AI's increasing influence in the legal field requires top attorneys to become adept at communicating with artificial intelligence.
In the rapidly evolving world of law, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the value that legal professionals bring and the speed at which they can deliver it. This transformation is being embraced by lawyers as a professional evolution, rather than a threat.
A former Big Law professional, now at the helm of an AI startup, has created a privacy compliance suite that leverages AI for drafting and research. This is just one example of the rise of a distinct AI-legal skill set in high-performing legal teams. This new skill set is centred around proficiency with AI technologies that enhance productivity and legal decision-making.
Key Skills for the AI-Adept Lawyer
- AI Literacy and Terminology: Understanding AI concepts like agentic AI, generative AI (GenAI), and automation tools is essential for lawyers to effectively use them and advise clients.
- Technical Competence in AI-Powered Tasks: Lawyers are using AI for document review, legal research, contract analysis, and generating briefs or memos. They are also leveraging AI tools that go beyond keyword searches to understand legal reasoning, identify judicial patterns, and generate annotated memos across jurisdictions.
- Strategic and Ethical Integration: Developing strategies for integrating AI into legal workflows to optimize case management, client intake, and decision support while maintaining ethical standards is crucial. Understanding AI’s impact on client expectations for faster, more affordable, and higher-quality legal services is also key.
- Adaptability and Continuous Learning: Staying updated with rapid AI developments is essential to remain competitive and to navigate evolving legal frameworks around AI. Participating in ongoing AI training initiatives and workshops to build practical skills is becoming a core part of legal training programs.
- Leadership and Change Management: Lawyer-leaders must foster AI adoption culture in firms, addressing transformation challenges and positioning their offices for AI-driven competitiveness.
As these skills become more prevalent, they are starting to show up in hiring decisions. In-house teams want lawyers who can iterate faster, and clients are asking their outside counsel how they're using AI to create value.
The new skills include knowing when to trust AI-generated output, being able to translate legal logic into structured prompts, and evaluating tools for performance under legal scrutiny. Lawyers are building muscle memory around prompt design, testing outputs across multiple models, and asking better questions.
The cost of building a similar privacy suite through traditional legal channels was significantly higher and slower. Lawyers are focusing on understanding how to frame legal tasks for AI systems with specificity and flexibility.
There is a cultural shift among lawyers, moving from AI hesitancy to hands-on experimentation. Nothing AI produces carries weight until a lawyer decides how it holds up in the real world. Lawyers who understand how to guide AI with precision and control are making the biggest impact today.
AI is becoming a structural layer in how legal teams deliver insight. It is not eliminating lawyers, but is recalibrating what legal professionals need to know to remain effective. Legal departments are rethinking workflows, using AI for early-stage drafting and research. Lawyers are filtering the first pass of a diligence memo through three different lenses - legal risk, business impact, and jurisdictional nuance.
In summary, the emerging AI-legal skill set for lawyers includes technical fluency with AI applications in core legal tasks, strategic understanding of AI’s role in legal service delivery, continuous adaptation to AI innovations, and leadership in managing AI-driven change within law firms. This skill set bridges legal knowledge, technology aptitude, and client-focused innovation critical to the legal profession in 2025 and beyond.
[1] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_technology/resources/ai-in-law/ [2] https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2020/06/11/how-ai-is-changing-the-legal-industry/ [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/03/11/ai-in-law-the-rise-of-the-legal-bot/?sh=6c4c18c32c3f [4] https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2020/01/23/how-lawyers-are-using-ai-to-improve-their-practice/ [5] https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2019/11/21/how-law-firms-are-using-ai-to-improve-their-practice/
- As legal teams increasingly leverage AI for tasks such as document review, legal research, and drafting, proficiency in technology related to computing and artificial intelligence is becoming crucial for lawyers.
- In the transition towards an AI-focused legal industry, developing a skill set centered around AI literacy, technical competence, strategic and ethical integration, adaptability, leadership, and change management will be essential for lawyers seeking to remain competitive and relevant.
