What the work actually involves

You will spend most of your time reading model output that looks like competent legal writing and deciding whether it is. A typical task set might hand you two AI-drafted memos on a statutory interpretation question and ask which is better and why, or give you a draft indemnification clause and ask you to flag every substantive defect. The failure modes you are hunting are specific: fabricated or misdescribed citations, a case cited for a proposition it does not support, a rule stated correctly for the wrong jurisdiction, a contract term that is internally coherent but allocates risk in a way no competent counsel would accept, an analysis that omits the dispositive threshold issue entirely.

Written justification is the deliverable, not the rating. A score with a two-line rationale that points at the exact paragraph and names the error is worth more than a paragraph of general impressions. Expect rubrics that separate legal accuracy from reasoning structure from drafting quality, and expect to be marked down if you collapse them — a memo can be beautifully drafted and wrong, and your review has to say so cleanly.

What the platform screens for

Mercor's screen is AI-led and pushes on depth. It will ask you to name practice areas, then ask a follow-up that only someone who has actually litigated or papered a deal can answer — what you'd check first in a given clause, how you'd handle a bad fact, what the threshold question is in a scenario. Vague seniority claims collapse quickly under this. It also verifies the boring things: four-plus years in a lawyer, counsel, GC, or prosecutor role; real client-facing or drafting experience rather than adjacent legal-operations work; and honest availability against a 20+ hour commitment.

Logistics

  • Fully remote and asynchronous; you pick your hours within task deadlines
  • 20+ hours per week, sustained across roughly 4–6 weeks
  • Immediate start; task-based pay initially, converting to hourly after your first approved task lands within the required window
  • The $70–110/hr band reflects observed rates on comparable Mercor legal projects and is not a guarantee — bands move with jurisdiction, seniority, and project
  • Confidentiality terms apply; check them against any current firm or in-house obligations before you start