# AI is reshaping how lawyers bill and learn

> Artificial intelligence is forcing law firms to rethink the billable hour and how junior lawyers develop their skills.
- Title: AI is reshaping how lawyers bill and learn · CNBC | Shortify
- Summary: Artificial intelligence is forcing law firms to rethink the billable hour and how junior lawyers develop their skills. AI adoption by nearly ninety percent…
- Keywords: artificial intelligence, legal profession, billable hour, law firms, junior lawyers, legal training, uk and ireland, clio, a&o shearman, slaughter and may, harvey, business
- Source: CNBC — https://cnbc.com/2026/10/10/ai-lawyers-billable-hour-legal-careers.html
- Author: Lindsay Dodgson
- Published: 2026-10-10T05:00:01+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: artificial intelligence, legal profession, billable hour, law firms, junior lawyers, legal training, uk and ireland, clio, a&o shearman, slaughter and may, harvey, business
## AI adoption spreads through legal sector
Almost ninety percent of legal professionals in the UK and Ireland now use artificial intelligence, according to legal software company Clio's UK and Ireland Legal Insights Report 2026.
## AI cuts costs and handles more work
Among firms using AI, almost eighty percent said they can handle more work without increasing resources, while over seventy percent said it cut costs by absorbing administrative work once done by support staff.
## Big firms deploy AI for complex tasks
A&O Shearman worked with legal AI company Harvey to develop artificial intelligence agents for reviewing loan agreements and analyzing regulatory filings, completing in minutes work that previously took several hours.
## The billable hour faces pressure
You can't charge sixteen hours for something that takes sixteen seconds, says Nick Rowles-Davies, founder and CEO of legal finance fund Lexolent, based in London and Dubai.

> You can't charge 16 hours for something that takes 16 seconds
## Firms struggle to meet billing targets
About one in five firms that have widely adopted AI report difficulty meeting billable-hour targets.
## Junior lawyers lose learning opportunities
Repetitive tasks traditionally helped junior lawyers learn the building blocks of law. Reviewing documents taught them what matters, writing contracts honed drafting skills, and researching cases developed legal reasoning.
## Firms must create new training paths
A&O Shearman is placing more value on curiosity and entrepreneurship, and building career paths in legal engineering, product and AI delivery that barely existed a few years ago, according to Francesca Bennetts, the firm's head…

> The need to develop exceptional lawyers doesn't go away
## Judgment becomes more valuable
Mansoor Soomro, who leads the Future of Work Research Unit at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, England, expects judgment to become disproportionately valuable, with lawyers spending more time checking and challenging AI's output.
## Some lawyers report better working lives
Joshua Lenon, Clio's lawyer-in-residence, says lawyers are telling them their day is getting better as AI becomes more commonplace, though fifty-one percent of legal professionals work evenings when only thirty-two percent want to.

> Lawyers [are] telling us that their day is getting better
## Key takeaway

AI adoption by nearly ninety percent of UK and Ireland legal professionals is undermining the billable hour model and changing how new lawyers train, forcing firms to restructure their business and career development.