I’m going to come right out and say it. Junior corporate/commercial/M&A lawyers and non-lawyer contract specialists have been made redundant by AI.
And, sadly, most have no idea.
I do not say it lightly, but pretending otherwise helps no one.
You know my stance. A lawyer (me included) has no business doing anything software can do and then charging their clients for it. If a task can be automated, it should be.
Period.
Charging by the hour and doing it manually, when the tech exists and can be used responsibly, is, in legal parlance, hogwash.
So who (maybe) survives? The lawyers who have learned to optimize and fine-tune AI, while managing compute resources and maintaining full oversight for when it inevitably goes sideways.
My practice has become AI-native because, as a solo practitioner, I have the time (WFH FTW), and the incentive: to cut admin and time per matter, and keep rates fair and under-market, while still respecting the high value I bring (cue the ‘It’s true tho’ gif). If you’re currently employed, or god forbid still in BigLaw, you likely have neither.
And plenty of firms made it worse. When the 2023 AI panic hit, roughly one in five big firms warned their lawyers off AI, and some banned it outright. Understandable then, ruinous now. You won’t learn how to manage a tool your employer won’t let you touch.
The job is not just running the AI. Anyone can do that. First, you catch what it makes up. A section of the Corporations Code that doesn’t exist. A DPA that flips controller v. processor. That part is review, and it never stops. The harder part is deciding what to do with what you find. Whether a lopsided limitation of liability is a dealbreaker or a trade, and how hard to push given the client’s risk appetite. That is judgment, the one thing that can’t be outsourced. At least not yet.
Senior lawyers are, for now, safe, provided they are tech- and AI-savvy and can tell when the AI gets it wrong. The rest? What they sell, hours of grunt work, can now be done better, faster, and cheaper, often free. And tech-savvy founders, CFOs, and GCs are beginning to realize they’ve been overcharged for decades, often ‘upon the advice of counsel’ (more on that here).
Here’s a cool trick: drop my public profile link and rate into your favorite AI app along with your lawyer’s, and ask it to compare for value. (Please respect any NDAs you may have agreed to, and respect data privacy.)
If your lawyer is a peer doing great work at a fair rate, keep them.
If they’re not, book an intro or contact me at ftelegal.com/contact to say hi.
FTELegal.com. AI-native. And yes, Corporate-Commercial, Fintech/BaaS, SaaS, and Data Privacy are right up my alley.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Not legal advice. And yes, it IS true tho.
