Summer Hires Can Leverage AI and Still Produce Signature Work

It’s summer and you’ve arrived at the law firm, ready to experience first-hand the role of a lawyer and put the skills you’ve been learning to use. Not so long ago, “the role of a lawyer” and “skills” were simpler concepts, but suddenly, the entire profession is grappling with what artificial intelligence’s impact will be on both.

By next fall, after you’ve taken the bar exam and you arrive for your first day as a full-fledged associate, there will have been dozens more advancements and announcements about what AI can do. No one knows exactly how the profession will have evolved.

But no matter what the future holds, there are lessons that will endure about AI, your role as a lawyer, and the skills of the future—and you can put them into practice this summer.

Using AI Isn’t Lazy

Don’t be distracted by anyone who suggests that using AI makes you lazy. In fact, some of our hardest working lawyers are also our most prolific AI users. As one client put it, AI “makes excellent lawyers more excellent.”

This perspective extends to the work of junior lawyers. We regularly feature associates during our monthly partners meetings showcasing examples of how they used AI as a “safe space” to ask questions and build confidence with new assignments, to level-up their work by using AI as a thought partner, and to uncover insights worthy of discussion with senior lawyers that previously would have been undiscoverable across thousands of documents. Associates are celebrated for these effective uses of AI.

But there’s another end of this spectrum: using AI to do your work for you. You, not AI, are responsible for the work product that you deliver to more senior lawyers. Nothing about AI changes that accountability or the critical role that your judgment should play in determining whether work has been completed to the best of your capabilities.

Before handing your work over to a more senior lawyer, ask yourself, will that lawyer be reviewing and critiquing your best work or are you effectively asking them to review AI-generated work product?

There’s a lot of talk about whether AI replaces associates in law firms. The real question is whether associates evolve with the technology to make themselves better associates or whether they revert to merely passing along AI-generated results. If junior lawyers turn in AI-generated results, then the question of whether AI will replace associates becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Know the Rules

Using AI effectively will set you apart, but using it effectively for a client who doesn’t want you to use it will set you apart for the wrong reasons. You’re sure to be confused: What kinds of AI can I use? Can I use AI for client work? Can I use AI for this client’s work? Can I use AI for this team’s work? There’s a very simple path to overcome this confusion: Ask!

Hopefully, you’ll get a crash course in what’s acceptable AI use in your first days at the firm. But even there, you’re likely to be focused on the firmwide rules of the road. Clients and partners may have their own perspectives. Don’t assume that the answer is “no AI” simply because you haven’t heard otherwise. Many clients and partners today expect lawyers to use AI in the ordinary course of doing legal work, and don’t feel it’s necessary to call it out.

Whether and how AI can be used may also differ depending on the kind of work you’re doing or the kind of data you’re handling. For example, using AI with protected health information will have different requirements than using AI on other client data.

As summer associates new to the practice of law, you should get comfortable asking not only broadly whether the use of AI is encouraged (or, at a minimum, acceptable), but also whether there are any specific limits on the use of AI for the assignment you’re working on.

Get Comfortable With Change

I recently heard someone say, “AQ is the new survival skill.” Adaptability quotient is a measure of someone’s ability to adapt to change, uncertainty, and new circumstances. Resilience is essential to adaptability; otherwise, change becomes overwhelming.

Adaptability doesn’t come easily to a profession that largely depends on precedent and doing things the way they’ve always been done. Dr. Larry Richard, known for his research on lawyer psychology, has assessed that approximately 90% of lawyers score in the bottom half when it comes to resilience. As someone starting out, you have an opportunity to flip the script and get ahead by flexing these muscles early.

Integrate AI into your personal life, be curious, seek out new (uncomfortable) experiences, challenge the status quo. It’s increasingly unlikely that advancements in AI and the resulting impacts on the legal profession are going to get less overwhelming anytime soon. Get in the habit now of inviting and adapting to change, so you’re well positioned to view changes, whatever they may be, as opportunities to excel instead of setbacks.

Ultimately, you can’t hide from AI. Even the American Bar Association has made clear that competence includes understanding both the benefits and risks of AI. Running away in fear of the risks, thereby ignoring the benefits, doesn’t meet this standard.

The summer associates who stand out this summer and, ultimately, as full-time associates, won’t be determined by who did or didn’t use AI. They will be the ones who continuously make a point to understand both the risks and the benefits of evolving technologies, ask the right questions, and exercise good judgment about when, why, and how they use these tools to drive value for their clients.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.

Author Information

Alma Asay is Crowell & Moring’s chief innovation and value officer, a former Am Law 10 attorney turned legal tech entrepreneur, and a recognized legal innovation thought leader.

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