‘How are junior lawyers using AI?’

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By Legal Cheek on

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Amid the hype and hyperbole, one Legal Cheek reader wonders what real impact technology is having on the day-to-day working lives of trainees and associates


In our latest Career Conundrum, a curious reader reaches out to probe how firms are really using AI — and what ripple effects it might be having across the legal job market.

“This isn’t really a career conundrum, but I’d love it if you ran it anyway. I was reading your latest cc, ‘How’s everyone feeling about the NQ job market?‘, and noticed a lot of negative comments from September NQs about how tough things are right now when it comes to securing roles. One comment in particular stood out to me. It raises the question of whether firms’ use of AI might be contributing to the problem, especially given how many firms have recently reported fairly solid financial results. I’m curious to know what your readers think, especially trainees and junior lawyers. Are they using AI on daily basis? If so, what for? And perhaps more importantly, do they foresee it coming at the expense of NQ or junior lawyer roles any time soon?”

If you have a career conundrum, email us at tips@legalcheek.com.

4 Comments

Who relies upon the unreliable narrator?

Whenever I have used AI (whether copilot or something more specific that’s apparently geared up for legal research/drafting) I’ve been disappointed.

I last asked it to summarise a section of an act for me, and it did summarise something, just not the section I asked it to. It does this consistently.

Senior lawyer

I use it to do the work of junior lawyers. If you have a decent system and know how to make requests it works wonders.

Barney the tree

We’re not yet at the point where AI is replacing juniors.

We may very well see a day soon where the number of paralegals and trainees are reduced due to AI doing the most administrative tasks but I think that day is still a few years away.

Currently, people are using AI to reduce tasks; not roles. But that will likely change.

To be honest

I use it as an online girl friend as I’m lonely and sad and all my female colleagues think I’m unattractive.

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