Successful Examples of Legal-Tech Intern Projects

Understanding what successful legal-tech intern projects look like helps inform project design and expectations.

4.1 Project Types from Industry

Compliance Framework Development

  • Creating internal AI governance policies
  • Developing EU AI Act compliance checklists
  • Building risk classification matrices for AI systems

Policy Research and Analysis

  • Comparative analysis of global AI regulations
  • Impact assessments of proposed legislation
  • Regulatory landscape mapping for specific AI applications

Product-Related Legal Work

  • Testing legal AI products for accuracy
  • Providing law student perspective on feature development
  • Drafting user-facing terms and disclosures

Process Improvement

  • Automating compliance reporting workflows
  • Developing AI-driven contract review processes
  • Creating templates for AI-related documentation

4.2 Success Story Elements

Nathan Corr, an LLB student who interned at legal tech companies, shared: “Interning at a legal tech company is an exciting way to learn about the possibilities of different ways of working as a lawyer. It teaches you to look at processes and think ‘could this be done better?’”

Key success factors include:

  • Working alongside software engineers and data scientists
  • Providing legal perspective that technical teams lack
  • Contributing to product development from a user standpoint
  • Building relationships that lead to references or job offers

4.3 Sample Project Structures

Short-term (6-8 weeks)

  • EU AI Act compliance gap analysis for specific AI system
  • Comparative memo on international AI regulation approaches
  • Internal policy draft for responsible AI use

Medium-term (10-12 weeks)

  • Comprehensive AI governance framework development
  • Multi-jurisdictional compliance assessment
  • AI ethics training program creation

Extended (4-6 months)

  • End-to-end compliance implementation project
  • Cross-functional AI risk assessment initiative
  • External-facing responsible AI guidelines publication

This is Part 4 of a 10-part series on best practices for designing capstone projects for legal interns at AI companies.