How to Land Your First Role in Legal AI?

Whether you are a newly-minted law graduate at the crossroad, or a seasoned legal professional ready to make your jump into the constantly evolving field of law and AI, landing your first role in legal tech & AI can be intimidating, especially given the lack of resources available. LexAI Jobs strives to build a community for legal professionals and companies at the bleeding edge of legal and AI, offering critical resources and support for professionals looking to transition and/or further develop in the field. As the competition for legal tech talents intensifies, here are the four things you can do today to not only equip yourself with the foundational legal and AI knowledge required to land the role, but also prepare yourself for this paradigm shift for the decades to come.

I. Upskill in AI fundamentals for lawyers

Beyond the general AI courses geared towards beginners, it’s essential that legal professionals equip themselves with specialized knowledge of AI & Law covering general overview, strategy & policy, and tech proficiency.

Beginner:

1. AI for Legal Professionals (Coursera)

   • An online course on Coursera introducing how AI applies to legal work

   • Targets lawyers, paralegals, and law students seeking foundational understanding of AI tools and implications in legal practice

   • Covers contract review, legal research, automation

   • No tech skill required

   • Beginner level with 2 weeks of light work

Policy:

1. AI for Legal Professionals (I): Law and Policy (FutureLearn)

   • An online course offered through FutureLearn that focuses on the intersection of AI technologies, legal frameworks, and public policy, helping participants understand both technical and regulatory dimensions of AI in law.

   • Provides the policy lens that spans overs ethics, governance, human rights

   • Critical for compliance/legal advisory roles

2. GenAI for Legal Ethics and Practicality (Coursera)

   • Building ethical AI policies for law firms

   • Practical workflows: integrating AI into daily legal work

   • Covers risks, confidentiality, and responsible use of AI

   • Focuses heavily on real-world legal use + compliance strategy

Tech:

1. AI for Legal Practice (Coursera)

   • Covers document review, contract analytics, and predictive case outcomes.

   • Build legal AI tools (chatbots, automation)

   • Learn basics of NLP, data, workflow automation, predictive analytics

   • Includes hands-on projects that you can showcase (see section 2, 3)

2. AI for Lawyers (II): Tools for Legal Professionals (FutureLearn)

   • Builds on the introductory module AI for Lawyers (I) and provides a more technical, application-oriented perspective.

   • Introduces Python + AI tools

   • Includes legal analytics, document automation, natural language processing for contracts, predictive modeling, and case management technologies.

   • Covers algorithmic limitations, data governance, and bias in automated legal reasoning.

   • Help develop deeper technical skills

II. Mindset Change : from fear of AI taking over jobs to building topical ownership

Through talking with many professionals in the industry, one main concern is the uncertainty regarding the changing landscape of practicing law and how it will affect the job market and talent demands. Yet, it’s important to envision your career and the future of law from the point of empowerment - how you will be able to leverage on AI and technology to magnify your work and purpose. Think of the inefficiencies and pain points in your own legal experience, and how can you change it using AI & tech. Make sure to also articulate your own vision and interests in your application and interview (more to come on this).

III. Resume Highlight: reframing experience through legal tech angle

1. Reframe your legal experience from legal tech angle:

   • Showcase how you’ve utilized AI-assisted tools in your previous roles

2. Add a dedicated “Legal tech & AI skills section”

   • List the courses in you completed in AI & Law ( see section 1)

   • Use of AI-assisted legal research

   • Include prompt engineering for legal workflows

   • Include self-directed projects from legal courses in section 1, or section 2

IV. Building Network: expanding industry network and build topical ownership

• Join industry network and local tech meet-ups that not includes lawyers, but also legal tech companies and engineers transforming the industry

• Build your topical ownership and regularly publish articles and views on legal tech on LinkedIn

• Join the community of LexAI jobs for regular job postings, industry talk and updates.