Legal AI startups are hiring law firm associates by the dozens to work as "legal engineers," a role designed to build the very tools that handle the tedious tasks associates once did. That shift is now accelerating, with companies like Harvey and Legora each employing more than 100 legal engineers, and it carries implications for how the next generation of lawyers will be trained.
Legal engineers split their time between product development and customer-facing work. They test AI tools, train law firm clients, and constantly refine the technology based on what lawyers actually need. Hongxi Wang, who left Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman to become the founding legal engineer at startup Equall, described the mindset: "You take what you were practicing and think about, what is the thing I hate doing the most?"
The work being automated is often the non-billable, repetitive labor that eats up associates' time. Miranda Hatch, a former Cleary Gottlieb associate now at Norm Ai, helped build a tool that reviews credit agreements in bankruptcy cases. "Something that would have taken genuinely 50 to 100 hours as an associate takes 15 minutes," she said. Other legal engineers described automating startup cap table reconciliations, fund investor due diligence requests, and M&A diligence.
Escaping the grind
The pull is strong. Harvey now employs 160 legal engineers, a number it says has grown fivefold in the last year, with 51 more roles open. Legora counts roughly 100 legal engineers and 43 open positions. The job requirements vary, but many companies look for former practicing lawyers with a few years of experience and a willingness to be "tech curious," as one Legora job posting puts it. Some also hire consultants.
Equity is typically part of the compensation, giving legal engineers a potential windfall if the startup succeeds. Alexis Nicholas, a former law firm and in-house lawyer who moved from London to San Francisco to join contract management startup Ivo, called the moment "our version of the dot-com boom."
The migration of lawyers into AI roles highlights a broader interest in AI for Legal training, as firms and professionals adapt to the technology. Many legal engineers said they were frustrated by the slow pace of change inside law firms. "In law, there's that reputation that we're doing this because it's the way it's always been done," said Jana Elmore, a litigation associate at A&O Shearman before joining Legora. "I always found that infuriating."
The hidden cost of skipping the basics
If AI tools mature to the point where they handle most of the repetitive work, younger associates may never develop the foundational knowledge that comes from doing it themselves. That's a concern for Aniket Kesari, an associate professor at Fordham Law School. "Without struggling through" the basics, he said, it's harder to "do higher level thinking all the time."
AI evangelists counter that the change is no different from when redlining went digital or email replaced memos. They argue it will free lawyers to focus on more intellectual and strategic work. Still, everyone interviewed agreed that law school and firm training programs will have to adapt, and the vast amounts of data collected by AI might help with that retooling.
Why this matters for legal professionals
For law firm associates, the rise of legal engineers signals a new career path that blends legal expertise with technology, and it's one that already offers equity upside and a faster pace of change. The risk is that those who don't build AI fluency may find themselves competing with peers who can automate the tasks that once defined junior roles. The job of legal engineer may evolve or disappear, but the lawyers who moved into it say they'll follow the wave. As Nicholas put it, "If it's fleeting, at least I tried."
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