Big Law May Be Training AI Better Than Its Associates

A Law.com analysis published August 2 examined the emerging allocation of firm investment between lateral hiring and AI infrastructure, framing the question of whether the lateral boom — exemplified by Wachtell partners moving to Gibson Dunn and similar high-profile moves — is drawing management attention and capital away from the harder, less visible work of AI workflow integration. The piece notes that the attention economics of a marquee lateral hire are immediate and reputationally legible, while the ROI of AI training infrastructure is diffuse, slow to materialize, and not yet reliably measured. For mid-market and regional firms watching BigLaw closely, the implication is that the firms most likely to pull ahead on AI unit economics may not be those making the biggest lateral bets, but those making the least-glamorous investments in structured AI training and workflow redesign.