Lawyers · problem and fix
First year associate skills gap: a practical fix for lawyers on Mac in 2026
A first year associate skills gap is the distance between what a new lawyer knows and what a firm needs them to do. Surveys show that gap is wide, and most of it is practical: negotiation, witness questioning, client calls and reviewing drafts. This page covers what the gap costs, why it happens, and fixes you can start this week without buying anything.
The short answer
- Only 23% of practicing lawyers said new lawyers had sufficient skills in a 2017 IAALS survey.
- The sources here measure opinion and turnover. None puts a dollar figure on the gap.
- The most useful fixes are written feedback, live practice, and shadowing real calls.
- Word for Mac can compare two drafts in a few clicks, which builds the habit of checking every change.
- Follow your employer's rules on client data before you paste anything into an AI tool.
What new lawyers lacking practical skills costs you
Clients wait longer and pay for rework
When a draft needs a senior lawyer to rebuild it, the client waits longer for a usable version. The rework also lands on a more expensive lawyer, which means more hours spent on the same matter.
Partners lose hours to first-pass redlines
A partner who reviews a first-pass draft often rewrites whole sections. That time comes out of the same week as work that bills. Partners then have less time to coach, and the gap stays open.
The firm pays to replace people
The NALP study found firms lost 15 associates for every 20 hired. Each departure means a new search, new onboarding, and a new learning curve. The study does not tie exits to skills, but it shows how costly churn is.
You pay in confidence and momentum
A new lawyer who feels unready tends to avoid the hard tasks. Those tasks are exactly the ones that build skill. Avoidance slows learning, and slow learning makes the next hard task feel harder.
Why it happens
Law school grades test doctrine, not tasks
Law school grades mostly test doctrine and analysis on exams. Those skills matter, but a deal or a deposition asks for timing and judgment under pressure. An exam does not train those directly, so the gap is partly built into how the degree is measured.
Practice is learned on live work
Firms often learn to teach by handing over real files. A new lawyer gets a real matter with a real deadline and little room to practice. The first attempt becomes the training, and the client sees it.
Feedback arrives late and thin
Many new lawyers hear only when something is wrong. Specific praise and specific fixes are rare, so the lawyer cannot tell which habits to keep. The externship study points to the supervisor's feedback as a major factor.
Grades say little about practice
The 2021 externship study found law school GPA plays a very limited role in success measured by practice readiness. Grades still get used in hiring, so new lawyers may assume they signal skill. The evidence here does not support that assumption.
Assignments vary by supervisor
One associate gets trial work while another gets document review for a year. The externship study names the nature of the placement's assignments as a major factor. Uneven exposure creates uneven skill, even at the same firm.
How to fix it
These work with or without any app.
Ask for written feedback after each task
Ask for a short note after each assignment: what worked, what to change, and one example. A written note lasts the week, so you can check it before the next task. Spoken feedback often fades by lunch.
Drill the skill out loud, not in your head
Pick one skill, such as reading a witness or holding a negotiation position. Practice with a colleague who plays the other side, using a mock script your supervisor approves. Say the lines out loud, because timing is the skill.
Shadow one live call a week
Ask a senior lawyer if you can sit in on a negotiation or client call. Take notes on what they said in the first minute and how they closed. Ask one question afterward. Shadowing puts real timing into your head.
Run a compare on every redline
Use Review > Compare > Compare Documents in Word for Mac on each revised draft you receive. Read changes in order, then write one line per change. The routine builds the habit of checking what changed, not what someone says changed.
Keep a question log and close it fast
Write each question you could not answer in a running list. Research it the same day, using firm precedent or the matter file. Bring the answer and its source to your next check-in. A short log shows progress in plain terms.
Ask for a supervised placement with feedback
If your firm or a school offers a supervised placement, ask whether it includes regular feedback and varied assignments. Those two features match the factors the 2021 externship study names. Ask in writing so the request is on record.
Redact on a copy, with a sanitize pass
Before a document leaves your desk, work on a copy. In Adobe Acrobat, go to Tools > Redact, draw boxes, click Apply, and confirm. Keep the sanitize option on to remove hidden data and metadata, then save under a new name. Redaction tools may need a paid plan, so check your access.
A first year associate skills gap shows up in small moments. A partner asks for a revised indemnity clause by noon. A client calls with a question you have never heard before. You know the law from class, but you have not negotiated a deal or questioned a witness under pressure. The gap is less about knowing the law and more about doing legal work with other people watching.
