Vanguard's 20-minute prototypes show where legal work is heading

The WSJ's "vibe coding" piece reads like a preview of vibe lawyering, and the timeline is probably shorter than we think. When Gartner predicts 40% of business software will come from AI translating plain English into code within three years, they're describing the same pattern that's about to hit legal work. The technical barrier falls, the gatekeeping function shifts, and suddenly everyone thinks they can do the job.

Vanguard's legal team should be paying attention to their own IT department's experience. Their engineers went from two-week prototyping cycles to 20-minute turnarounds using AI tools, but as their CIO noted, "the role of the engineer is still very critical" for setting boundaries and understanding what's happening behind the scenes. Replace "engineer" with "lawyer" and you have the template for how legal work evolves. The AI handles the drafting and research; lawyers become the quality control and strategic decision layer.

But here's where the comparison gets uncomfortable: the same governance problems plaguing vibe coding will hit legal work harder. At least code either works or it doesn't—you can test it. Legal work fails quietly and expensively, sometimes years later when someone finally reads the contract language that AI generated and a non-lawyer approved. When Sonar's CEO worries about "an HR person constructing an app that bypasses security reviews," imagine that same HR person drafting employment agreements using AI and signing off because the language sounds reasonable.

The smart move for product counsel is to watch how companies solve vibe coding governance now, because those same frameworks will determine whether vibe lawyering becomes a useful evolution or a compliance nightmare. Choice Hotels is already training employees on proper AI-assisted coding—that's your pilot program for teaching business teams how to use legal AI tools responsibly.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/vibe-coding-has-arrived-for-businesses-5528e942