Law firms rethink how they train junior lawyers as AI takes routine work

In short: As AI takes over more routine legal tasks, law firms are changing how they train junior lawyers and putting more weight on hands-on coaching.

What's going on

For centuries, junior lawyers learned by doing routine work alongside senior lawyers. That included tasks like reviewing documents and drafting basic contracts. The Financial Times reports that AI is now doing more of that “grunt work,” which means firms need new ways to teach early-career lawyers.

This shift is also part of a longer move toward more structured training. As firms grew from the 1990s onward, informal mentoring, like learning mainly through office proximity and networking dinners, became harder to maintain. Many firms created dedicated training teams and added programs that teach leadership, project management, and business skills.

Now AI is pushing another change. Some firms are adding AI-based training tools, including simulations that let junior lawyers practice realistic situations. Orrick, for example, is using an AI-powered deposition simulator, which is a practice tool that mimics a legal questioning session (like a flight simulator, but for court-style interviews). It uses AI “agents,” meaning software that plays different roles like a witness or opposing lawyer.

What to watch

Firms say they still need human skills like emotional intelligence, meaning empathy and managing relationships. They also want junior lawyers to double-check AI output carefully, since AI can sometimes produce confident but wrong answers, sometimes called “hallucinations” (making things up). The big question is whether firms can replace old training work with new practice methods, without losing the attention to detail that used to come from doing the basics.

Source: Financial Times