If you take a look at the recruitment page of Latham & Watkins and search for roles that relate to AI, it paints a picture of how much the legal world has changed. In 2016, many firms didn’t even have a staff member with the word ‘Innovation’ in their title, let alone someone with ‘AI’ listed as a key element of their job description.
In fact, even as recently as 2023, some of the below roles may not have existed in quite the same way. How the world has changed since genAI became ubiquitous…!
So, to give a taste of what one of the largest law firms in the world is hiring for today – and how much they’re paying for those roles – AL is sharing a small sample of some of the jobs currently on offer. Of course, please note: this site is not advertising these roles, and they are re-shared here purely to widen the market’s knowledge in general. Job descriptions have been shorted to save space also.
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And here’s the sample of AI roles:
Research Services Manager – Operations, AI Platforms
This role will be responsible for leading the evaluation, testing, and operational implementation of AI-powered research services platforms that support the Research Services function, while developing testing protocols, coordinating pilot programs, collecting feedback, and providing recommendations for implementation and adoption.
Max Pay Rate USD $180,000.00/Yr.
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Associate Director of AI & Innovation – Client Services
This role will be responsible for leading the Technology Client Services team, which sits at the intersection of client engagement, legal technology, generative AI, innovation strategy, and business development, while leading the firm’s client‑facing legal technology, artificial intelligence, and innovation engagement strategy in alignment with the Associate Director of AI – Legal Innovation.
Max Pay Rate USD $400,000.00/Yr.
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Knowledge Transformation Attorney
This role will be responsible for identifying, curating, structuring, and optimizing the firm’s transactional precedents, playbooks, and accumulated practice expertise for use in AI‑powered systems, while curating and transforming the firm’s institutional legal knowledge into AI‑ready assets.
Max Pay Rate USD $250,000.00/Yr.
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Senior Manager of Legal Innovation
This role will be responsible for leading the firm’s strategy for helping litigation attorneys identify, evaluate, and adopt AI and technology solutions that improve legal workflows, enhance client service, and deliver strategic value to the firm, while developing and leading a team of innovation attorneys who advise litigation attorneys and practice group leadership on the effective, practical, and responsible use of AI and technology across litigation workflows.
Max Pay Rate USD $360,000.00/Yr.
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Legal Engineering Attorney
This role will be responsible for designing the AI‑native systems that translate elite legal expertise into reliable, repeatable, machine‑executable outputs, including prompts, schemas, evaluation suites, playbooks, and end‑to‑end workflows, while decomposing complex transactional and litigation workflows into discrete, measurable tasks with defined inputs, outputs, decision points, and quality criteria suitable for AI execution.
Max Pay Rate USD $250,000.00/Yr.
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AI Services Attorney
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Services Attorney is an integral part of Latham’s AI vision.
This role will be responsible for operationalizing AI-powered solutions to support case teams throughout the full lifecycle of a matter—from client outreach through trial and appeal or deal closing—while partnering with attorneys across practice groups to identify areas where AI support could improve efficiency, clarity, or speed of execution
Max Pay Rate USD $250,000.00/Yr.
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Senior AI & RPA Solutions Consultant
This role will be responsible for executing advanced business process improvements through automation and AI. This will involve carefully mapping and evaluating critical business processes.
Max Pay Rate USD $190,000.00/Yr.
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And as noted, the firm is looking to fill all of these positions, above and beyond all the many people it already employs across a range of roles that already connect to AI.
As noted, it just shows how far things have come. Not that long ago, a law firm – even a giant one like this – might have had just a handful of experts working on AI tools.
Today, the internal spend and recruitment focus on AI is vastly greater, and as you can see, the above roles will embed across the business and have a positive impact across multiple aspects of the firm.
Of course, one could then ask: if there is so much high-level investment and recruitment into AI among large law firms, then how come the shape of the market is broadly the same as it was five years ago?
One answer is that those at the top of the market back then, are today doing all they can to stay where they are. And part of that is around AI engagement and investment.
This then demands the following question: what happens if you don’t develop roles like those above? What happens if you don’t spend what are clearly millions of dollars in total on jobs related to AI? One would guess the answer is that perhaps then the shape of the market would alter more rapidly….
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More about the jobs below, and as noted, AL is sharing these examples here for market information purposes only.
Link here.
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Legal Innovators conferences in London and in New York
It will soon be time for the Legal Innovators conferences in London and in New York, both this November and taking place over two days!
Come and join us in London this November 4th + 5th at Legal Innovators. The conference at the intersection of legal AI and the business of law. Day One: law firms, Day Two: inhouse.
Legal Innovators UK – London, Nov 4 and 5
And,
Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18
See you at Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18 – join us at the intersection of legal AI and the business of law in New York for the most important legal innovation event of the year! Day One: law firms, Day Two: inhouse. Top speakers from across the legal AI world, leading law firms, and major companies. All for one purpose: to describe and explore the frontier of legal technology. See you there!
UK and New York event links are here:
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