An appointment as law firm partner is the traditional and obvious career path for ambitious lawyers in private practice — “making partner” before 40, they hope.
But the AI boom is creating an alternative career path for both junior and senior lawyers: working for a legal-tech start-up, with an equity stake often included. Their roles include developing the emerging technology, advising on strategy and acting as a bridge with law firms and in-house teams.
In these jobs, they can also provide credibility for investors in these rapidly growing businesses, along with board-level business contacts and deep legal expertise.
In the past year, legal-AI start-ups such as Harvey and Legora, with valuations in March 2026 of $11bn and $5.5bn respectively, have hired lawyers.
AI tech platforms want such recruits “because they need people who really understand the law and what lawyers do that adds value on a day-to-day basis”, says April Miller Boise, outgoing chief legal officer at US computer chip company Intel. Boise says one of the most advanced law firms in the use of AI recently lost several lawyers to an AI business.
Salary is unlikely to be the main draw. Remuneration for already well-paid lawyers has been pushed higher by a talent war in recent years.
Yet for some lawyers, a start-up’s potential for rapid advancement in career and earnings may hold more appeal than a steady ascent in private practice, says Sloane Poulton, director at legal recruiter Edwards Gibson. He points to the possibility of a “huge amount of money” by cashing in an equity stake if a legal-tech company goes for flotation, or — more likely — is sold to another business.
Lawyers “have to go through a very long career path before [they] start earning really serious, serious money [as a] a partner in the law firm”, he says.
Farrah Pepper recently joined Harvey from the world’s biggest insurance broker, Marsh McLennan, where she was chief legal innovation counsel and chief global discovery counsel. What prompted Pepper, a champion of tech-based innovation in the legal sector, to join Harvey after more than two decades in private practice and in-house?
“I’ve always been at the intersection of tech and law — at a law firm, at some big corporations — and this is an opportunity to shape the future of law for not just one organisation, but for the whole profession,” she says. Pepper adds that she was approached by Harvey about switching company.
At Harvey, Pepper works in a team of “legal innovation partners”. They are mainly former lawyers, who act like informal guides, confidantes and partners for Harvey’s clients. That role may include helping a legal executive “bounce ideas” about legal AI and its potential return on investment, when preparing for a board meeting, she says.
Alex Fortescue-Webb joined Legora last year as global head of legal engineering. He had left Ashurst, a UK-based international law firm, where he was global head of legal managed services. Part of that job involved working with AI, including for large-scale contract reviews and for advice when negotiating contracts, he says.
When tech company OpenAI released ChatGPT 3.5 in late 2022, Fortescue-Webb realised the AI chatbot could potentially automate many legal tasks. He also realised he would like to develop AI within the tech industry rather than in a law firm — and “before it was too late”.
On the law firm side, he would be just one person or in one team “working out how to . . . [use AI] to enhance how legal work was done”. But on the tech supply side, “you’re working with large numbers of clients, both law firms and corporates”.
Fortescue-Webb leads a team of about 70 legal engineers, around 90 per cent of whom are former lawyers. The job — a hybrid of tech and expertise in the law — remains fairly new, whether in a technology business or a law firm. But industry salaries can exceed $300,000 a year, plus an equity stake and bonus.
The main role of the legal engineers, says Fortescue-Webb, is to help customers maximise value from using Legora software. For example, they might help clients to customise it for certain legal tasks or provide training.
About half of his working day involves talking to current or potential Legora clients. He also spends a lot of time recruiting more lawyers and technologists: “You wouldn’t be able to hire the people fast enough” in a law firm, he says.
In search of AI expertise, will law firms and legal departments try to lure staff from big tech companies and start-ups?
Ropes & Gray’s recruitment of Gretchen Greene last year might indicate yes. Greene, who specialised in AI, legal and policy at Facebook owner Meta, was hired by the firm to lead on AI strategy.
Jane Rogers, a partner at the firm, says recruitment of AI specialists is “either from other firms or maybe from corporations where they’ve had some [AI] experience”. But she adds that the firm recently hired an AI trainer from a background of teaching law and tech.
For some lawyers, switching from a structured and hierarchical law firm to a fast-growing small business may be a culture shock.
Yet Poulton at Edwards Gibson says a lawyer with experience, contacts and insight may also have a “sort of [statesmanlike] way about them”.
That, plus an ability to sell a product or service to clients, could help them flourish in a start-up. “Some law firm partners are fantastic sales people,” Poulton points out. “Gone are the days when they could sit there and wait for the phone to ring.”
