs.com/careers/ilag...
For my latest round of informal tests of large language models, I looked at how good different models are at taking a law school exam—and also whether they are capable of grading exam answers in a consistent and reasonably accurate way. 🧵
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
ChatGPT takes—and grades—my law school exam
The latest round of informal testing of large language models on legal questions
www.wilftownsend.net
October 1, 2025 at 1:58 PM
For my latest round of informal tests of large language models, I looked at how good different models are at taking a law school exam—and also whether they are capable of grading exam answers in a consistent and reasonably accurate way. 🧵
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
www.wilftownsend.net/p/chatgpt-ta...
It was very nice to have two of my recent articles featured in JOTWELL reviews this month—Maureen Carroll on "Deterring Unenforceable Terms," courtslaw.jotwell.com/should-draft...
and @margotkaminski.bsky.social on "The Deletion Remedy" cyber.jotwell.com/ai-disgorgem...
and @margotkaminski.bsky.social on "The Deletion Remedy" cyber.jotwell.com/ai-disgorgem...
Should drafters be penalized for clearly unenforceable terms? - Courts Law
Daniel Wilf-Townsend, Deterring Unenforceable Terms, 111 Va. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2025), available at SSRN (June 6, 2024).Maureen CarrollMost of us (if not all) have entered a contract with one or ...
courtslaw.jotwell.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:46 PM
It was very nice to have two of my recent articles featured in JOTWELL reviews this month—Maureen Carroll on "Deterring Unenforceable Terms," courtslaw.jotwell.com/should-draft...
and @margotkaminski.bsky.social on "The Deletion Remedy" cyber.jotwell.com/ai-disgorgem...
and @margotkaminski.bsky.social on "The Deletion Remedy" cyber.jotwell.com/ai-disgorgem...
A nice quick read from my colleague @JonahPerlin about an issue that I see a lot of people oversimplifying: whether an attorney's use of a generative AI tool waives privilege. This is an area where I'm very interested to see how the law develops. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
No, Generative AI Didn’t Just Kill the Attorney-Client Privilege
Opinion: Georgetown Law professor Jonah Perlin says using third-party technology doesn't categorically waive the attorney-client privilege.
news.bloomberglaw.com
August 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
A nice quick read from my colleague @JonahPerlin about an issue that I see a lot of people oversimplifying: whether an attorney's use of a generative AI tool waives privilege. This is an area where I'm very interested to see how the law develops. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
July 21, 2025 at 1:48 AM
In a stunning moment of self-delusion, the Wall Street Journal headline writers admitted that they don't know how LLM chatbots work.
A very pleasant surprise to listen to one of my favorite podcasts and hear my own work being discussed. And it's an excellent episode and overview for anyone thinking of AI's effects on the legal profession. Some thoughts / suggestions below for anyone who wants further reading:
NEW ODD LOTS:
We talked to the legend @wertwhile.bsky.social about how AI is already reshaping the practice of law.
A must listen, with out friend Joel
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
We talked to the legend @wertwhile.bsky.social about how AI is already reshaping the practice of law.
A must listen, with out friend Joel
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
What AI Is Already Doing to the Legal Industry
Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · 07/17/2025 · 49m
podcasts.apple.com
July 17, 2025 at 5:02 PM
A very pleasant surprise to listen to one of my favorite podcasts and hear my own work being discussed. And it's an excellent episode and overview for anyone thinking of AI's effects on the legal profession. Some thoughts / suggestions below for anyone who wants further reading:
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
Judge Alsup has the first true opinion on fair use for generative AI in Bartz v. Anthropic. He holds that AI training is fair use, and so is buying books to scan them, but that downloading pirated copies of books for an internal training-data database is not fair use. 🧵
🚨BREAKING: Federal judge concludes that using copyrighted works to train generative A.I. is transformative and ultimately a fair use. (Nevertheless, Anthropic can’t beat the lawsuit because it pirated books for another purpose too.) First of kind ruling. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
Bartz
www.documentcloud.org
June 24, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Judge Alsup has the first true opinion on fair use for generative AI in Bartz v. Anthropic. He holds that AI training is fair use, and so is buying books to scan them, but that downloading pirated copies of books for an internal training-data database is not fair use. 🧵
I think this is one of the more common mistakes I see with people trying AI—the idea that if you go to a free chatbot, quickly run a question by it, and it does a bad job, then you've learned that AI cannot do a good job on that question.
