AI and the Mentorship Gap
Before one delves into the debate of whether Artificial Intelligence, (“AI”), simplifies the job of a lawyer – or potentially replaces us – one question is crucial to ask: what, exactly, is the job of a lawyer?
Before you reach for your phone and ask ChatGPT or its AI cousins, here is our view. There are two broad skills required in the legal profession; the first is good research and the second, sound judgement/prudence.
In its current state of development, AI has a good grasp on research, especially fast research. Judgement, comes with practical experience, not simply with the ability to process vast amounts of data quickly, and thus, it is still a skill to be developed by lawyers over time. Ultimately, good research has diminished significance if not coupled with legally sound strategy.
What this implies is that ‘tech-savvy’ Gen Z, albeit excellent at grasping and using AI tools to do their work faster, (or not do it at all?), still needs mentorship on how to use AI effectively. AI may produce an output for lawyers, but one must still have the ability to discern its accuracy and relevance.
Traditionally, the role of junior lawyers would involve repetitive tasks such as proof reading, first drafts, and contract reviewing – tasks which can take hours. We can see that AI makes it possible to complete this faster paving way for junior lawyers to take up more complex work. It should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a short-cut. Reports show that using AI has led to faster and better-quality work for the majority of lawyers.
However, according to LexisNexis’ report, ‘The Mentorship Gap’, more than 70 percent of the responders believe that lawyers are struggling to develop legal reasoning and argumentation skills in the age of AI. This may be because junior level work, although repetitive, builds the requisite discipline and judgement. This does not imply that the benefits of AI must be sidelined in order for skill development; new methods must be adopted to mentor AI-equipped lawyers. Indeed, only 2 percent of the responders believe that AI improves their learning. We agree.
The speed at which AI operates would be of great assistance at a senior level, but a junior lawyer requires skills beyond mere pace. AI, especially law centric and paid models, are certainly helpful in conducting research and administrative tasks, but lawyers still need to be mentored with respect to novel skills such as verification and source checking the outputs produced. Reports thus conclude that AI should be seen as a ‘thinking partner’.
For an aspiring advocate, using AI to stress-test arguments and find potential counterpoints before court, could be valuable without undermining skill development. Technological literacy, attention to detail and drafting effective prompts for AI tools are skills which will become increasingly important with time. Ironically, AI has also led to so called ‘reverse mentorship’ where junior employees are helping their seniors upskill in AI.
Ultimately, AI is not a replacement for research and legal judgement, it is better seen as a means of building those skills earlier in your career as a lawyer. The legal profession does not simply constitute sitting behind a screen and going through documents; a major part of it is client-facing and/or court-facing. Some skills are still built through experience, mentoring and good old human intelligence!
© Lawrence Power 2026
Sources:
https://www.benefitnews.com/news/ai-is-accelerating-the-reverse-mentorship-trend
https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/insights/the-mentorship-gap/index.html
https://www.legalcheek.com/2026/02/research-suggests-ai-is-impacting-junior-lawyers-judgement/