Hallucinated? Wrangling AI for the Legal Professional

For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community. To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.

Annette Demers earned her BA (Hons. Law) from Carleton University in 1995, her LLB from the University of Windsor in 1998, and her MLIS from Western in 2002. In 1995, she attended the Hague Academy of International Law. In 2016, Annette participated in the Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute as a mentor. She was appointed as head of the Paul Martin Law Library in August of 2011 until June 30, 2022. Annette has taught Advanced Legal Research for the past fifteen years. She has decades of law library experience. From 2005–2011, she worked as a Reference Librarian in the U. Windsor Law Library. Prior to this, she worked as a Reference Librarian for International, Foreign and Comparative Law at the Harvard Law School Library. Annette has also practiced law early in her career. Annette co-chaired the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Artificial Intelligence Working Group from 2023 to 2025. She is currently a member of the University of Windsor Board of Governors Pension Committee, and the WUFA Retirement and Benefits Committee. Annette is Past-President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL). From 2013–2015, she was President of CALL. From 2011–2013, she was Vice-President of CALL. Annette currently co-chairs the CALL Professional Development Committee. In 2010, she chaired the CALL Conference Planning Committee which brought 350 attendees, presenters and exhibitors to Windsor. In 2008, she was essential in planning and executing CALL's first-ever Law Library Leadership Institute. Annette is a member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Information Resources Network, a not-for-profit corporation incorporated under the OBCA for the purpose of carrying on the central management of the Ontario county law library system. She also sits on the Board as Secretary of the Canada South Land Trust, a local conservation organization. Annette's current areas of interest include: legal applications of artificial intelligence, the future of law librarianship, legal research education, leadership and organizational theory. Annette has published several articles and was part of the core author team for all four editions of the Comprehensive Guide to Legal Research, Writing and Analysis (Emond Montgomery, 2024), with Professors Moira McCarney and Ruth Kuras.