The Brief:
AI-driven automation is killing graduate jobs across sectors — but law might be the exception.
Major firms are still expanding intakes even as the “Jobpocalypse” looms.
The Financial Times says entry-level jobs are vanishing at an alarming rate.
They’ve even given it a name: the graduate jobpocalypse.
Graduate unemployment has now overtaken the national average for the first time. Indeed and Adzuna report job postings down more than 30%, while FT says entry-level offers in the US and UK have fallen 33%.
A new British Standards Institution report found that 41% of business leaders in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the UK are cutting headcount, all thanks to AI. Nearly a third of companies are prioritising AI solutions over hiring.
It’s a perfect storm of cost-cutting, uncertainty, and rapid tech adoption.
But will the same fate hit the legal industry?
Luckily, not yet. For aspiring lawyers, graduate hiring at Australia’s major firms is holding up. Only 15 out of 53 firms (28%) saw a decline in graduate numbers in 2024–25, according to the AFR.
Firm | Total grads | Net 1 yr change |
|---|---|---|
HWLE | 113 | 19% |
Allens | 108 | -6% |
NRF | 107 | 16% |
MinterEllison | 104 | 6% |
HSF Kramer | 98 | -1% |
KWM | 94 | 13% |
Corrs | 92 | 8% |
Ashurst | 82 | 4% |
Clayton Utz | 69 | -7% |
Hall & Wilcox | 52 | -9% |
Source: Financial Review
Across the board, graduate intake grew by 6% despite growing automation fears.
KWM chief Renae Lattey remains bullish: “those who are skilled at using AI, it will enhance their legal excellence and [become] more valuable”.
Julian Taylor, senior partner at Simmons & Simmons, expects AI to take “vast amounts” of commoditised and administrative work. But he calls cutting junior intake “really dangerous.”
With 16% of junior associates walking away from private practice (up 9% from 2024), retention remains the “million dollar problem” — the estimated amount lost revenue, recruitment and training at major law firms.
“If we get too narrow at the entry point, I think that will create problems further down the line,” Taylor told the FT.
Carter Newell chief Marc Walker says it’s the “firms with very large graduate cohorts that have traditionally focused on very commoditised types of tasks”, such as DD and discovery, that will be hit the hardest. “Those firms may well reduce the size of those cohorts as the numbers are not required to slog through that type of work.”
While other sectors pull back on graduate hiring, law is still holding the line — at least for now.
Source: Financial Times, AFR