About 20% of law students used AI to help them prepare their summer associate applications, according to Law360 Pulse's 2025 Summer Associates Survey.
One male law student, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he used generative AI tool ChatGPT to help him write cover letters for about 50 law firms.
The student said he told ChatGPT what he wanted to include in his cover letters and it created a template for him to tweak for each law firm. He added that he also asked ChatGPT to find specific information about each firm.
"I was able to make my letters more customized to each law firm," he said.
The survey, which was conducted from January to March 2025, was completed by more than 500 current law students who applied for at least one 2025 summer associate position. Students were asked about their top law firms, how many law firms they applied to and interviewed with, decision factors and more.
More than a dozen law students who used AI in their summer associate application process did not respond to interview inquiries from Law360 Pulse.
Law students who didn't use AI in their summer associate application process told Law360 Pulse that their reasons for not using the technology include lack of trust, inexperience and nervousness.
Elias McConkie Wright, a second-year law student at Cornell University Law School, said that a year ago when he was applying for 2025 summer associate positions, he didn't trust generative AI enough to use it.
He added that generative AI has significantly improved in the last year, but he still doesn't know if he would use it for summer associate position cover letters.
"It would certainly be nice for maybe drafting, but I wouldn't use that to make a final product yet. I just don't trust its writing ability enough at this point," he said.
Jacquelyn Ellis, a second-year law student at University of Maryland's Francis King Carey School of Law, said that her lack of experience with AI deterred her from using it.
"I would be nervous that it would make my materials sound too generic or that they'd read my cover letter that was AI-generated and then read another one that was also assisted with AI, and it would just read too similarly," she said.
Even though law students are reluctant to use AI to help them with their summer associate applications, they are learning about the technology in their law school classes.
Daniel Maturino, a second-year law student at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, said that AI was covered in his legal writing and contract drafting classes and was mentioned in other courses.
He added that his professors say AI is "not where it needs to be" and seem "a little bit too pessimistic" about the technology.
"In my experience, it's incredibly useful, and I think it's a little bit ahead of where the average law school professor probably thinks it is," he said.
Wright said that in his first-year legal writing and research class he had to write a paper analyzing AI's writing abilities.
"At the time, it performed very poorly. I'm sure it's much better now," he said.
Law students noted that law firms didn't ask them about their AI skills during their summer associate interviews.
A couple of law students said they had interviews where they were only asked if they had any questions about the law firm.
"During one of my first screener interviews, I did have an attorney say, 'Your resume looks great. I actually don't have any questions for you or your experience. Do you have questions for us and the firm?'" Ellis said.
Katherine Loanzon, a managing director at Kinney Recruiting LLC, said one reason law firms might not be asking law students about their AI skills yet is that they are still experimenting with the technology themselves.
"Until they fully understand it and use it in their daily workflow, they're probably not asking the students this question yet because the attorneys aren't fluent in these tools," she said.
Law students said they don't recall any of the dozens of law firms that they applied to saying whether they could use AI to assist with summer associate applications.
Legal recruiters confirmed that they also haven't heard of any law firms explicitly prohibiting law students from using AI on their summer associate applications.
A couple recruiters, however, said law firms wouldn't want law students to use AI tools to completely write their cover letters or to fabricate information in their application materials.
Matt Schwartz, partner at legal search firm Garrison & Sisson Inc., said one reason law firms wouldn't want law students to use AI to completely draft their cover letters is it would interfere with the evaluation of students' writing skills.
"They're always looking to see how you write because that's important about being a lawyer," he said.
Madeline Stockton, director of Major Lindsey & Africa's associate practice group, said law students shouldn't copy and paste content from AI tools, noting the risk of plagiarism.
"Your applications are still really an opportunity for you to show your skill set and your intuitive thinking and present yourself in a unique way, and I do think AI can run the risk of taking out those elements from an associate's application," she said.
Legal recruiters said that an acceptable way law students could use AI on their applications is to have it proofread their cover letters and resumes and check for spelling and grammatical mistakes.
Michelle Fivel, partner and co-founder at legal search firm Hatch Henderson Fivel, said that if law students don't use AI tools to check their grammar and spelling and have errors in their application materials, they might be viewed as lazy or not being tech-savvy.
"I don't think anybody would fault somebody for using a tool to help them with polishing a written product, so as long as it's their accurate reflection of who they are, their background [and] their skill set," she said.
Stockton said that law students are wise to be cautious about using AI on their summer associate applications.
"Until we see firms come out with a policy in favor of it or a policy against it that really outlines strict guidelines, I think students are probably going to be [wary], and I do think that that's probably for the best," she said.
--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo and John Campbell.
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