Topic

AI-Generated Attorney Photos: The New Frontier of Legal Deception

Attorneys using AI-generated headshots and synthetic images to misrepresent their appearance to clients — and why this practice may violate attorney advertising rules.

A growing number of law firms and solo practitioners are using AI-generated images — synthetic photographs created by artificial intelligence — to represent themselves on their websites and in advertising materials. In some cases, the disclosed attorney's photograph may not be a real photograph at all. In our investigation of Ernestas Pravilionis and EPRA Legal, we found a disclosure buried at the bottom of the About page stating that the website 'employs AI-generated images to depict the lawyer.' A client choosing an attorney is making a consequential decision in which the visual impression of who will represent them is a material factor — and presenting a fictional AI image as if it were a real photograph may constitute exactly the kind of false impression that attorney advertising rules prohibit. This topic covers the growing use of AI-generated images in attorney marketing, the regulatory framework that applies, and how clients can identify AI-generated photographs.

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