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New Study Warns of an Emerging Capability Gap in the Legal Profession
A new global study has warned that leading law firms are facing an existential challenge in talent development as artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly replaces the traditional apprenticeship model that has shaped legal training for centuries.
The research, conducted by leadership consultancy The Positive Group, finds that the accelerated adoption of generative AI (GenAI) is dismantling the “learning-by-doing” framework through which junior lawyers historically developed judgement, expertise, and partner-level readiness.
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Titled The AI Leadership Challenge in Law, the report was produced in collaboration with researchers from Harvard Business School, RSGI, and Hubel Labs.
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The End of ‘Learning by Doing’
For decades, junior lawyers built their professional competence through repetitive, high-volume tasks such as document review, due diligence, and legal research. According to the study, this work was not merely operational—it was foundational to developing legal reasoning, risk awareness, and professional judgement.
However, as AI systems increasingly automate these core tasks, the report warns that the critical “repetition loop” is breaking. Junior lawyers are being pushed into higher-level advisory roles earlier in their careers, often before acquiring the instinctive judgement that comes from years of hands-on exposure to primary legal sources.
Anna Sutherland, Executive Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and a contributor to the research, explains:
“Traditionally, juniors learned by repetition through drafting, due diligence, and volume work. AI is changing that, so the challenge is to ensure they still build solid foundations while acquiring new skills.”
A Growing Scrutiny Gap and Rising Risk
One of the report’s most pressing concerns is the emergence of a “scrutiny gap” within law firms. With AI-generated drafts becoming commonplace, there is less incentive for junior lawyers to interrogate original sources, increasing the risk that machine outputs are accepted at face value.
Will Marien, Director at The Positive Group, warns this shift could erode critical thinking skills across the profession:
“If a junior lawyer hasn’t spent years digging into the ‘why’ behind a clause because a machine produced it in seconds, they lose the ability to spot nuance—where real risk lives.”
The study cautions that without deliberate intervention, firms risk producing a generation of lawyers proficient in managing AI tools but deficient in deep legal judgement and ethical appraisal.
From Information Producers to Curators of Meaning
The research highlights a fundamental shift in the role of junior lawyers—from generators of information to curators of meaning and challengers of automated logic. In many firms, younger lawyers are now among the most fluent users of AI tools and are increasingly driving innovation from the bottom up.
Christian Bartsch, CEO of Bird & Bird, notes that some of the most impactful innovation ideas now come from next-generation talent, prompting firms to create new channels to capture and scale these insights. In this environment, adaptability, curiosity, and the ability to interrogate AI outputs are fast becoming core professional capabilities.
Leadership Imperative: Building Adaptive Apprenticeships
The report concludes that law firm leadership must urgently rethink talent development strategies. AI maturity, it argues, is not measured by the number of software licences purchased, but by how effectively firms redesign the path to expertise.
Rather than preserving outdated models, the study calls for an “adaptive apprenticeship” framework—one that explicitly teaches critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and judgement as primary skills, not incidental outcomes of volume work.
Marien concludes:
“In a world where legal output is increasingly commoditised, the only remaining value is the human at the keyboard. If firms fail to fix the apprenticeship model now, they aren’t just losing juniors—they’re losing their future partners.”
