The Impact of AI on Legal Jobs: A Growing Concern for Paralegals
AI continues to grow in prominence across many corporate spaces, with a significant spike between 2023 and 2024. In the legal field, the use of large language models (LLMs) catered to law firms like Harvey and CoCounsel is becoming customary, with big names like A&O Shearman and Wilson Sonsini already diving in head first. While this shift may offer these firms a competitive advantage, it also breeds uncertainty for the future of paralegals, for whom traditional responsibilities like document review, case-sensitive research, and information management may no longer fall under the job description.
Are Paralegal Jobs at Risk? Automation’s Role in the Legal Industry
The benefits of automating these processes puts the necessity of paralegals into question, causing many to doubt the extent of their job security. Mainstream AI integration would change the game, potentially causing firms to remodel their entire billing systems as clients who favor efficiency increasingly seek out law firms that use AI-assisted services.
A Paralegals View: Balancing Human Skills and AI in Legal Support Roles
We asked a paralegal in our network about her take. She expressed concern for AI’s impact on job stability, yet also observed an increase in opportunities that combine the strengths of humans and technology. In her most recent role, there wasn’t much reliance on AI tools, but there was a good deal of talk about investing in it, as the firm’s current systems were not centralized and largely inefficient. She felt, however, that a general wave of anxiety constantly washes over all young legal professionals who aren’t barred, knowing AI could take over the vital research and writing functions on which their jobs depend.
Ethical Concerns and AI Limitations in the Legal Field
It would be risky to abolish human labor in this area, however. Various consequences surrounding ethics and accountability would likely arise. For example, any client information inputted into a large language model (LLMs) gets automatically written into the system’s memory. Pending an unfortunate data breach, AI could become a serious liability issue. The extent to which an AI model can process and contextualize complex details may not be enough to prevent minor inaccuracies. A trained paralegal can be trusted to properly evaluate sensitive information and fill in any gaps/make corrections to responses generated by LLMs.
The Future of Paralegal Careers in an AI-Driven Future
At the end of the day, what is the important part of this work? There’s a notable difference between what internal decisions benefit firm leadership versus affect the ability of paralegals to further their careers and acquire the skills and experience necessary to eventually become lawyers.
Evolving With AI
While AI may be here to stay, it is unlikely to relinquish paralegal roles completely. It’s becoming clearer that AI is not so much a threat to paralegal work as a whole, but an indication of an evolving legal industry with heightened expectations. In order to keep up with the competition and maximize work efficiency, the question becomes not so much how to rise above AI, but how to best work in tandem with it.
