Simmons senior partner argues that top tech could accelerate trainees’ careers
A top lawyer has urged training contract hunters not to focus solely on the eye-watering salaries on offer at some City law firms, but to also consider how these firms are using artificial intelligence (AI) — a factor that could play a defining role in their future legal careers.
This career pointer comes courtesy of Simmons & Simmons senior partner Julian Taylor, who suggests that AI tools could reshape the legal industry’s ongoing “war for talent”, which has driven some newly qualified (NQ) solicitors’ salaries as high as £180,000.
Taylor argues that the career paths of “budding lawyers” are being irrevocably altered by AI, “becoming less linear and hierarchical”, with trainees taking on high-level work much earlier.
Taylor — an employment law specialist helping Simmons on “its journey to becoming a next-generation law firm,” according to his online bio — says young associates who will thrive are those who use AI tools effectively. He advises them to look carefully at how their target firms are adopting the technology and how it can support their long-term career development, rather than getting distracted by six-figure salaries.
But it’s not just AI that should be on the TC checklist for would-be lawyers. Taylor also points to factors like culture, values, and purpose — though he quickly concedes that these often have to compete with firms’ “relentless pursuit of profit and growth”.
“I’m optimistic about the future of law and how AI is helping reshape it,” Taylor concludes. “As an industry we must continue to focus on societal value, balancing technological progress with personal service to clients, and embracing the dawn of a new legal culture.”
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