June 17, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I think this is one of the more common mistakes I see with people trying AI—the idea that if you go to a free chatbot, quickly run a question by it, and it does a bad job, then you've learned that AI cannot do a good job on that question.
Significant ruling in one of the big algorithmic price-fixing lawsuits going on right now: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
US judge rules health insurers, MultiPlan must face price-fixing lawsuits
A U.S. judge on Tuesday said healthcare providers can pursue claims that technology provider MultiPlan and a group of insurers conspired to underpay them billions of dollars in reimbursements for out-of-network health services.
www.reuters.com
June 16, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Significant ruling in one of the big algorithmic price-fixing lawsuits going on right now: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
A good thread on a big new generative AI / IP lawsuit—Disney and Universal vs. Midjourney
Personally, if I had a machine that egregiously and blatantly violated copyright, I wouldn't have a public "explore page," because the copyright holders might publish 18 pages of examples of me violating their copyright. Suit also includes tons of Reddit guides to doing so too. Oof!
![179. Yet another Reddit user created a post of “Some of my fave Marvel
generations! [prompt in comment]” in the r/Midjourney Subreddit, along with the prompts
that were used and the tag “Prompt-Sharing:”17
180. Additionally, in an article on the popular website Medium titled “Recreating
Classic Disney 1930s Style Animation with Midjourney AI,” user InstantAI provided
sample prompts for Midjourney to generate copies of Disney’s Copyrighted Works,
including Snow White. In response to one of these prompts, Midjourney accessed the data
about Disney’s Copyrighted Works that is stored by the Image Service and then generated
the following image which infringes Disney’s Snow White character:](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qc6xzgctorfsm35w6i3vdebx/bafkreihp5no4x2iy55hasu6o7hxh6qldl4fzfcoo7pjmu4wmw7xsinig7e@jpeg)
June 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A good thread on a big new generative AI / IP lawsuit—Disney and Universal vs. Midjourney
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
ChatGPT is down but The Museum of English Rural Life still stands, proving once again that Silicon Valley cannot compete with the history of rural England and its people.
June 10, 2025 at 12:41 PM
ChatGPT is down but The Museum of English Rural Life still stands, proving once again that Silicon Valley cannot compete with the history of rural England and its people.
I've had a few recent conversations with judges and law profs who haven't tried generative AI, or have only used it for a few minutes to write a poem or other trivial fun. After a few people asked me about how to start, I thought I'd write up my suggestions: www.wilftownsend.net/p/some-ideas...
Some ideas for judges, lawyers, and legal academics on trying generative AI
On the usefulness of personal experience, and suggestions about what to try
www.wilftownsend.net
June 10, 2025 at 1:36 PM
I've had a few recent conversations with judges and law profs who haven't tried generative AI, or have only used it for a few minutes to write a poem or other trivial fun. After a few people asked me about how to start, I thought I'd write up my suggestions: www.wilftownsend.net/p/some-ideas...
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
After years of studying AI & law here’s my rule of thumb: Lawyers should only use AI only when they can confidently assess, adapt & explain its output without engaging in deep, independent thinking about the core legal/factual issues. More in my new essay: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
<p><span>Thinking Like A Lawyer In The Age Of Generative AI: Cognitive Limits On AI Adoption Among Lawyers</span></p>
As of mid-2025, there is robust evidence that generative AI possesses the technological capability to significantly reshape legal practice. Yet legal markets an
papers.ssrn.com
May 21, 2025 at 2:21 PM
After years of studying AI & law here’s my rule of thumb: Lawyers should only use AI only when they can confidently assess, adapt & explain its output without engaging in deep, independent thinking about the core legal/factual issues. More in my new essay: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
The problems are with the affordances of the technology and how they mislead even sophisticated professionals: these tools work extremely quickly and dispense superficially coherent and confident output. These qualities override skepticism and promote reliance.
May 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
The problems are with the affordances of the technology and how they mislead even sophisticated professionals: these tools work extremely quickly and dispense superficially coherent and confident output. These qualities override skepticism and promote reliance.
This is one of my favorite books to recommend to students (I actually have two copies). One of my teaching aspirations is to someday have a seminar read this alongside @nbagley.bsky.social’s Procedure Fetish and Kagan’s Adversarial Legalism.
Well folks, I disagree with the adversarial legalism critique.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
May 16, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This is one of my favorite books to recommend to students (I actually have two copies). One of my teaching aspirations is to someday have a seminar read this alongside @nbagley.bsky.social’s Procedure Fetish and Kagan’s Adversarial Legalism.
