Want more content like this? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Starting out as a new lawyer can feel like you’ve reached land after years at sea. Everything is still a little topsy-turvy, no matter how much law school prepares you for your first job. This “drinking from a firehose” feeling applies to every newly-minted law school graduate, whether you’re starting as a criminal defense attorney or your first corporate position.
On top of getting acquainted with the basics of your new firm, policies, procedures, and etiquette, you’ll also need to learn brand new tools, like artificial intelligence. In fact, 69% of legal professionals told us they use AI in their daily jobs for our 2025 State of AI in Legal Report.
AI is now a part of entry-level legal work, but it’s not a shortcut to skipping the fundamentals. Smart legal professionals know that using AI is not a chance to outsource thought or legal judgment, but a way to accelerate the tedious busywork that—let’s face it—lawyers at the beginning of their careers often get stuck with.
Here’s how you can use artificial intelligence to hit the ground running as a new lawyer:
AI can help you get up to speed faster
Law school covers a lot in a short amount of time. But you won’t learn every single case, ruling, or procedure that you’ll encounter in your first job. AI can help fill in those gaps by assisting in your research—defining key terms, giving you a basic framework to work from in a new area, or suggesting open questions to deepen your research further.
When we asked legal professionals how AI helped them day-to-day, the overwhelming answer was that it saved time. If you want to make a great first impression, using AI to speed up routine tasks can be one way to do it.
Source: State of AI in Legal Report, Ironclad
One of the most compelling use cases for AI is as an assistant for legal research. Instead of slogging through hours worth of case files or old documents, AI can quickly scan, analyze, and surface the most relevant information right away. Alternatively, it can help you work through counterarguments, provide legal precedents from similar cases, or compare angles as you build your legal argument.
This includes summarizing and organizing important documents, such as contracts or previous client cases. That means helping you understand long cases, policies, diligence materials, or meeting notes—especially if you’re starting on a project as it’s in flight.
AI turns overwhelming assignments into doable work plans
Your first job will be a whirlwind of requests from your manager or other members of your team. It can be overwhelming to balance competing priorities from multiple stakeholders. AI can help you break down a given task, identify the facts that you’re still missing, and spot any issues in your current approach, giving you a plan of attack.
If you’re not sure how to approach a new task but don’t want to bother your manager (again), ask AI to help you build a first-pass checklist that breaks down an assignment into manageable pieces that you can tackle before your deadline, instead of staring at a blank page wondering how you’ll get it all done.
AI sharpens first drafts and makes you a stronger communicator
As a new lawyer, you’ll also be asked to draft materials for the rest of the team. While you don’t want to let generative AI completely draft a document without reviewing it first, it can solve the “blank page” problem if you’re not sure where to start. If you are going to use AI, just make sure to review and rewrite to make sure it reads well and to eliminate common AI phrases (“it’s not X, it’s Y,” for example.)
The best way to think of AI for your writing is not as a replacement for your own words but to sharpen your first drafts. Have AI suggest edits to tighten your language, or if you’re not sure how to phrase a more delicate question for a senior lawyer on your team, AI can suggest a few ways to get started.
Use AI to prepare for conversations
Sitting in a meeting when you’ve just started at a new job can get confusing, fast. You’re still trying to figure out if that’s Doug from accounting or Doug from procurement sitting next to you, there’s acronyms flying around, and you’ve if you’ve dropped into a new case or project that’s already been going on, you’ll have lots and lots of questions.
The thing is, your senior staff doesn’t always have time to answer those questions in the moment. You can use AI to better prepare for these conversations ahead of time, by giving you matter background before meetings, or, if you’re presenting, reviewing your talking points for logic and flow.
After the meeting, it can help you craft questions for outside counsel or your supervisor to clarify what was discussed. If you have a transcript available, you can feed it to AI to take notes and summarize next steps, too.
Source: State of AI in Legal Report, Ironclad
That’s likely why more than two-thirds of the legal professionals we surveyed told us AI helps them communicate more effectively with their team. AI can help you bridge the gap from your academic experience—and the way you’ve been taught to communicate with peers or professors—and a real-world one.
Use AI to pressure-test your thinking
Where AI gets really useful is as a test of your legal approach to a given issue. Present your argument and ask AI to find gaps in your analysis, any missing risks you haven’t considered, or weak assumptions, and then have it provide counterarguments so you can understand what you’ll be debating against. This can be such a helpful way to pressure-test your assumptions and make the final case that much stronger.
Doing this well comes down to effective prompt engineering. Instead of asking AI to “help improve the below text,” for example, give it plenty of instructions, such as, “Assume the role of client or outside counsel. What counterarguments would you make to the document below? Please identify what’s missing from the text that could strengthen this argument with a bulleted list of suggestions to improve.”
See the difference?
When not to use AI
AI can be an incredibly useful tool for new lawyers and established professionals alike. But it’s not a replacement for your own judgment. Whenever you use AI, think critically about the outputs you receive. That’s because even though it can feel like you’re interacting with something that is thinking, it’s really just putting together words that often go together. (That’s why sometimes you’ll get answers that sound really smart, but are actually just a bunch of jargon strung together.)
While AI can get you started on a variety of tasks, it’s still up to you to finish them. You can’t skip legal research or human review. Most importantly, don’t treat AI as the final answer. Double- and triple-check your sources and citations. Remember, your legal judgment is always going to be more important than whatever a machine spits out.
AI builds better work habits so you can start ahead of the game
Lawyers who want to make a great first impression as they start in the industry can use AI to help them get ahead, moving faster and more efficiently, asking better questions, and accelerating their productivity. Done right, AI can help you grow your skills. Almost half (46%) of legal professionals we surveyed believe AI creates more career opportunities, not fewer.
Source: State of AI in Legal Report, Ironclad
But don’t mistake AI as a shortcut for your own smart thinking. The real differentiator in your work is going to be quality, not quantity. Use AI to offload the mundane tasks that take hours—not to outsource your thinking or legal judgment.
Learn more about how legal professionals use AI with our Legal AI Handbook.
Ironclad is not a law firm, and this post does not constitute or contain legal advice. To evaluate the accuracy, sufficiency, or reliability of the ideas and guidance reflected here, or the applicability of these materials to your business, you should consult with a licensed attorney.
