Suffolk Superior Court Justice Kenneth W. Salinger said T. Michael Morgan — the son of Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan — may not join other lawyers from the firm who are members of the Massachusetts bar in representing families of the people whose bodies had been donated.
T. Michael Morgan is a member in good standing of the Florida and Kentucky bars, but not a member of the Massachusetts bar, according to the order.
Justice Salinger said he was "troubled" by Morgan's "demonstrated failure … to live up to the ethical standards required by trial lawyers."
The judge cited a 2025 instance in Wyoming federal court in which Morgan, along with other lawyers from his firm and the Goody Law Group, was sanctioned for filing pretrial motions containing cases that AI had hallucinated.
Although Morgan's associate drafted the motions in the Wyoming case — a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart — using an in-house, AI-powered platform called MX2.law, Morgan himself signed off on the fake case citations that were generated and included in the filings.
"Morgan's ethical transgression in this Wyoming case was quite serious," Justice Salinger wrote, adding that Morgan has not shown that he has since worked to prevent something like this from happening again.
"Although Attorney Morgan disclosed the recent federal sanctions against him in his motion, Morgan makes no attempt to show that he has changed his practice to comply with his obligation to review any papers filed in court over his signature, or that he has taken any steps to ensure that he and his law firm do not file motions or legal memorandum citing nonexistent case law in the future," Justice Salinger wrote. "This omission is surprising. And troubling."
Also cutting against Morgan's pro hac vice bid is that he filed the motion before being granted permission by the court, which runs afoul of both state law and rules established by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
"Morgan's decision to flout Massachusetts law in this manner is not a minor technical violation," Justice Salinger wrote. "These further transgressions suggest that Morgan has not learned from the mistakes that he made in the federal case in Wyoming, and that at least for now he cannot be trusted to comply with Massachusetts law and procedural rules."
A representative for the firm said that they hope Justice Salinger will allow Morgan, who practices in Florida, to show why the Wyoming federal judge let him continue with the trial in that case, "notwithstanding the submission of hallucinated cases in a brief drafted by an associate."
"At the time of that situation in early 2025, Mr. Morgan immediately took responsibility for the error and took steps to remedy the situation both with the court and defense counsel," the representative said. "Mr. Morgan also instituted additional safeguards within the firm regarding use of A.I. We hope the court might reconsider this denial, despite the procedural errors here as well."
The suit involving Harvard University returned to state court last year after the Supreme Judicial Court reinstated claims against the nation's oldest university over what one justice called a "ghoulish" and "macabre scheme" by its former medical school morgue manager to dissect, steal and sell body parts from donated medical research cadavers.
The justices found that, while Harvard cannot be held liable for the actions of the employee, Cedric Lodge, the school "had a legal obligation to provide for the dignified treatment and disposal of the donated human remains, and failed miserably in this regard, as Harvard itself recognized."
In December, Lodge was sentenced in Pennsylvania federal court to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking the body parts.
The families are represented by Keches Law Group PC, Morgan & Morgan PA, Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah, Monahan & Associates PC, the Law Office of James M. Peterson, Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP, Mazow McCullough PC, Cuneo Gilbert & Laduca LLP, Sauder Schelkopf LLC and Bochetto & Lentz PC.
Harvard is represented by Joan A. Lukey, Martin F. Murphy, R. Nicholas Perkins and Max A. Jacobs of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP.
The case is Glenn Wilder et al. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College et al., case number 2384CV01461, in Suffolk County Superior Court.
--Additional reporting by Julie Manganis, Lauren Berg, and Phillip Bantz. Editing by Nicole Bleier.
Update: This article has been updated with a statement by Morgan & Morgan.
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