"Litigation...is not simply a tool...it embodies an organization of political authority that is politically attractive to Americans–and self-reinforcing. Turning away from litigation may require re-legitimating and re-empowering other forms of authority." hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-...
Abundance liberalism versus adversarial legalism
To displace legal vetocracy, abundance liberals must find other ways to generate authority that people can accept.
hypertext.niskanencenter.org
May 15, 2025 at 7:49 PM
"Litigation...is not simply a tool...it embodies an organization of political authority that is politically attractive to Americans–and self-reinforcing. Turning away from litigation may require re-legitimating and re-empowering other forms of authority." hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/abundance-...
Very cool to see that @kevintobia.bsky.social's and my article got @lsolum.bsky.social's "Download it while it's hot!" recommendation on the Legal Theory Blog!
In this blog post I discuss a new article in which Kevin Tobia and I examine how widespread AI texts are in legal institutions, initial policy responses some have made, and the concerns all of this raises alongside opportunities: www.wilftownsend.net/p/when-compu...
When computers generate legal text, that matters for everyone—not just lawyers
Some thoughts on "generated legal texts"
www.wilftownsend.net
May 15, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Very cool to see that @kevintobia.bsky.social's and my article got @lsolum.bsky.social's "Download it while it's hot!" recommendation on the Legal Theory Blog!
People often treat AI-generated legal texts as an issue of legal ethics (e.g., hallucinated citations) or industry economics (will AI replace associates?). But as legal institutions start receiving, processing, and using generative AI, it's going to affect all of us 🧵
May 13, 2025 at 1:51 PM
People often treat AI-generated legal texts as an issue of legal ethics (e.g., hallucinated citations) or industry economics (will AI replace associates?). But as legal institutions start receiving, processing, and using generative AI, it's going to affect all of us 🧵
I've got a new paper up with the inimitable @kevintobia.bsky.social: "Generated Legal Texts"—about texts generated by AI and used in legal institutions. These texts are arising frequently in legal contexts around the world, perhaps faster than many realize. And, we argue ...
May 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
I've got a new paper up with the inimitable @kevintobia.bsky.social: "Generated Legal Texts"—about texts generated by AI and used in legal institutions. These texts are arising frequently in legal contexts around the world, perhaps faster than many realize. And, we argue ...
A nice new opportunity for an AI+Law "Shark Tank" pitch session to get feedback on early stage paper ideas in time for the summer writing push, organized by @kevintfrazier.bsky.social at UT Law. Would definitely encourage anyone with a paper idea to check it out! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Sh[AI]rk Tank - Make Sure Your August Paper Doesn't Sink
The August cycle is on the horizon. Before you get too deep into your paper, now's the time to solicit feedback from others with an interest in AI and the Law.
Please express your interest in the fo...
docs.google.com
May 2, 2025 at 1:29 PM
A nice new opportunity for an AI+Law "Shark Tank" pitch session to get feedback on early stage paper ideas in time for the summer writing push, organized by @kevintfrazier.bsky.social at UT Law. Would definitely encourage anyone with a paper idea to check it out! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
In March, HUD declared it was “revising” (read: gutting) its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regs. That was illegal. I got mad and submitted a comment. www.regulations.gov/comment/HUD-...
It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:
It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:
Regulations.gov
www.regulations.gov
May 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM
In March, HUD declared it was “revising” (read: gutting) its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regs. That was illegal. I got mad and submitted a comment. www.regulations.gov/comment/HUD-...
It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:
It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:
Reposted by Danny Wilf-Townsend
No.
One: It’s a fact.
Two: The judiciary is political.
Three: The appointing president is often relevant to a full understand, hence newsworthy.
Three (b): It is often these days a reminder that judges appointed by presidents of both parties are not acceding to Trump’s lawlessness.
One: It’s a fact.
Two: The judiciary is political.
Three: The appointing president is often relevant to a full understand, hence newsworthy.
Three (b): It is often these days a reminder that judges appointed by presidents of both parties are not acceding to Trump’s lawlessness.
April 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
No.
One: It’s a fact.
Two: The judiciary is political.
Three: The appointing president is often relevant to a full understand, hence newsworthy.
Three (b): It is often these days a reminder that judges appointed by presidents of both parties are not acceding to Trump’s lawlessness.
One: It’s a fact.
Two: The judiciary is political.
Three: The appointing president is often relevant to a full understand, hence newsworthy.
Three (b): It is often these days a reminder that judges appointed by presidents of both parties are not acceding to Trump’s lawlessness.