United States v. Heppner and AI Discovery: Confidentiality and Privilege Concerns
Recent trends across the country now demonstrate that a client’s use of public AI tools may be both discoverable and may potentially waive the attorney-client privilege. On February 10, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York reaffirmed foundational confidentiality principles in the context of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the legal field in United States v. Heppner , No. 1:25-cr-00503-JSR. In Heppner , the defendant was indicted on charges of securities and wire fraud in violation of 15 U.S.C. §78j(b) and 18 U.S.C. §1343, respectively, and related conspiracy, obstruction, and false statement charges . During the execution of a search warrant on his property, federal agents seized electronic devices containing AI logs and AI-generated documents, which contained the defendant’s use of AI to prepare reports outlining his legal defense and strategy. The defense argued that the AI-generated documents were privileged on the basis that the AI-genera...