BARBRI’s Rob Dudley explains how AI is reshaping junior legal work and the skills firms will increasingly expect from future trainees
For aspiring lawyers, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is creating a new question about what it actually means to be useful as a junior lawyer. As AI becomes increasingly capable of handling routine legal tasks, BARBRI’s Rob Dudley believes trainees will need to offer something different. Their value, he suggests, will lie less in simply completing repetitive work and increasingly in their ability to think critically, understand context and communicate effectively with clients and colleagues.
That does not mean future lawyers need to become AI experts. Ahead of the upcoming Legal Cheek event with BARBRI on AI and the future trainee solicitor, Dudley, head of employability and engagement, says firms are more interested in whether candidates understand how AI is being used in legal practice and whether they can think critically about its capabilities and limitations. “What firms are now looking for is your understanding of the use of AI within practice and the profession more widely,” he says, stressing the importance of having thoughtful views on how it can responsibly support legal work.
For students, that means moving beyond being able to name the latest tools. Dudley says aspiring lawyers need to think carefully about when AI is appropriate, what risks it introduces and how its output should be assessed. “Is what I’m asking AI to do for my particular task, and whatever it’s giving me, going to be accurate? Is it going to be appropriate to the client that I’m working for?” he asks.
The changing trainee role
Those questions are likely to become increasingly important as AI changes the type of work traditionally handed to trainees. Dudley expects juniors to spend less time on repetitive tasks, or what some might call the “grunt work”, but says this does not make their role any less important. Instead, trainees may be expected to engage more deeply with the context of a task, whether by asking better questions, solving more complex problems, scrutinising AI-assisted work or understanding more clearly what the client is trying to achieve.
The ability to recognise when something is wrong, even when it looks convincing, will be particularly important. Dudley points to conversations with BARBRI alumni now in practice, where AI-generated work may be technically useful but still fall short of sounding professional. “Trainees need to really develop qualities that allow them to use technology really well, but also that professional judgement, communication, curiosity, creativity and accountability,” he explains.
That places traditionally human skills at the centre of the AI debate. Legal knowledge remains essential, but Dudley increasingly sees it as the baseline rather than the thing that distinguishes one aspiring lawyer from another. Skills such as critical thinking, decision-making and ethical reasoning may become increasingly important, and students can often demonstrate these through experiences well beyond legal work, from part-time jobs and volunteering to leadership roles, team projects and previous careers.
Communication is a good example. Regardless of how sophisticated the technology behind a piece of work might be, the final result still has to make sense to the person receiving it. “Talk to them like you would with any human,” Dudley says of communicating with clients. “You’ve got to be able to convey that in a really simple and clear way.”
For junior lawyers, then, AI may make interpersonal skills more rather than less valuable. Trainees still need to listen, communicate clearly, ask for help and know when to seek guidance. Understanding instructions, recognising when to escalate an issue, making sound decisions and taking accountability for work will remain fundamental, even if the mechanics of carrying out some legal tasks change considerably.
The challenge for law students is that firms are not all moving at the same speed. Dudley notes that some are embracing AI rapidly while others remain more cautious about how it could reshape their work. That makes it difficult for aspiring lawyers to predict exactly which systems or platforms they will encounter when they enter practice, but the direction of travel is clear. Future trainees will need both practical confidence with AI and the critical thinking skills to question when and how it should be used.
From AI awareness to AI fluency
BARBRI is also building that practical confidence into the way students learn. Dudley points to its recent acquisition of AI training platform Lega, intended to move students beyond general awareness towards genuine AI “fluency”. In practice, that means considering how AI could support a legal task, assessing its output and recognising where human expertise and ethical reasoning need to step in.
Rather than teaching AI in isolation, Dudley says the aim is to connect it more closely with students’ legal studies and future employment. “Through Lega’s content, students can work through practical problems, check AI-assisted outputs and reflect on what they have learned, giving them something far more meaningful to discuss with employers than simply saying they are interested in AI”.
Beyond the SQE
The wider point is that preparation for legal practice is becoming broader. With the profession “evolving at 100 miles an hour”, Dudley says students now need to understand much more than substantive law, from “the business of law” and how firms make money to technology, client expectations and the wider context in which legal services are delivered. For students already dealing with the demands of qualification, the volume of information can feel overwhelming, making part of BARBRI’s employability role about helping them cut through the noise and focus on what matters in practice.
That philosophy feeds into a broader view of legal education in which passing the SQE is only one part of becoming ready for practice. “You’re not just coming to us to do the SQE. This is a full journey,” Dudley says, with BARBRI supporting students from the point they are first considering their options through to life as alumni. A big part of that is helping students understand how their studies connect to careers in private practice, in-house, legal tech, legal project management and paralegal work.
Dudley also highlights mental health, wellbeing and career confidence as important parts of how prepared students feel when entering the profession. BARBRI prides itself on being an accessible legal provider to all; with students joining from a wide range of starting points, from recent graduates to career changers and those returning to work after extended breaks. The key, he says, is balancing flexibility with structure, underpinned by the support students need to succeed “not only in their SQE, but beyond that”.
BARBRI also looks to students themselves for feedback. Dudley points to its student committee, which acts as a formal student voice and helps ensure the student experience continues to evolve alongside the profession.
A career in legal education
Dudley’s perspective is informed by a career spanning legal education and employability. After initially pursuing legal practice and completing the GDL and LPC, he moved into career development and later held roles at two major law schools before joining BARBRI, where he has spent 11 years across a range of leadership positions. That experience has given him a broad view of the student journey, from qualification through to employment and practice.
For those heading into the new recruitment cycle, his message is reassuringly simple: “You don’t have to be an expert.” Instead, aspiring lawyers should focus on understanding how AI is actually used in practice and be able to demonstrate the critical thinking, responsibility and ethical awareness needed to use it well.
Ultimately, whatever tools aspiring lawyers use, the end product still needs to work for the client. “You still have to be able to deliver something that is professional, authentic, simple and straightforward for a client to digest,” Dudley says. As AI takes on more of the work traditionally associated with junior lawyers, that combination of technological confidence, problem-solving ability and strong human skills is likely to become an increasingly important part of what makes a trainee valuable.
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