Hiring and training juniors in 2027 (and why you should)

AI now drafts the first version, reviews the NDA, and summarises the contract. That’s the work junior lawyers used to learn on. So more and more GCs are saying the same thing: why hire a junior when I have Copilot?

For our report, Ready or Not, we interviewed 25 UK in-house lawyers. Several think the junior end of the market will be squeezed. One GC told us she would once have taken on a paralegal. Now she won’t.

Our panel thinks that’s a mistake, especially for in-house teams. Since the SQE, it has never been easier for an in-house team to train its own lawyers. AI lets legal teams do more than ever, but only if they have the people to run it. And if nobody trains juniors today, who replaces today’s senior lawyers when they retire?

The session runs in three parts:

1. What it actually looks like. Emma Levin, Group Legal Counsel at Onebright, explains the routes into in-house law, from paralegal and legal assistant roles to qualifying work experience under the SQE.
2. Why you should. The case for hiring and training juniors now, and why the teams that do it will be stronger in a few years’ time.
3. How to do it. Oliver Storey shares how Metro Bank takes people from paralegal to SQE to qualified solicitor, including the problems nobody warns you about and how to get past them. Emma Lilley, who trained a junior in-house herself, covers how to make it work for both sides, and how aspiring lawyers can stand out.

Then it’s your turn. Bring your toughest questions and challenge the panel.

Who it’s for

• Heads of legal and GCs thinking about hiring a paralegal or trainee
• Anyone trying to break into in-house law

You’ll leave knowing whether a junior hire makes sense for your team, how to build a route to qualification, and how to make it work in practice.