# Lawyers joining Harvey must adjust to performance-based exits

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/lawyers-joining-harvey-must-adjust-to-performance-based/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Winston Weinberg](https://realalpha.app/builders/winston-weinberg/) · Winston Weinberg is cofounder and CEO of Harvey. · Co-founded and leads Harvey, after working as an associate in securities and antitrust litigation at O'Melveny.
- Host: [Molly O'Shea](https://realalpha.app/people/molly-oshea/) · Founder, Sourcery · Ex-Upfront Ventures investor; has interviewed Alex Karp and Palmer Luckey.
- Show: Sourcery
- Episode: [Inside Harvey AI: CEO Winston Weinberg on How a 4-Year-Old Company Is Taking on the Foundation Labs](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/), Jun 16, 2026
- Moment: 21:05 to 23:27 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/lawyers-joining-harvey-must-adjust-to-performance-based/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1265

## Quote

> “law firms **very rarely fire people** very rarely okay”
> — [Winston Weinberg](https://realalpha.app/builders/winston-weinberg/) at [22:27](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1347) · Sourcery

## Takeaways

1. Weinberg says law firms rarely fire people.
2. Tech roles move faster and are more performance-based.
3. Some lawyers found the change difficult.

## About this segment

Winston Weinberg says lawyers are used to predictable promotions and few firings at law firms, while tech moves faster and uses performance-based exits. He describes this as a major adjustment for new hires.

From “Inside Harvey AI: CEO Winston Weinberg on How a 4-Year-Old Company Is Taking on the Foundation Labs”, Jun 16, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[21:09](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1269) for just blocking things so you have a quarter of your company as previous lawyers former lawyers how did you convince them to come to a tech company that's completely different than a traditional career path. It was really, really hard in the beginning. And now it's like, I think quite easy. You show them equity. What, what works? Yeah. Oh my God. It was most, it was difficult to explain equity in some instances, right? Like what is the value of equity and things like that?

[21:36](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1296) I think really like we hired in the beginning, we hired a lot of people who I think really wanted to like, they love law, like they love the practice of law, but they didn't love working in big law. and so they wanted to do something adjacent and I think that was really really attractive and then over time like we have so many lawyers that are now just full-time pms like literally they just like transferred in other pms we have so many different like career opportunities that I think that now it's a really attractive place to be because you could have a legal background and then you end up doing something else right like you don't actually have to be practicing law or anything like that here what's the biggest complaint of people leaving law firms oh i'll tell you by far they uh they like the biggest thing that they need to get used

[22:23](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1343) to here is and maybe that's your question if it isn't i'm gonna answer that one anyway um because i think this is actually super interesting law firms very rarely fire people very rarely okay um and so actually i think one of the most interesting things to get used to you is that tech is very fast moving and I try to make it a meritocracy and so if you aren't doing well, we're going to have to let you go.

[22:53](https://realalpha.app/v/ekXJCDNEmOM/?t=1373) And I think that's really hard for some people that have been in a situation where you get promoted every single year and that's how it works in big law, you get promoted every single year to exactly the same level as everyone else despite your performance and you don't really get pushed out. right and i actually think that's one of the the weirdest things and i remember in the beginning we like there were a couple people that we had to let go and things like that and people freaked out um and it's like you know from the tech world that's like very normal but i remember that being