Hire purpose for AI at top City firms
Artificial intelligence is forecast to transform many aspects of legal practice, including the way law firms recruit trainees.
Legal practices have invoked technology for some time to sift applications — and more recently they have grappled with whether to allow candidates to use AI to complete applications. But some are embracing AI to transform the recruitment process.
Macfarlanes, a firm in the City of London, has introduced a bespoke online job simulation that is designed to mirror a realistic “day in the life” of a trainee, with the pace, complexity and competing demands of modern legal practice.
In partnership with Cappfinity, a human resources technology company, the model is built around a live case. A spokesman for the firm explains that candidates interact with simulated colleagues and stakeholders, respond to Teams messages, voicemails and social media posts, manage shifting workloads and produce a short piece of analysis under realistic time pressure.
“Rather than replicating traditional application questions, the immersive simulation evaluates candidates on real work tasks, enabling assessment of applied judgment, commercial decision-making, prioritisation, stakeholder management and tech literacy in a simulated real-life context,” the spokesman says.
AI is deliberately incorporated into tasks to reflect real working practice and test how candidates use it and apply their judgment and critical thinking. The simulation, the spokesman says, is assessed using a “structured scoring matrix designed with occupational psychologists to ensure the process is robust, inclusive and fair”.
The method “provides a fairer, realistic and evidence-based alternative to traditional screening by assessing candidates on practical capability”, the spokesman says, adding that candidates “consistently tell us they prefer being assessed through realistic work rather than generic questions”.
Graduates applying to Mishcon de Reya, another prominent London firm, this year will face a virtual interview with a chatbot as part of the recruitment process. For its 2026 graduate recruitment season Mishcon de Reya is trialling Bright Apply, an AIpowered candidate-screening tool.
‘It provides a fairer, realistic alternative to traditional screening’
Developed by Bright Network, a graduate careers platform, the tool uses information from candidates’ applications to start a conversation, resulting in a “tailored interview” for all applicants, allowing them to showcase their potential.
Instead of writing a long application form candidates participate in a virtual interview during which they can expand on their experiences and motivations.
The process produces a transcript of each interview that is reviewed by the firm’s early careers team.
The firm states that feedback on the platform has been positive, with almost three quarters of students giving the experience four out of five in an anonymous survey and 93 per cent stating that the AI chat responses felt personalised and relevant to them.
“I really liked how it gave me multiple opportunities to share my ideas, not just one question on why Mishcon de Reya, or why commercial law,” one student reported. They added: “I felt like it better captured my complete view and personality.”
Tom Wicksteed, a careers manager at Mishcon de Reya, says the tool “puts candidates at the heart of the process, giving them a better chance to show us who they are and what they are able to bring to our firm at an earlier stage of the process”.
While AI-driven recruitment may increase efficiency, Amy Walker, careers manager at the University of Law, says there is concern that it may “inadvertently discriminate, particularly where training data reflects existing bias”. “Algorithms may also struggle with context, unconventional communication styles or candidates whose strengths are more apparent in live interaction,” she says.
“Asynchronous”, or chatbot-led interviews “can feel anxiety-inducing, lacking the natural feedback of a live interviewer”, Walker says. She adds that “law is fundamentally people-focused and technology should enhance rather than replace human judgment”.
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