How wide the gap is: what the surveys say
The most cited number comes from IAALS at the University of Denver. Its January 2017 article reports that only 23% of practicing lawyers believe new lawyers have sufficient skills to practice. The survey ran in 37 states and drew more than 24,000 valid responses. That is a large sample. It still measures opinion, not performance. Nobody sat new lawyers down and scored them on a task.
A newer signal comes from junior associates. The ABA Journal covered a 2024 survey in June 2025, part of IAALS's Foundations 2.0 work. Of those junior associates, 45% said law school did not sufficiently prepare them for their current role. The article does not give the sample size, so treat that figure as a rough signal, not a precise rate.
The 2025 CLEAR report from the Thomson Reuters Institute asks experienced attorneys to rate new lawyers by skill. Only 7% of attorneys with more than five years in practice rated newly admitted lawyers as very or extremely well prepared to communicate with clients. Read that number slowly. Most of the gap sits in everyday work, not in legal theory.
23%
of practicing lawyers believe new lawyers have sufficient skills to practice (IAALS, 2017 article)
IAALS: Survey Says: Experience Matters When Hiring New Lawyers45%
of junior associates in a 2024 survey said law school did not sufficiently prepare them for their role
ABA Journal: What skills do new lawyers need? Lawyers asked to provide answers in Foundations 2.0 survey7%
of experienced attorneys rated newly admitted attorneys very or extremely well prepared to communicate with clients
Thomson Reuters Institute: Cultivating practice readiness (CLEAR report)15 of 20
associates lost for every 20 hired by participating firms, based on a study covering 2012 through 2018
ABA Journal: Law firms lost 15 associates for every 20 they hired, NALP Foundation study findsWhich skills new lawyers struggle with most
The CLEAR report breaks the gap into skills. The table shows the three figures in these notes that matter most for trial and deal work. Read the caption carefully, because the groups who answered are not the same.
| Skill | Share rating new lawyers weak |
|---|---|
| Negotiation | 61% of experienced attorneys said not well or only slightly well prepared |
| Questioning and interviewing witnesses | 55% of experienced attorneys gave the same rating |
| Direct and cross-examinations | 66% of judges said new attorneys sometimes, rarely or never conducted them competently |
Look at what those skills mean on a normal Tuesday. Negotiation is a call where the other side asks for one more concession, and you need a fallback ready in your head. Witness questioning is a deposition where the answer you did not expect arrives in the first minute. Both skills are timing skills. Reading about them will not give you the timing.
What the gap costs the client, the firm, and you
No source behind this page puts a dollar figure on the gap. Public data does not separate out training cost or time to productivity for new lawyers. So this page will not invent one. What the sources do show is cost in three places: the client, the firm, and your own career.
The clearest number is turnover. A NALP Foundation study reported that participating firms hired more than 27,000 associates and saw more than 20,000 departures. For every 20 associates hired, firms lost 15. The average attrition rate was 18% from 2012 through 2018, and 54% of departures were unwanted from the firm's perspective. The study does not tie those exits to skills, so do not read it as proof. It does show how costly churn is.
- Clients pay in slower turnaround and in rework when a senior lawyer has to fix a draft.
- Partners pay in hours spent rewriting work that should have been close on the first pass.
- The firm pays in recruiting and training when associates leave before they settle in.
- You pay in confidence, and confidence affects how often you speak up in meetings.
- Your practice area pays when a skill only gets practiced on live matters with real stakes.
Why the first year associate skills gap happens
Two reports are often cited for this problem: the Carnegie report on legal education and the MacCrate report on skills and values. Both describe a gap between what law schools teach and what practice needs. Neither report was checked for this page, so the causes below are an informed explanation, not measured cause. Treat them as hypotheses to test at your own firm.
The most useful evidence here comes from externships, where students work inside a real office under supervision. A 2021 study in the Southern Illinois University Law Journal reports a high level of externship success, measured in terms of practice readiness. The most important factor was the student's relationship with the supervisor, the supervisor's feedback, and the nature of the assignments. Law school GPA, by contrast, plays a very limited role. The study relies on self-report and supervisor ratings with no comparison group, so treat it as a strong hint, not a verdict.
Fixes you can start this week, with no purchase needed
Start with the person who reviews your work. If you are the new lawyer, ask for written feedback after each task. Ask two things: what worked, and what you would change next time. Save the answers in the same file as the draft. Feedback you cannot find later does not help you.
- Ask for a short written note after each task, covering what worked and what to change.
