How to hire a legal engineer - what I've learned
It's interesting - the conversation I keep having with legal tech founders goes the same way.
The product works. The sales team is in place. But adoption is slower than it should be, because nobody can sit with lawyers and turn how they actually work into something the product can follow.
That person is a legal engineer.
We've recently placed 10+ legal engineers into legal tech companies across the US, UK and Australia. It's one of the hardest roles I recruit for. Not because the people don't exist, but because most of them don't call themselves legal engineers yet.
They're the associate everyone asks about the firm's AI tool. Or the knowledge lawyer who quietly rebuilt the precedent bank.
One of our recent UK placements is a good example.
He was a senior associate at a large law firm who'd become the go-to person for AI. He'd helped turn an AI-assisted service from a pilot into something clients paid for, and designed a lot of the workflows himself.
His title never said legal engineer, and he wasn't looking - we approached him. He's now a legal engineer at a legal tech company.
If you're a lawyer and this sounds like you, see the legal engineer roles we're working on.
What the job actually is
A legal engineer is a lawyer who turns legal work into product.
They map how a deal, a dispute or a compliance process really runs. Then they build the workflows, templates and rules an AI product can follow, and test the output with a lawyer's judgement.
When I take a brief, the first thing I ask is which of these three roles it is. The right profile is different for each.
- Pre-sales. Discovery, tailored demos and proof-of-concept pilots. Works closest with account executives and prospects. Hire for presence with senior lawyers and commercial instinct.
- Customer delivery. Configures workflows, onboards teams and drives adoption. Works closest with customer success and client users. Hire for patience, structure and change management.
- Product. Defines workflows and logic, tests output and shapes the roadmap. Works closest with product managers and engineers. Hire for depth in one practice area and precision.
In a start-up it's often all three in one person. That's fine - just say so in the ad, and expect to pay for the range.
What I look for
- Recent practice in the area you're automating. Two years hands-on is usually the minimum. Someone who's run M&A deals will build better M&A workflows than a generalist.
- Something they've built. A precedent bank, a playbook, a workflow in the firm's AI platform. I always ask to see it.
- AI fluency, not coding. Most of these roles don't need a developer. They need someone who uses AI every day, knows where it goes wrong and can explain why.
- Presence with senior lawyers. Legal engineers spend their days with partners and GCs. If a partner wouldn't trust their judgement, the users won't either.
- Process thinking. They break a messy task into steps, decisions and exceptions without being asked.
The job title matters a lot less than you'd think. Many of the best people I speak to are associates, knowledge lawyers, innovation lawyers or PSLs.
A recent US placement shows what I mean. She was an in-house lawyer at technology companies. Along the way she'd built contract templates and playbooks that sped up deals and let the sales team handle the simple ones themselves.
That's legal engineering. She just hadn't called it that. She's now a legal engineer at a legal tech company.
Where to find them
If you post an ad titled "Legal Engineer", you'll reach the small group who already have the title. The bigger pools sit under other names.
- Associates at mid-size and large firms. They want to build, not bill - and often want remote work. Be ready to match top-firm pay.
- Knowledge, innovation and practice support lawyers. Already doing the work, without the product upside. Give them time to get back into matter work.
- Big 4 legal and alternative legal service providers. They want to build product, not consult. Ask for a recent example of hands-on legal work.
- Legal engineers at other vendors. Proven in the role. Allow for notice periods and non-competes.
- In-house lawyers who led tech rollouts. Strong on adoption and stakeholders. Pair them with practice depth in your target area.
The strongest candidates usually aren't looking. You need to approach them with a specific reason the role suits them. That's most of what we do.
How I'd run the interview
Three stages, and move quickly. Good lawyers leaving practice usually have more than one conversation going.
- Screening call - 30 minutes. Practice background, what they've built, and why they want to leave practice.
- Practical exercise - 60 minutes. This is the one that tells you the most. Give them a real legal process from your target area and ask them to map it live.
- Panel - 60 minutes. Product, sales or customer success, plus a lawyer, depending on the role type.
The questions I'd ask
- Walk me through something you built or rebuilt that other lawyers now use. What changed because of it?
- Tell me about a time an AI tool gave you a wrong answer. How did you spot it?
- How would you explain this workflow to a sceptical partner in five minutes?
- Where does this process usually go wrong in practice, and how would you design for it?
The exercise
Give them a short, real process - say a share purchase from heads of terms to completion. Ask them to map the steps, decisions, documents and exceptions, and tell you what they'd automate first and why.
You're looking for structure, practice depth and good judgement about where automation helps and where it doesn't.
Five mistakes I see
- Hiring a technologist instead of a lawyer. Users trust legal engineers because they've done the work. A developer with an interest in law won't carry the same weight with partners.
- An ad nobody recognises themselves in. Most strong candidates don't think of themselves as legal engineers. Describe the work, not just the title.
- Asking for everything. Practice depth, coding, sales and product management in one person is a unicorn. Pick the role type and hire for that.
- A slow process. Lawyers leaving practice are often weighing a counter-offer or a bonus date. Four rounds over six weeks and they're gone.
- Being vague on pay. Candidates compare every role with their current salary. If the range isn't clear early, the best people drop out before you meet them.
If you're hiring
I've specialised in legal tech recruitment since 2011. Novum Global has placed 1,000+ people into 150+ legal tech companies and law firms across 10+ countries.
Right now the team and I are talking to US and UK lawyers who want to make exactly this move. If you're building a legal engineering team, I'm happy to help you shape the role, reach the people who aren't looking, and run a fast process.
If you're a lawyer reading this and thinking about the move, here are the legal engineer roles we're working on.
Let me know if any of this is useful - happy to compare notes.
