Lawyers from major U.S. law firms have moved in large numbers into the legal organisations of big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Nvidia, a report showed. It cited analysis that the growth of the AI industry and increasingly complex legal issues are making technology companies attractive places to change jobs.

Business Insider reported on Oct. 26 that legal talent analytics firm Pirical examined people from the top 200 U.S. law firms by revenue who are working in the legal departments of seven major technology companies. The companies surveyed were Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. Interns and short-term trainee lawyers were excluded from the count.

The firms producing the most lawyers were Morrison Foerster and Wilson Sonsini. Lawyers from each firm accounted for 40 people working at the companies surveyed.

Latham & Watkins followed with 33. Kirkland & Ellis, the top U.S. law firm by revenue, ranked joint 11th with 21.

Moves were also notable among lawyers from firms with long-standing business ties to technology companies. Of 29 former Cooley lawyers, 9 were working at Nvidia. Microsoft’s legal team had 13 from Davis Wright Tremaine, while Google had 13 from Fenwick.

By company, Google had the largest number of lawyers from major law firms. Among the top 25 firms in the count, 322 people were working in Google’s legal organisation, the most among the companies surveyed.

Work environment and expertise were cited as reasons lawyers prefer big tech. It allows them to escape pressure from hourly billing targets at law firms and focus on a specific company’s business and legal strategy.

AI companies in particular face complex legal issues, including copyright, intellectual property rights and antitrust regulation, attracting interest from specialised lawyers.

The survey counted current employees and does not indicate the scale of new hiring over the past year. Pirical said some roles may have been omitted or recent hiring at new AI companies may not have been reflected.