The End of the Junior Associate? How AI and In-House Legal Teams Are Breaking Big Law’s Oldest Business Model

Brad Karp at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP said the quiet part out loud

https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2025/03/junior-lawyers-will-be-significantly-replaced-by-ai-tech-experts-says-paul-weiss-chair/

Junior associates have been the means of production in Big Law for decades—highly educated, well-compensated cogs in the billable hour machine. Law firms hired fresh law school graduates by the dozens, set them loose on mountains of documents, and billed them out at premium rates. It was a brilliant, if brutal, system: firms extracted value from these young lawyers for a few years, then cut most of them loose before they became too expensive.

Then, AI showed up. Suddenly, software could do the same work faster and cheaper without needing a vacation day. Now, the industry is asking a fundamental question: if AI can handle most of a junior associate’s workload in seconds, what happens to the traditional law firm model?

The knee-jerk response is that this shift spells doom for law firms and young lawyers alike. But that’s too simplistic. This transformation could be great for firms, in-house teams, and even junior lawyers if they’re willing to adapt. AI isn’t eliminating legal work; it’s changing how and where it gets done.

For anyone who has spent time in Big Law, this was inevitable. Junior associates have long been tasked with work that doesn’t require a law degree—document review, contract due diligence, and case law research. If we are being honest, a seasoned paralegal can actually do a great job with these tasks. These tasks aren’t about legal strategy but volume, accuracy, and speed. AI now does all of this better than humans ever could.

And that’s a good thing.

Nobody goes to law school dreaming of spending their days reviewing thousands of emails in a litigation database. If AI can take that off the plate of junior lawyers, they can start doing legal work—negotiating deals, advising clients, solving problems. This isn’t the end of training; it’s the beginning of better training.

But while AI is a clear win for efficiency, it raises existential questions for law firms. For decades, firms have operated on a simple but effective model: hire large classes of junior associates, bill them at high rates, and filter out most of them before they reach the expensive senior ranks. That model is already struggling, and AI is accelerating its decline.

Firms simply don’t need as many junior associates when AI can handle the bulk of their traditional workload (See above). Instead, they’ll need a different type of talent—fewer entry-level hires, more mid-level attorneys, and AI-literate lawyers who can integrate technology into high-value client solutions.

Some firms will resist this change, clinging to the old ways as long as possible. But smart ones, the ones that embrace AI as a tool rather than a threat, will evolve. They’ll restructure their training programs to focus on higher-level legal skills earlier in a lawyer’s career. They’ll shift the business model from document factories to true strategic advisory firms. In the long run, law firms that adapt will become leaner, more efficient, and more profitable.

While law firms are figuring out how to adjust, in-house legal teams are thriving.

For years, corporate legal departments have been seen as cost centers—a necessary function that relied heavily on outside firms for complex work. That’s changing fast. AI has leveled the playing field, giving in-house teams the tools to handle more sophisticated legal matters internally.

Corporate legal teams are no longer just compliance managers and contract reviewers; they’re becoming self-sufficient, strategic advisors to their businesses. AI allows them to streamline workflows, analyze risk in real-time, and reduce reliance on outside counsel.

And the numbers tell the story.

-????????? Sixty-eight percent of in-house teams using AI report lower external legal spending (AI and the Future of Legal Careers: The Rise of In-House Teams as Training Grounds 1 (2025) (citing a 2024 survey reported in https://www.acc.com/resource-library/genai-and-future-corporate-legal-work-how-ready-are-house-teams)

-????????? Nearly 40 percent say AI accelerates their subject-matter expertise development (AI and Legal Careers, supra note 1, at 2 (citing a 2025 study reported in https://www.everlaw.com/blog/career-growth/a-2025-in-house-legal-career-roadmap-for-the-age-of-ai/)).

-????????? And a growing number of law graduates—58 percent—view in-house roles as just as prestigious as law firm jobs (AI and Legal Careers, supra note 1, at 2 (citing 2024 law school respondent data reported in https://www.everlaw.com/blog/ai-and-law/in-house-legal-pros-gen-ai-will-improve-work-and-career/)).

This is a seismic shift in how legal careers develop. For years, law firms were seen as the best place for young lawyers to start their careers. Now? That’s no longer a given. AI enables corporate legal teams to train junior lawyers as effectively as law firms—without the billable hour grind.

Young lawyers who choose the in-house path get exposure to meaningful legal work earlier. They work closely with business leaders, understand corporate strategy, and develop faster than their law firm counterparts. And unlike in Big Law, they don’t have to bill 2,000+ hours a year just to stay employed.

For companies, this means building stronger internal legal teams that can handle more work without turning to outside firms. For junior lawyers, it means a more stable, fulfilling career path. And for the profession as a whole, it means a more balanced relationship between firms and in-house teams.

This shift doesn’t mean law firms are going away—far from it—but their role will change.

Instead of serving as training grounds for the entire legal profession, firms will evolve into high-value advisory hubs. They’ll still handle complex litigation, bet-the-company transactions, and regulatory crises. But for routine legal work? In-house teams will handle more of it themselves.

That’s not a bad thing—it’s a necessary evolution.

Law firms embracing AI and legal tech will become more efficient and valuable to their clients. In-house teams that invest in AI-driven legal training will build stronger, more capable teams. Young lawyers who understand AI and how to work alongside it will have more career opportunities than ever before.

The best firms will find ways to partner with their clients smarter and more efficiently. Instead of competing for work that AI has made obsolete, they’ll focus on high-level legal strategy, advocacy, and problem-solving. Meanwhile, in-house teams will build better legal functions internally, creating career opportunities that never existed before.

This is not a zero-sum game. AI doesn’t have to mean fewer lawyers or fewer opportunities. It means a smarter division of labor between firms and in-house teams and a better path forward for young lawyers.

Brad Karp pointed out what we all knew—junior associates were always the engine of law firm profitability. But now, AI is shifting the legal training model, and that’s not a bad thing.

The smartest law firms and in-house teams won’t fight this change. They’ll embrace it.

For law firms, this means focusing on higher-value legal work and developing lawyers who can operate in an AI-driven world. For in-house teams, it means building legal departments that can rival any top-tier firm. It means a more dynamic, flexible, and fulfilling career path for young lawyers.

This isn’t the end of legal training—it’s the beginning of something better.