Weil Launches Legal AI Program for Associates

Weil Gotshal & Manges has launched a 10-week program for selected summer associates to work on the development and use of AI in legal practice with its Lawyer Augmented Solutions Engineering and Research (LASER) team. Selected participants for 2027 will also receive offers to return the following year as members of Weil’s 2028 2L Summer Associate Program. The firm says the sequence is intended to give them early exposure to developing legal technologies, followed by experience applying them in legal practice.

During the program, participants will work on active legal projects, learn Python from the ground up, build a neural network (a computing system modeled on connected brain cells) and explore technologies behind large language models used increasingly in legal practice. With guidance from a dedicated LASER Architect mentor, they will help develop legal software applications and contribute to academic research on artificial intelligence and the law. They will also join selected parts of Weil’s broader summer programming.

Ramona Nee, Weil’s incoming Executive Partner, said the firm wants lawyers to develop judgment, creativity and technical fluency to use AI capabilities, and described the program as an investment in exceptional people. Andrew Simon, the firm’s Chief AI & Innovation Officer, said useful ideas often begin by asking why legal work is done a certain way and whether it can be improved. He said students will do meaningful team work and bring a fresh perspective; the goal is to help them become lawyers who understand AI enough to ask better questions, recognize opportunities and work effectively with people with different expertise, rather than turn them into software engineers.

Weil Gotshal & Manges has launched a 10-week program for selected summer associates to work on the development and use of AI in legal practice with its Lawyer Augmented Solutions Engineering and Research (LASER) team. Selected participants for 2027 will also receive offers to return the following year as members of Weil’s 2028 2L Summer Associate Program. The firm says the sequence is intended to give them early exposure to developing legal technologies, followed by experience applying them in legal practice.

During the program, participants will work on active legal projects, learn Python from the ground up, build a neural network (a computing system modeled on connected brain cells) and explore technologies behind large language models used increasingly in legal practice. With guidance from a dedicated LASER Architect mentor, they will help develop legal software applications and contribute to academic research on artificial intelligence and the law. They will also join selected parts of Weil’s broader summer programming.

Ramona Nee, Weil’s incoming Executive Partner, said the firm wants lawyers to develop judgment, creativity and technical fluency to use AI capabilities, and described the program as an investment in exceptional people. Andrew Simon, the firm’s Chief AI & Innovation Officer, said useful ideas often begin by asking why legal work is done a certain way and whether it can be improved. He said students will do meaningful team work and bring a fresh perspective; the goal is to help them become lawyers who understand AI enough to ask better questions, recognize opportunities and work effectively with people with different expertise, rather than turn them into software engineers.