Big Sis Briefing: AI and the Future of Legal Careers
The same conversation keeps landing in my inbox. Coaching calls, late-night DMs, comments on posts… lately, it’s always some version of the question: “What does AI really mean for my career?”
Last week alone, I spoke with a law student debating whether to keep going towards admission, a mid-level lawyer considering a shift to compliance and a partner wondering what this means for their junior team.
Here’s what I’m seeing from my side of the fence and why I think we’ve been looking at this the wrong way.
We Misread How AI Would Land in Legal
We used to think AI would sweep up the low-value tasks first: document review, basic research, maybe contract analysis. The idea was that “real lawyering” was safe.
That hasn’t happened as quickly as we anticipated but what I have observed is how AI has instead gone straight for writing.
Junior lawyers are finding that ChatGPT can draft something sharper than what they’d manage after three nights of bad sleep.
With half decent prompts, it can pull case law together, spot patterns and draft solid first cuts. Yes, it still hallucinates, so you must check everything, but the baseline quality is there.
One of my coaching clients told me: “I used to give research tasks to juniors. Now I just use AI and finish in half an hour. Why would I charge clients for junior hours when I can do it faster myself?”
That’s the sound of entry-level work shrinking.
The Quiet Shift in Junior Roles
Here’s the part no one says out loud: firms are quietly slowing hiring.
If AI can cover 60 - 80% of a first year’s workload like research, drafting, early analysis, document review, the business case for hiring big intakes just isn’t there like it once was.
But the tasks themselves aren’t vanishing. They’re moving upward.
Senior lawyers are doing what they once delegated. Partners are keeping more on their own plates. It’s redistribution, not elimination.
How to Stay Relevant
From the hundreds of conversations I’ve had with lawyers at every level, here’s what sets apart the ones adapting well:
Judgment is everything
AI can draft, but it can’t decide. Legal strategy, timing, framing is all still human territory.Think strategically
Your value is in setting the problem up and steering the direction, not just producing the piece of work.Communicate with humans
Clients, learned friends, regulators… persuasion and connection are still human-to-human.Keep learning
Niche skills can be overtaken fast. Treat yourself like a learning machine and stay curious.
Career Planning in Uncertainty
Law students ask if they should bother finishing. Associates wonder about in-house. Partners question entire practice areas.
Here’s my advice: stop trying to predict the exact shape of the future. Build skills that will hold up anywhere.
The old model of learn > firm > retire doesn’t really exist anymore. The new one is about building a portfolio of skills and shifting across roles and industries when you need to.
Where the Opportunities Are
While many are worried about AI cutting jobs, I see doors opening:
Legal tech and AI oversight roles
Cross-disciplinary practices (AI, biotech, climate law, space)
Client development and relationship roles
Advisory positions on emerging tech
LLM forensics
Maybe even Agentic AI dispute resolution?
Follow the ones that genuinely interest you, not just the “safe” ones.
Your Next Steps
Use AI tools now: test them and learn their limits.
Double down on the judgment-heavy parts of your role.
Invest in relationships: they’ll carry your career.
Keep curious and keep adapting.
Stop asking if AI will replace lawyers: ask how you can use it to become a better one.
The profession isn’t ending. It’s shifting. I believe that the lawyers who shift with it will find careers that are more strategic, more interesting and more human.
The future belongs to lawyers who work with the technology and not against it.
The profession has lived through typewriters, fax machines and email.
It will live through this too.
✨
