Will AI replace Paralegals and Legal Assistants?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
43/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 70% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 12% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 82% of the work
What the job involves
Assist lawyers by investigating facts, preparing legal documents, or researching legal precedent. Conduct research to support a legal proceeding, to formulate a defense, or to initiate legal action.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents.
Within reach(8)
- Prepare affidavits or other documents, such as legal correspondence, and organize and maintain documents in paper or electronic filing system.
- Prepare for trial by performing tasks such as organizing exhibits.
- Investigate facts and law of cases and search pertinent sources, such as public records and internet sources, to determine causes of action and to prepare cases.
- File pleadings with court clerks.
- Direct and coordinate law office activity, including delivery of subpoenas.
and 3 more
Out of reach(2)
- Meet with clients and other professionals to discuss details of cases.
- Call upon witnesses to testify at hearings.
Also called
Legal Assistant · Paralegal · Legal Clerk · Litigation Paralegal · Paralegal Specialist · Immigration Paralegal · Real Estate Paralegal · Corporate Paralegal
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics