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Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

3.8K followers 490 following 1K posts

Clinical prof. @ Michigan Law. Legal research & writing + employment law. Buffalonian —> Chicagoan —> Michigander. she/her

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Margaret Hannon @mchannon.bsky.social · Nov 12

I couldn't find a #LegalWriting starter pack so I created one! Who am I missing?

go.bsky.app/DjyARWi

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

Waiting to see how long it takes for my kids to notice this

November 10, 2025 at 1:58 PM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

Mission accomplished!

I voted in Ann Arbor sticker in foreground with trees changing colors in the background

November 4, 2025 at 4:55 PM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

Go Bills!!!!

November 3, 2025 at 12:26 AM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

How it started/how it’s going #Caturday

Angry and skinny looking brown and white tabby kitten in a kennel wearing a cone of shame with a bandaged foot

Bigger brown and white tabby kitten looking handsome and fluffy while reclining on a table with a Halloween tablecloth

November 1, 2025 at 6:06 PM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

Happy Howl-o-ween!

Rocky the greyhound on his side in his bed, wearing his Halloween pjs

October 31, 2025 at 1:11 PM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

Current mood (AWS):

old man yells at cloud is written on a newspaper

ALT: old man yells at cloud is written on a newspaper

media.tenor.com

October 20, 2025 at 6:29 PM

Reposted by Margaret Hannon

David Ziff

@djsziff.bsky.social

I recommend that lawyers and judges *ignore* The Bluebook's new rule on AI and search results. (They don't need to follow it anyway!)

"What a mess. Practicing lawyers and judges should *not* use these rules to cite their search processes."

wabarnews.org/2025/10/15/w...
#AI #LegalWriting #LawSky

You Now Can (Should?) Cite Search and AI-Generated Results
No 2025 update would be complete without something AI-related. The Bluebook is no exception. Rule 18.3 provides citation rules for outputs from large language models, search engine results, and generative AI. The citation must generally include: (1) the author of the prompt, (2) the model or service used, and (3) the exact text of the prompt submission or search query.

Perhaps you can see the problems. First, requiring the full text of a search query or AI prompt will make these citations extremely long. Queries are not always short. And AI prompts often include a series of back-and-forth questions and answers to produce a specific result. These citations are going to be monstrous.

More importantly, to the extent the citation requires inclusion of your own search queries and prompt questions, The Bluebook asks you to divulge the internal thinking and questioning processes that led you to a result. In other words, the citation will include attorney work product.

Yikes! But there is good news. First, The Bluebook doesn’t say that anyone must provide a citation for search results or AI content. Rather, the updated rules provide guidance for what to do when an author wants to cite this kind of information. As a lawyer, you could simply choose not to cite these things. Would you ever support an argument in a brief with a citation to the Lexis search query that produced the results that supported the argument? Of course not. And The Bluebook can’t make you.

Which leads me to my second bit of good news: These clunky search-related and AI-related rules are all located in The Bluebook’s Whitepages, which are specifically designed for law review students and academic authors. Those rules generally do not apply to practicing lawyers and judges. The simpler Bluepages, which are designed for legal practitioners, do not include these new rules. And while a lawyer may use the Whitepages rules to supplement the Blue-
pages, you certainly don’t have to.

Review: What a mess. Practicing lawyers and judges should not use these rules to cite their search processes.

October 17, 2025 at 4:23 PM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

cat! in the dog bed

Brown and white tabby cat taking up a very small portion of a large dog bed

October 3, 2025 at 12:59 AM

Margaret Hannon

@mchannon.bsky.social

#Caturday

Gray kitten sitting on top of a record player lid

September 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM

Reposted by Margaret Hannon

Ellie Margolis

@elliemargolis.bsky.social

This is bad bad bad. The legal profession needs serious education on how LLMs work.

Adam Pulver @pulvinator.bsky.social · Sep 25

In a concurrence in a Title VII case today, one judge looks to ChatGPT in assessing whether a term is racially hostile. What could go wrong? www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf...

www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov

September 25, 2025 at 8:18 PM

Reposted by Margaret Hannon

Rebecca Fordon

@thefordon.bsky.social

I made this Boolean Search Builder to help teach my students how to construct a good search. It's way too much fun to make these little instructional tools. booleanbuilder.replit.app