- Shadow one negotiation call or deposition, and write down the moments that surprised you.
- Drill witness questions out loud with a colleague, using a mock script your supervisor approves.
- Run a comparison on every redline before you send it back, and keep one line per change.
- Keep a question log. Research each question the same day and bring the answer to your next check-in.
Worked example: checking a redline in Word for Mac
Say a senior lawyer sends you a revised agreement on Monday morning. Your job is to know what changed before the client sees it. Open the revised file in Word for Mac. Go to Review > Compare > Compare Documents. Set the original document and the revised document, then click OK. Word creates a new copy based on the original, with revision marks showing the differences.
- Save the revised file under a new name, so the sender's version stays untouched.
- Choose Review > Compare > Compare Documents and set the original and the revised file.
- Read every deletion first. Then read every insertion, and then the formatting changes.
- Write one line per change in a separate note, with the clause number and the risk.
- Send the note to the senior lawyer before you change anything in the client file.
Microsoft's help page for this command is labeled for Word 2019 for Mac. Your menus may look a little different in Microsoft 365, so check the Review tab if a label does not match. The comparison creates a new file, and that new file is the one you should read and keep. For a deeper walk through, see the redline steps for lawyers.
Mistakes that keep the gap open
- Waiting to be asked. Most feedback arrives only after something goes wrong, so ask for it early.
- Learning on live matters first. A practice draft builds the same skill with far less risk.
- Treating a black box as a redaction. Adobe's steps say redacted content is permanently deleted once you apply and confirm.
- Skipping the copy. Make a copy of any PDF before you redact, because the deletion cannot be reversed.
- Reading grades as readiness. The externship evidence says law school GPA plays a very limited role.
Where Lazur helps, and where it does not
Lazur is a voice assistant for the Mac. Hold ⌥ ⌘ to ask about anything on screen, and Lazur answers out loud. Lazur sees your screen only while you hold the shortcut. Ask where a command lives, and Lazur draws a circle and a label around it. Ask how to do something, and Lazur guides you one click at a time, waiting for each click.
Lazur does not teach negotiation or cross-examination for you. It does not click buttons, edit files, or operate Word for you. Think of it as a patient second screen while you practice. You still need a senior lawyer to review your work, and you still need to think through the call yourself.
Dictation helps with note writing. Hold fn and speak, and clean text lands at the cursor in any app. You can keep snippets for common clause names and a personal dictionary for terms your firm uses. Dictate your change notes after each compare, then edit them yourself before they go to a supervisor.
Lazur's privacy terms say audio and the screenshot go to AI providers to answer, and they are not stored. Content is never used to train AI models. Those terms do not replace your firm's policy. Lawyers often work under strict confidentiality duties, so follow your employer's rules on client data before you use any tool on a matter.
Formal pathways are still an experiment
Some states now test alternative routes into practice. Oregon's supervised-practice pathway had 47 candidates apply as of June 10, 2024. By then, 62 attorneys from 57 employers had applied to supervise. The article reports no admissions, completions, or performance outcomes. Read it as a sign that the gap is being taken seriously, not as proof that it closes.
What to do next
Pick one skill, one document, and one person who can review your work. Ask for written feedback this week. Run one comparison on a redline you are allowed to see. Then repeat the routine next week and keep the question log. If you want Word help in more detail, see Word for lawyers on Mac. For client email habits, see Outlook for lawyers on Mac. When you are ready to try Lazur on screen, start at the download page.
Faster with Lazur
Where Lazur helps with new lawyers lacking practical skills
Hold ⌥ ⌘ and say what you want. Lazur sees your Word window. Lazur guides you one click at a time and waits for each click.
- 1
Hold ⌥⌘ and talk
- 2
Lazur guides you one click at a time and waits for each click.
- 3
You stay in Word. Nothing to copy into a chat window.
More things to say in Word
- “Where is Compare in Word?”
- “Walk me through comparing these two drafts.”
- “Explain what this tracked change does to the indemnity clause.”
- “Dictate my questions for the witness.”
- “Draft a short note of changes for my supervisor.”
- “What did I ask you about the compare last week?”
Free for 3 days, then $18/month. Download for Mac
You say“Lazur, how do I compare two versions of this contract?”
Lazur · walks you through itLazur guides you one click at a time and waits for each click before naming the next step.
What lawyers say to Lazur for this
Each one is a single hold of ⌥ ⌘.
“Where is Compare in Word?”
Lazur draws a circle and a label around the command on your screen, so you see where it lives.
