Law Partnership Survey: firms increase graduate intake even as AI use becomes standard

While there is broad agreement by firm leaders that AI is being used to speed up non-core work such as summarising, basic drafting and other administrative tasks, a few firm leaders still warned that graduate numbers might be hit in the future.
“Ultimately, AI is a tool to enable junior lawyers to delegate the basic work and free them up for the more specialised areas of law, which AI cannot cover completely or which a client still needs a trusted human adviser,” said Cornwalls partner Paul Agnew.

Graduate hiring levels across the largest firms remain strong. HWL Ebsworth Lawyers took on 113 graduates (up 19 per cent year-on-year). Allens hired 108 (down six per cent) and Norton Rose Fulbright added 107 graduates (up 16 per cent).
MinterEllison lawyer Kiara Morris said AI had cut the administrative burden of graduates and freed up time for extra training “and being able to involve ourselves in more substantive work. Now we might have some more capacity to attend client meetings and do more face-to-face work with clients”.

In the 80s when software was adopted by engineering design firms, young graduates wasted less time doing math on pen and paper and learned more crucial design work at earlier stages of their careers. A similar pattern will probably emerge for the legal profession.