Was my BigLaw Associate Training a Waste of Billable Time?
Was my BigLaw Associate Training a Waste of Billable Time?
20 years ago as a BigLaw Firm associate, I billed 💸 💸 over long nights and weekends doing work that I wouldn't pay for now as a General Counsel, because of AI.
I was on the Firm’s “Private Equity Corporate Team” - associate shock troops to ingest and digest corporate documents to buy and sell companies. We created hundreds of 11” x 14” legal size printouts of tables summarizing material contract terms, including assignments and change of control provisions triggered by our M&A deal. I remember one two-week marathon where the Team read through hundreds of lease agreements for a retail chain that has long since gone bankrupt. Late nights in the conference room, with tables teetering with Thai takeout and piles of paper. Smells, and stresses, built up. Day after day, night after night, week then weekend.
One office night at 2 AM on the pleather swivel chair, under the white fluorescent lights, I found myself thinking dangerous thoughts:
“Wouldn’t it be great if a computer could just analyze all hundreds of these lease agreements?”
“Wouldn’t it save lawyers a lot of time and clients a lot of money?”
“And wouldn’t it be great if a computer could summarize all these hundreds of pages of summary tables - because who has time to read all of this anyway?”
I was precocious. 20 years later, there’s no way, as a General Counsel, that I would pay for half a dozen corporate associate lawyers to spend 70 hours a week for multiple weeks to summarize lease agreements. I would just direct them - “Use AI !!!”.
And yes, as the cold calls, emails, and LinkedIn messages I get multiple times a week attest – today’s AI contract lifecycle management systems can do in minutes what my “Private Equity Corporate Team” did in weeks, at ~1% of the billable cost. Win for associates who can go home at night and see their families, Win for clients who pay the bills, and Win for innovative LegalTech vendors like Billables.AI who make incredible efficiencies possible.
So, in this M&A diligence instance, AI has positively impacted the practice of law. But again, I find myself thinking dangerous thoughts:
“Was my junior BigLaw associate training a waste of billable time? After all, if a computer can do in minutes what I spent years of late nights and weekends doing, what enduring value did I really add?”
“What does law school, and lawyering, really mean when AI keeps getting better and better?”
Now, as a law school adjunct professor, my brilliant law school students are starting to have dangerous thoughts. (They are precocious too!). Here are my imperfect, evolving, answers:
Blood, sweat and tears, in whatever field, builds character. You only learn your craft by starting from the bottom and working hard.
Ingesting and digesting large volumes of documents nurtures what is euphemistically called “Attention to detail” - the type A legal eagle persona who freaks out over the Oxford comma and the inconsistent definitional cross-reference in the 100-page contract. Craftsmanship lawyers love.
Although you have to start from the bottom, and understand how things work, it’s fine to use tools to speed things up. This frees you up for higher level tasks like communicating with clients, strategic legal judgment (not an oxymoron), and taking out the Thai takeout so it doesn’t stink up the conference room.
So yes – because of AI, looking back, in some measures my junior law firm associate experience was an inefficient waste of time. But I am elated that LegalTech AI tools have evolved. Because the profession deserves tools that allow lawyers to focus on human judgments, not grunt work. And because clients deserve cost savings because the outside counsel bills are already Too D*** High.
Thank you for listening. 😅
