White and Case partner warns students against AI inflation on CVs

A White and Case partner has warned aspiring lawyers not to use artificial intelligence to exaggerate their CVs after reviewing hundreds of applications from students seeking training contracts.

Ferdinand Mason, a global M and A partner at the firm, said some candidates appeared to claim substantial experience in multi billion pound transactions after only a few weeks on vacation schemes. In a recent LinkedIn post, he described the trend as AI slop grenade and suggested that some applications overstated the work students had actually done.

Mason urged candidates to describe their real experience, even where it was routine or administrative. He said that if a vacation scheme involved legal research, checking definitions and sitting in on calls, that should be included, adding that such work was closer to reality and still provided material to discuss in an application or interview.

He also stressed that applicants should focus on what they learned rather than trying to imply they had played a senior role in major deals. Mason said students did not need to have led negotiations to explain the commercial points they had observed, such as why a client might accept one warranty in a share purchase agreement but resist another.

While cautioning against exaggeration, Mason did not discourage the use of AI altogether. He said candidates could use it to tidy drafts, but should read through their CVs before submitting them and ask whether they could comfortably explain every claim across the interview table.

Mason acknowledged the competitiveness of the legal recruitment market, comparing it to the Hunger Games, and said he understood the pressure on applicants. He added that he had started his own career as a paralegal after receiving multiple rejections, and that many people on the hiring side still remembered needing an opportunity themselves.

The comments come against a backdrop of growing use of AI in legal applications. In 2024, 21 per cent of respondents in a survey said they had used a large language model to help write applications, while some major law firms have said they will accept AI assisted applications provided candidates do not misrepresent their skills or experience.