How GenAI Can Help Young Lawyers Achieve Professional Satisfaction – vLex Writes in ABA Young Lawyers Division's TYL
vLex writes in the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s TYL, exploring how GenAI can help young associates escape the routine work trap and reclaim time for meaningful professional development and personal satisfaction.
It’s 9 p.m. on a Thursday, and you’re deep into what your supervising partner described as a “straightforward” 50-state survey. You’ve been at it for three weeks, methodically researching employment law variations across all 50 states, and you’re only halfway through. Meanwhile, your partner just texted asking if you can attend tomorrow’s critical client deposition. The answer, unfortunately, is no—you’ll still be buried in state statutes.
In a recent article published in the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division’s TYL publication, vLex’s Sierra Van Allen, former associate at Carlton Fields, explores how GenAI can help young associates survive—and thrive—during the most challenging years of their legal careers. The article offers young attorneys a path toward work-life integration without compromising the quality that defines excellent legal work.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
Accelerate Your Professional Development
GenAI functions as an intelligent research assistant that can read, analyze, and synthesize legal information at remarkable speed. More importantly for new lawyers, AI can handle routine tasks efficiently, freeing your time and mental capacity for the learning experiences that actually develop legal judgment.
The common fear that AI will stunt professional development misses a crucial point. Traditional approaches often trap new lawyers in repetitive, low-skill work that provides minimal growth opportunities. Document review marathons, endless research loops, and administrative tasks consume the time and mental energy you need for higher-value learning.
AI changes this dynamic by handling routine elements of complex projects, allowing you to engage with substantive legal analysis earlier in your career. Without AI, you might spend months on your 50-state survey, researching in isolation and missing opportunities to observe senior attorneys in action. With AI speeding up research tasks, you can attend that critical deposition, observe negotiation tactics, and engage with strategic decision-making while still completing your assignments thoroughly.
The Gift of Time: What Will You Do With Yours?
At its core, GenAI gives young lawyers the gift of more time. What you do with that time is up to you.
Maybe you’ll use that time to advance your career. With AI handling repetitive tasks, you can attend that critical deposition, observe senior attorneys in action, and develop the advocacy skills that will position you for partnership.
Or maybe you’ll use that extra time going to dinner with friends, attending your nephew’s soccer game, or simply getting eight hours of sleep. Neither choice is better or worse than the other. The point is that with GenAI, you have that choice. Without GenAI, you’d still be grinding through your 50-state survey.
You can read the full article here on TYL.
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