Extract from Lisa Shuchman’s article, “Big Law May Be Training AI Better Than Its Associates.”
From Australia to the U.S., firms are pouring money into AI while hiring fewer entry-level lawyers. The bigger risk isn’t automation—it’s failing to develop the judgment, strategy and client skills future partners will need.
A lot of attention is being paid to the seemingly unabated lateral hiring boom in Big Law, which once again made news when star litigator Bill Savitt and five other partners jumped from prestigious and profitable Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which is itself a top-ranked firm with annual revenue approaching $5 billion.
However, less attention is being paid to the lower tier of the traditional law firm pyramid, where a large number of associates and junior lawyers perform high-volume, billable work that feeds profits to a narrow band of equity partners.
Revenues have been steadily increasing among the Am Law 200, yet the number of entry-level hires has remained flat over the past four years. Between 2024 and 2025, lateral hiring rose 12%, and last year the number of laterals outnumbered new entry-level lawyers for the third time in five years, according to SurePoint’s 2026 Law School Hiring report.
