Sidley overhauls London training contract with mandatory AI seat

Sidley Austin is making AI training a formal part of becoming a lawyer at the firm, with every London trainee set to spend one of their seats working in a dedicated AI team.

From September, trainees will complete a four-month rotation in Sidley’s AI Knowledge Lab as part of the US firm’s new six-seat training contract.

The firm says it is the first in London to make a dedicated AI seat compulsory for every trainee.

Trainees will spend their first two seats in traditional practice groups before becoming eligible for the AI rotation during their third, fourth, fifth or sixth seat.

Training in the AI era

The AI Knowledge Lab is designed as a working legal seat rather than a training exercise.

Trainees will work with lawyers alongside Sidley’s knowledge management, research, and data and AI teams, “testing approaches and helping develop tools, templates and ways of working that can be used again.”

A key part of the seat will be learning how to assess AI-generated work, understand where the technology falls short and decide when a lawyer needs to step in, the firm said.

“We are the first firm in London to build this into every trainee's training contract,” said Tom Thesing, managing partner of Sidley’s London office.

“The Lab is a working seat, not a classroom: trainees carry out genuine legal assignments for our practice groups, having started their grounding in two practice-group seats.”

Thesing said every lawyer qualifying at Sidley in London would now do so with “hands-on experience of applying AI critically and responsibly”.

Sidley recruits around 19 trainees a year in London. The firm pays first-year trainees £60,000, rising to £65,000 in their second year, while newly qualified lawyers earn £175,000.