Over his 30-year career in corporate law, Nandan Nelivigi has seen many forms of automation gradually change the tasks assigned to first-year associates.

When Nelivigi, now a partner in New York at the global firm White & Case, began his career with a freshly minted Harvard Law degree, he recalls that his duties included taking notes at client meetings. These were learning sessions, as he carefully observed the senior associates and partners plying their skills. And for young lawyers involved in litigation, there was also extensive document-based research.

Through the decades, some of that first-year legal work has been automated. But now generative AI and AI agents — apps that can perform carefully tailored tasks autonomously — have accelerated the process and brought a new level of

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