The Future of Becoming a Lawyer—It’s Changing Fast

A Few Personal Updates First

Newsletter Cadence

I’m moving to a more organic publishing schedule. I found that posting strictly once a week is simply too rigid. From now on, I’ll publish when I have something meaningful to say. I already have another issue in the works and will share it this week.

Podcast Interviews

As an introvert, I’ve avoided podcast interviews for years. Being on camera has never been my thing, but this year, I decided to push myself. Last month, I participated in two interviews, both of which were published last week.

The first was with Exploring Your Potential, an organization that should be in every school in the country. Their work is invaluable for high school and college students, and their name describes their mission perfectly. The results speak for themselves.

You can watch the interview here.

The second interview was with Greg Hodgson on The New Gig podcast, where we discussed the biggest trends shaping the future of work globally.

AI and the Future of Work

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, recently said:

“I am of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do. It’s just a question about how we apply it and use it.”

Whether or not that’s 100% true today is irrelevant. Even if AI can’t yet do every job, it will be capable of much more in the near future.

If you’ve been paying attention to AI’s rapid development, this isn’t a bold claim. The pace has been mind-bending, especially in the past year. It’s no longer crazy to imagine a world where AI can take on work that once required human expertise.

That doesn’t mean AI will replace humans. Some jobs are about more than efficiency or knowledge. They require human connection, judgment, and trust.

However, this does mean we need to rethink every job. Some will no longer exist in the same form, and others will change entirely.

I’ve started mapping out how different professions will evolve and how education will need to adapt. The first profession I looked at was law.

A Profession at a Crossroads

Most people have a general idea of what lawyers do and the long educational path required to become one. But that wasn’t always the case.

For most of history, there were no law schools. If you wanted to be a lawyer, you found one to train under and learned by doing. That’s how Abraham Lincoln and many others did it.

It wasn’t until the last century that law became an academic pursuit in the U.S., requiring three years of formal education before sitting for the bar exam. The shift made sense at the time, as legal knowledge was difficult to access, and formal schooling ensured consistency across the profession.

But today, everything has changed. AI can scan case law in seconds, generate contracts in minutes, and answer complex legal questions with precision. The way we train lawyers no longer fits the world in which we live.

The question isn’t whether legal education will change. It’s how.

How AI Is Already Reshaping Law

A few years ago, I had a dispute with a service provider who did a terrible job. I needed a formal letter outlining the issues, but I didn’t want to spend time or money on a lawyer for something so small.

Instead, I used an AI-powered legal tool. I described the situation, and in 10 minutes, I had a professional, well-structured letter.

I sent it, and within 24 hours, the company refunded me $4,500 without my even requesting one. They must have realized what a poor job they had done.

That was my introduction to AI’s potential in law. Since then, I’ve used AI to draft contracts, write terms of service, and generate privacy policies. None of these documents is perfect, but they are better than having nothing at all. And they cost me $49 a year.

If AI can handle basic legal work, what does that mean for the profession? What will lawyers actually do?

A New Model for Legal Careers

Becoming a lawyer today is expensive and time-consuming. Law school takes three years, costs a fortune, and most students graduate without ever drafting a real contract or interacting with a client.

Then, to take the bar exam, they pay thousands more for a prep course, because law school doesn’t actually teach them what’s tested on the exam.

There is a better way.

I propose a remix of the traditional model, one that brings back apprenticeships but modernizes them with microcredentials and AI-assisted training.

Here’s how it could work:

1. Begin with a foundational microcredential covering legal basics and AI-powered research tools.

2. Gain hands-on experience through an apprenticeship, working four days a week in a law firm under the supervision of an experienced attorney.

3. Set aside one day each week for education, earning microcredentials in areas such as contracts, torts, ethics, etc.

4. Prepare for the bar exam in the final stretch, just like today.

This model would reduce the cost of legal education, accelerate the entry of new lawyers into the field, and ensure that they graduate with real-world experience rather than just theory.

Why This Would Work

This isn’t a radical experiment. Other industries already use this model.

• Medicine: Hospitals rely on residency programs to train doctors. No one expects a medical student to start practicing right out of school.

• Tech: Many companies hire software engineers based on project work, bootcamps, and practical assessments, without requiring a Computer Science degree.

• Accounting: The CPA path blends coursework with hands-on experience before certification.

Law could follow suit. Firms already invest in training new associates because law school doesn’t prepare them for actual practice. Why not make that training the primary path?

The bar exam should still exist. It ensures that every lawyer meets a baseline level of competence. This structure wouldn't need to change since most people already learn bar exam material in prep courses rather than law school.

Building a Legal Career in an AI-Augmented World

Lawyers are not going away, but their role is evolving. AI can handle research, drafting, and repetitive tasks, freeing lawyers to focus on strategy, negotiation, and human judgment.

Under this new model, lawyers would spend more time advising clients and less time drowning in paperwork. Legal education would be more practical and affordable. And the legal profession would be stronger, not weaker, because of these changes.

For a century, we have assumed that law school is the only way to become a lawyer. But history tells a different story. Now is the time to rethink how we train legal professionals and create a path that fits the world we live in today.

It’s time to look forward, not back.