Points at it
“Walk me through comparing these two drafts.”
Lazur guides you one click at a time and waits for each click before it names the next step.
Walks you through it
“Explain what this tracked change does to the indemnity clause.”
Lazur sees your screen while you hold the shortcut, then explains the change out loud.
Explains what's on screen
“Dictate my questions for the witness.”
Hold fn and speak. Clean text lands at the cursor in any app, and you edit it before use.
Types what you say
“Draft a short note of changes for my supervisor.”
Lazur drafts the text, and you read and edit it yourself before anything goes out.
Drafts it
“What did I ask you about the compare last week?”
Lazur keeps memory of what you asked and did, stored on your Mac.
Handles the small stuff
A plan you can start this week
- Morning
Pick one skill and one document
Choose one skill to work on this week, such as negotiation, drafting, client email or witness questions. Pick a real document you are allowed to review. Write the skill in one plain sentence at the top of a note.
- Day 1
Ask for written feedback
Ask your supervisor for a short written note on the task you finished. Ask what worked and what to change next time. Save the note in the same file as your draft so you can find it.
- Day 2
Run a compare on a redline
Open the revised draft in Word for Mac and go to Review > Compare > Compare Documents. Read every deletion, then every insertion. Write one line per change with the clause and the risk.
- Day 3
Practice the skill out loud
Pair with a colleague who plays the other side, using a mock script your supervisor approves. Say your lines out loud and time the pauses. Hold fn to dictate your follow-up questions if you want to draft them quickly.
- Day 4
Shadow a live call
Ask a senior lawyer if you can sit in on a call or meeting. Note how they opened, how they handled the first objection, and how they closed. Ask one question afterward.
- Day 5
Close the question log
Research each question you could not answer, using firm precedent or the matter file. Bring the answers and sources to your next check-in. Note what still feels weak so next week's plan targets it.
Questions people ask
What is the first year associate skills gap?
It is the difference between what a new lawyer can do on day one of practice and what a firm expects. Surveys measure it through opinion. Experienced lawyers, judges and junior associates rate readiness. No single agreed test score exists yet.
Is the gap the same in every practice area?
The sources behind this page do not split results by practice area, so this page cannot say. Witness questioning shows up in the CLEAR data. Ask a senior lawyer in your group which tasks they see new lawyers struggle with most.
Does law school grade point average predict readiness?
The 2021 externship study says law school GPA plays a very limited role in externship success. No source here links grades to later practical skill. Do not read grades as a measure of readiness.
Can I practice negotiation or witness questioning alone?
Partly. Solo drills build vocabulary and timing. Reading a witness or holding a position needs live feedback from someone who has done it. Pair solo drills with a review by a senior colleague.
Is Lazur allowed on client work?
Follow your employer's rules first. Lazur sees your screen only while you hold the shortcut. Audio and screenshots go to AI providers to answer and are not stored. Some firms ban AI tools on client matters, and that rule applies to you.
Where do I find the Word compare command on Mac?
Go to Review > Compare > Compare Documents in Word for Mac. Microsoft's help page describes it for Word 2019 for Mac, so check the Review tab if your version shows different labels.
Is redacting a PDF with black boxes safe?
Not by itself. Adobe's steps say you must click Apply and confirm, because redacted content is then permanently deleted. Keep the sanitize option on to remove hidden data and metadata. Work on a copy first.
Sources
- IAALS: Survey Says: Experience Matters When Hiring New Lawyers · IAALS, University of Denver · checked 2026-11-07
- ABA Journal: What skills do new lawyers need? Lawyers asked to provide answers in Foundations 2.0 survey · ABA Journal · checked 2026-11-07
- Thomson Reuters Institute: Cultivating practice readiness (CLEAR report) · Thomson Reuters Institute · checked 2026-11-07
- ABA Journal: Law firms lost 15 associates for every 20 they hired, NALP Foundation study finds · ABA Journal · checked 2026-11-07
- Southern Illinois University Law Journal: Achieving Externship Success (2021) · Southern Illinois University Carbondale · checked 2026-11-07
- ABA Journal: Oregon's alternative pathway to the bar proves popular · ABA Journal · checked 2026-11-07
- Microsoft Support: Compare and merge two versions of a document · Microsoft · checked 2026-11-07
- Adobe: How to redact a PDF · Adobe · checked 2026-11-07
Fix new lawyers lacking practical skills with Lazur, free for 3 days
Hold a key and ask. Lazur sees your screen, points at the button and talks you through it, in any Mac app. No credit card.