Tidal Wave: How AI is Poised to Replace Younger Lawyers, and How Those Lawyers Can Adapt to Make Themselves Irreplaceable
By: Sam Riddle
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has resulted in frequent speculation regarding the role of lower-level employees across different industries. Particularly, the emergence of large language models (“LLMs”) as a method for researching, summarizing, and producing documents has resulted in many industries seeking to offload repetitive and tedious tasks to AI, rather than pay lower-level employees to do the same work less accurately and at a slower pace.
- Trends Indicated by the Data
So far, the data on AI usage does not indicate a mass replacement of all law firm associates. The American Bar Association recorded the highest number of total law graduates ever last year: 38,937.[1] Even with more law school graduates looking for legal work, the National Association for Law Placement found that the most recent law school graduates experienced the “highest overall employment rate ever recorded.”[2] This dual increase has resulted in a “13.4% year-over-year increase in long-term, full-time positions requiring bar admission.”[3] This data collectively shows that the job market for young lawyers has not yet been significantly impacted by the introduction of AI and LLMs to the legal field.
However, despite the positive data indicating relative safety for associates in the legal field, there are warning signs. First, the median salaries across law firms fell 3% for entry level jobs.[4] This is despite the aggregate demand for legal services continuing to rise.[5] Second, workers themselves expect AI to greatly impact their role in the coming years. A Thomson-Reuters survey found that 80% of respondents “believe AI will have a high or even transformational impact on their work over the next five years.”[6] The same survey found that 38% “expect to see those changes in their organization this year.”[7] Additionally, while only “22% of organizations have a visible AI strategy . . . those that do are 3.5 times as likely to be seeing a return on investment (ROI) compared to those with no significant plans.”[8] This trend will put significant pressure on organizations to draft ambitious AI implementation strategies to avoid being left behind by competitors. Lastly, the increase in AI usage is not only a corporate trend. Surveys show that “85% of U.S. professionals expect that at least a quarter of their skills will be impacted by AI,”[9] and that, on average, individuals are planning to increase their AI usage in the next year.[10] Those who adapt to using this technology gain a tremendous competitive advantage. In the legal field, some new AI systems have reduced tasks that typically take hours down to mere minutes.[11]
Therefore, the trends tell a confusing story: young lawyers entering the legal workforce are not seeing any signs of replacement, while young lawyers in the legal workforce are increasingly relying on AI for completing work. Additionally, law firms are experiencing more demand than ever for legal work, while LLMs are rapidly increasing their proficiency at all tasks. Lastly, there is increasing pressure on all businesses to aggressively develop and implement an AI strategy, and replace lower-level workers with automated models, while law firms are still increasing their demand for associates.
What explains these seemingly conflicting statistics? The legal profession’s reluctance to adapt to changes in business. While the legal profession has always been resistant to altering the systems and processes it relies on,[12] this resistance has been starker in the face of technological improvements. A law review article in 2018 described this as the “the legal field’s glacial adoption of technology and AI.”[13] Going back to the 1990s, when corporations quickly adapted to the internet and email, law firms initially resisted until client demands forced them to.[14] A 2020 ABA survey found that “only 58% of firms use cloud-based data storage” and “only 7% of survey respondents used tools employing artificial intelligence.”[15] While those numbers have likely increased in the years since that survey, it explains why the AI “wave” may not be dramatically affecting the hiring strategies of big law firms. While young lawyers at an individual level are adapting to changes, law firm leadership appears to be straddling between keeping their existing hiring models in place and adapting to AI usage.
- Application
Given the rapid adoption of AI in other fields, and the past resistance by the legal field to adapt to technological changes, how should young associates and legal interns best prepare to weather the inevitably late (but sweeping) adoption of AI when law firms do adapt to these changes?
First, it is important to recognize that, while full replacement of workers with AI may not happen quickly in many fields, replacement of less productive workers with highly productive workers will continue to happen. This is especially relevant now, where business leaders are warning that “AI won’t replace humans . . . but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.”[16] Law students and associates may be temporarily safe from mass firings, but they will never be safe from replacement at an individual level. Therefore, it is imperative that they become as proficient at using AI as possible. Successful adoption of new models and applications of AI will not only make them more resistant to being replaced but make them more competitive for higher roles in their law firm. The hesitancy of older lawyers to adapt may even give younger lawyers openings to replace them.
