About 50% of summers said they are ambivalent about the implementation of generative AI in law, according to Law360 Pulse's latest survey of summer associates.
Nearly 40% said they have a positive view of generative AI adoption in the legal profession, while fewer than 10% said they have a negative view.
Summer associates' mixed views on generative AI implementation in the industry doesn't seem to be driven by a lack of experience using the technology, as 80% said they used AI tools at their law firms this year, according to the survey.
The students reported they found AI tools helpful for research and document and email drafting, and confirmed that these tools save time and increase efficiency.
In addition, they said they believe AI tools could help close the access-to-justice gap and eliminate the billable hour.
Desmond Mantle, a third-year law student at Stanford Law School who was a summer associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, told Law360 Pulse in an interview that AI tools are helpful for finding a starting place when doing legal research.
"I use it like I would a more senior attorney from whom I would want to get the pointers on the best sources to start from," he said.
Yet even though summer associates see the benefits of these tools, they also have a wide range of concerns about AI adoption in the legal industry, including potential overreliance on the tech, negative environmental impacts, job replacement and lack of reliability.
Liz Kufour, a second-year student at Emory University School of Law who was a summer associate at Perkins Coie LLP, said in an interview that she is concerned law firms that leverage AI tools might hire fewer associates. She added that she is also worried that certain tasks like legal writing will be outsourced to AI.
"I do kind of worry about possibly losing the ability to actually do certain things. It's so easy to put something into AI and have it write it for you," Kufour said. "It's like we might lose the ability to actually do our own legal writing, which I think is an art to an extent."
Anna Ward, a third-year student at University of Illinois College of Law who was a summer associate at Holland & Knight LLP, said in an interview that when she used AI tools for legal research, the tools would report they found matching cases when they actually didn't.
"It really felt like it was just trying to answer in affirmative and give me an answer that would be beneficial for my research, when really that's not what the case said at all," she said.
Despite summer associates' concerns about AI, they said they plan to continue using the technology in their legal careers.
Kufour said one way associates can differentiate themselves is by being able to use these tools effectively and efficiently.
"I'm not the biggest fan of it, given my concerns about replacement and … actually doing things from our own brains, but I definitely will be using it to get better at it, because it's the reality we're living in now," she said.
Ward said she plans to continue to use AI for menial work like reorganizing information and as a starting point for legal research.
"At a firm, they're paying you to be efficient, and you want to be on par with everybody else," she said.
Summer associates' apprehension about generative AI adoption in the legal industry comes at a time when many BigLaw firms are moving full speed ahead with AI rollouts and providing their lawyers with many different training opportunities to become proficient in the technology.
Some BigLaw firms have been hosting "hackathons" to give their summer associates hands-on experience with generative AI tools.
In June, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC hosted its first summer associate hackathon for all 50 summer associates in its U.S. offices.
Tim Fox, director of practice innovation and analytics at Ogletree, told Law360 Pulse in July the firm decided to have a hackathon for its summer associates so they could learn how to use generative AI tools in case they weren't being exposed to the technology in law school.
Fox said Ogletree plans to host another hackathon for summer associates next year, with a few changes — for example, the firm plans to hold the event earlier in the summer, and allow summer associates to use multiple tools instead of limiting them to one.
"Once they're at the firm, they'd have access to all those tools, so artificially limiting them probably won't make the most sense," Fox said.
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP hosted its first summer associate hackathon last year, and held the event again this year.
Gina Lynch, chief knowledge and innovation officer at Paul Weiss, said in an email that the event gives summer associates an opportunity to learn not only how but when to use AI tools.
"Summer associates don't just learn to use AI tools — they develop the judgment to assess when AI adds value to legal assignments and when traditional approaches serve clients better," she said.
Claire Gilmartin, chief professional development officer at Paul Weiss, said in an email that the firm also plans to provide future summer associates with practice-specific AI training.
"This integrated approach ensures that practical AI skills develop alongside real legal work, so our lawyers build AI competency that seamlessly ties into their substantive legal expertise," she said.
--Editing by Philip Shea and Alanna Weissman. Graphic by Jason Mallory.
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