Lawyer struck off after using AI-invented case law in his own disciplinary defence

A registered foreign lawyer has been struck off after submitting AI-generated false citations while defending himself before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), the first time that tribunal has ruled on this issue.

Abhishek Kumar (also reported as Abishek Kumar), 41, was already facing disciplinary proceedings following a 2024 criminal conviction for knowingly employing someone who was not authorised to work in the UK.

The employee had overstayed since 2013; an asylum claim was withdrawn in 2019. He was paid cash in hand for administrative work. Kumar received a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work. The sentencing judge said he had sought to undermine UK immigration laws.

When the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) brought the matter before the SDT, Kumar represented himself. In March 2026, he filed a written answer containing misleading quotations and citations.

Reported examples included a case from the wrong year, an intellectual-property authority, and an unsuccessful SRA High Court appeal that was irrelevant to the point being made.

After the SRA flagged the errors and pointed to an earlier High Court warning about AI-generated citations, he admitted using AI to draft that answer. He then sent a follow-up email that included additional errors and unsupported citations. He later admitted that the email was also AI-drafted and apologised.

Dishonesty was not alleged.

Kumar said he never intended to mislead, described himself as someone used to being supervised, and said he was unaware of the problem of false AI citations. He also cited health and personal circumstances, and that he was the main financial provider for his family. The tribunal did not accept those points as a reason not to strike him off. It said he would have been struck off for either allegation on its own. No cost order was made.

The SDT’s published position, as reported, was that repeated failure to verify submissions to the regulator and the tribunal had “serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the legal system,” and that protecting the profession's reputation was paramount. The case summary also quotes the tribunal as saying that this was the first time a lawyer’s use of AI or large language models in legal proceedings had been litigated before it. The hearing was on 29 July 2026; the judgment is dated 25 August 2026 and was reported around 3–4 September 2026.

The official SRA record lists him as Abhishek Kumar, registered foreign lawyer number 655594, associated at the relevant time with Kims Law Ltd (OISC-regulated) and Rivington Solicitors Limited. Outcome: struck off the register of foreign lawyers after a hearing on 29 July 2026. The SRA points to the SDT for the full judgment.

What this does  and does not  prove

This is the first disciplinary action at the SDT regarding AI-generated authorities. It does not mean every use of AI by lawyers is forbidden.

The SRA has separately said that AI may be used, but solicitors remain personally responsible for verifying output, protecting confidentiality, and not presenting unchecked material to a court or regulator.

In August 2026, the SRA said it had received 42 reports of potential AI misuse between July 2025 and July 2026, with investigations including cases involving inaccurate citations.

It also fits into a broader pattern already flagged by the High Court in 2025, after fabricated or unverified authorities appeared in litigation (including the Ayinde/Al-Haroun line of cases).

Those earlier warnings are the backdrop that the SRA drew to Kumar’s attention.  

Sources (full URLs)

• Law Gazette (4 Sept 2026): https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/foreign-lawyer-produced-ai-generated-false-citations-at-sdt/5127825.article

• The Telegraph (4 Sept 2026): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/09/04/first-lawyer-struck-off-for-misuse-of-ai/

• City AM (4 Sept 2026): https://www.cityam.com/lawyer-struck-off-for-using-fake-ai-evidence-in-his-own-disciplinary-case/

• ComplexDiscovery (4 Sept 2026): https://complexdiscovery.com/a-lawyer-fed-ai-citations-to-his-own-regulator-and-the-tribunal-struck-him-off/

• Law360 UK: https://www.law360.com/articles/2521179/lawyer-banned-over-false-ai-generated-citations-in-uk-first

• SRA solicitor check  Abhishek Kumar 655594: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/655594/

• SDT case listing 12884/2026  Abhishek Kumar (strike off): https://solicitorstribunal.org.uk/case/

• Earlier SRA referral report (Apr 2026): https://solicitornews.co.uk/immigration-offence-lawyer-tribunal/

• SRA warning on responsible use of AI (17 Aug 2026): https://www.sra.org.uk/news/news/releases/responsible-use-ai/

• SRA-related Gazette report on 42 AI-misuse reports: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/sra-looking-into-dozens-of-reports-of-ai-misuse/5127695.article

• High Court context on fake AI citations (Guardian, 6 June 2025): https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/06/high-court-tells-uk-lawyers-to-urgently-stop-misuse-of-ai-in-legal-work

• SDT judgments are published at https://www.solicitorstribunal.org.uk  that is the primary document to read if you want the tribunal’s own wording rather than press summaries.