Second, young associates need to deeply understand the current limitations of LLMs. While refusal to use AI will doom some associates, unquestioned adoption will continue to doom others. There are some tasks which LLMs are proficient at. Verifying case citations is not one of them.[17] An associate who over-relies on AI and embarrasses their firm is likely to get themselves replaced before the AI wave even hits.
Lastly, young associates need to keep themselves apprised of new AI trends in the legal field. While adoption is lagging now, mass hiring freezes and layoffs will likely hit exponentially. Law firms frequently look to each other for assurance, and if a major law firm drastically cuts their hiring of new associates, most others will quickly follow. The competitive advantage conferred by slashing associate pay without losing productivity will push others to mirror the industry.[18] While job growth in some sectors can offset job displacement in others, business experts have warned that workers unaware of AI trends may be the last ones “standing at the inevitable game of AI-inspired career musical chairs.”[19]
[1] Bob Ambrogi, Record Law Grad Employment Rates Suggest AI Isn’t Killing Off Lawyers Just Yet, LawSites (Apr. 2025), https://www.lawnext.com/2025/04/record-law-grad-employment-rates-suggest-ai-isnt-killing-off-lawyers-just-yet.html.
[2] Richard Tromans, No AI Impact On Total Law Grad Hiring, But…, Artificial Law. (Aug. 4, 2025), https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/08/04/no-ai-impact-on-total-law-grad-hiring-but.
[3] Ambrogi, supra note 1.
[4] Tromans, supra note 2.
[5] Id.
[6] Thomson Reuters, Future of Professionals Report 2025 (2025), https://www.thomsonreuters.com/content/dam/ewp-m/documents/thomsonreuters/en/pdf/reports/future-of-professionals-report-2025.pdf.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Nicole Black, How Will Generative AI Impact Legal Work?, Above the L. (Oct. 2, 2025, at 11:15 ET), https://abovethelaw.com/2025/10/how-will-generative-ai-impact-legal-work/.
[10] See Thomson Reuters Inst., Future of Professionals Report 2025: Strategic AI Adoption: Unlocking Innovation and Maximizing Returns (2025), https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/c/future-of-professionals (finding that survey respondents “predict that AI will save them five hours weekly or about 240 hours in the next year”).
[11] Robert J. Couture, The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Law Firms’ Business Models,Harv. L. Sch. Ctr. on the Legal Pro. (Feb. 24, 2025),https://clp.law.harvard.edu/knowledge-hub/insights/the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-law-law-firms-business-models/.
[12] See Laura Ernde, Five Ways the Legal Profession Is Changing, But Slowly, Att’y at Work (Feb. 16, 2023), https://www.attorneyatwork.com/five-ways-the-legal-profession-is-changing-but-slowly/.
[13] Michael Simon et al., Lola v. Skadden and the Automation of the Legal Profession, 20 Yale J.L. & Tech. 234, 251 (2018).
[14] Ron Friedmann, Back to the Future: A History of Legal Technology, Prism Legal (Jan. 14, 2026), https://prismlegal.com/back_to_the_future-a-history-of-legal-technology/.
[15] InfoTrack, Why Are Many Firms Still Reluctant to Implement Legal Technology?, A.B.A. J. (Nov. 10, 2021, at 14:45 CT), https://www.abajournal.com/advertising/article/why-are-many-firms-still-reluctant-to-implement-legal-technology.
[16] Karim Lakhani, AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI, Harv. Bus. Rev. (Aug. 4, 2023), https://hbr.org/2023/08/ai-wont-replace-humans-but-humans-with-ai-will-replace-humans-without-ai.
[17] See Sara Merken, Judge Disqualifies Three Butler Snow Attorneys from Case over AI Citations, Reuters (July 24, 2025, at 10:22 PT), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judge-disqualifies-three-butler-snow-attorneys-case-over-ai-citations-2025-07-24/.
[18] See generally Margin Call, Amazon Prime, at 52:25 (Before the Door Pictures 2011) (“There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first; be smarter; or cheat. Now, I don’t cheat. And although I like to think we have some pretty smart people in this building, it sure is a hell of a lot easier to just be first.”).
[19] Linda Rossetti, AI & Your Job: 3 Ways To Win At AI-Inspired Career Musical Chairs, Forbes (Oct. 24, 2023, at 15:30 ET),
tennesseelawreview.org 