WILL AI REPLACE LAWYERS? WHAT FUTURE LAWYERS NEED TO KNOW
WILL AI REPLACE LAWYERS?
Will AI replace junior lawyers? AI is more likely to change the work lawyers do than replace lawyers altogether. While artificial intelligence can already support tasks such as legal research, drafting, document review and due diligence, lawyers are still needed to apply judgement, understand context, advise clients and take professional responsibility for their work.
For law students and graduates, that means the bigger question isn't simply whether AI will take legal jobs. It's how AI could change the work you do when you enter the profession.
Some of the tasks traditionally given to junior lawyers are already being supported by technology. That could change what early-career legal work looks like — and the skills graduates need to bring to it.
So, what could that mean for your first legal job? Which skills will matter most? And do you suddenly need to become an AI expert?
We asked Alison Laird, Chief Learning Officer at the College of Law, and Kate Richardson, Partner and Head of People & Development at Johnson Winter Slattery, what future lawyers need to know.
At a glance:
AI is more likely to change the work lawyers do than simply replace lawyers altogether.
AI can already assist with tasks such as legal research · drafting · document review · due diligence · summarising · discovery · routine correspondence
But lawyers still bring something important to the equation: judgement · critical thinking · strategy · advocacy · negotiation · empathy · communication · context · professional responsibility
For future lawyers, the goal isn't to become an AI expert. It's to understand how AI can be used, recognise its limitations and keep developing the legal and human skills that technology can't easily replicate.
WILL AI REPLACE LAWYERS?
AI is already changing legal practice. But there's an important difference between AI replacing a lawyer and AI changing the work a lawyer does.
One way to understand the impact is to think about three possibilities:
Displacement
A role disappears or fewer people are needed to perform it.
Automation
Technology takes over particular tasks previously completed by people.
Augmentation
Technology helps people perform their jobs differently, whether that's working faster, handling more information or approaching a task in a new way.
Right now, much of AI's impact on legal work is about automation and augmentation, rather than simply replacing lawyers.
That distinction matters.
If AI can produce a first draft or review hundreds of documents more quickly, the task may change. But a lawyer is still needed to interrogate the output, decide what matters, understand the client's circumstances and determine what should happen next.
The job isn't necessarily disappearing. Parts of the job are changing.
WHAT LEGAL WORK CAN AI AUTOMATE?
AI is particularly useful for work that involves processing, organising or analysing large amounts of information.
In legal practice, that can include:
- legal research
- producing first drafts
- summarising information
- preparing chronologies
- document review
- due diligence
- basic contract drafting and comparison
- routine correspondence
- discovery and e-discovery.
For junior lawyers, many of these tasks have traditionally been part of learning the ropes.
That doesn't mean graduates will no longer be needed. But it could change what junior lawyers spend their time doing.
Instead of spending hours manually reviewing information or creating a chronology, for example, a graduate might increasingly be responsible for checking what technology has produced, identifying what matters and working out how to communicate it to a client.
WHAT CAN LAWYERS DO THAT AI CAN'T REPLACE?
Being a lawyer involves much more than finding information or drafting documents.
Lawyers need to determine which facts matter, how the law applies in context and what a client should actually do next.
That requires skills such as:
| SKILL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Judgement | Legal problems aren't always clear-cut. Lawyers need to weigh competing information, identify risks and make decisions when there isn't one obvious answer. |
| Critical thinking | An AI-generated answer isn't automatically the right answer. Lawyers need to question information, test assumptions and identify what's missing. |
| Strategy | Knowing the law is one thing. Working out how to use it to achieve a client's objective is another. |
| Communication and empathy | Clients aren't simply legal problems to solve. Lawyers need to understand the people and organisations they're advising, communicate complex information clearly and navigate difficult or sensitive situations. |
| Advocacy and negotiation | Representing a client's interests requires an understanding of people, context and competing priorities. |
There is another important distinction too: the lawyer remains professionally responsible for their work.
AI can help produce an answer. It can't take responsibility for the advice ultimately given to a client
WHAT DOES AI MEAN FOR GRADUATE AND JUNIOR LAWYERS?
This is where the impact of AI becomes particularly interesting.
Junior lawyers have traditionally spent a significant amount of time on tasks such as research, document review, due diligence and preparing chronologies.
As technology takes on more of that work, graduates may have opportunities to become involved in more complex and higher-value work earlier.
Rather than simply producing information, the junior lawyer's role could increasingly involve:
Directing AI → interrogating the output → verifying it → improving it → applying judgement
In other words, AI could move some junior lawyers further "up the value chain" earlier in their careers.
That doesn't mean graduate recruitment won't change.
There has been some softening in the graduate recruitment market, but it isn't possible to attribute that solely to AI. Economic conditions, offshoring and normal recruitment cycles can all affect the number of opportunities available.
Some firms are still working out what AI will mean for their workforce and future graduate pipeline. And as routine tasks become increasingly automated, some junior, paralegal and legal administration roles may evolve.
The important point is that a job is made up of many different tasks. Automating some of those tasks doesn't necessarily automate the entire role.
WHICH AREAS OF LAW COULD BE MOST AFFECTED BY AI?
Rather than trying to identify one practice area that is "safe" from AI, it can be more useful to look at the type of work involved.
Highly routine, standardised and process-driven work may be more exposed to automation.
That could include work associated with:
- conveyancing
- high-volume commercial contracts
- NDAs
- procurement contracts
- discovery and e-discovery
- document review.
Work involving greater levels of judgement, advocacy, complexity and human interaction can be harder to automate.
That can be particularly important in areas involving complex litigation, criminal defence, family law, complex employment matters and high-stakes regulatory work.
But no practice area exists entirely outside technological change. The more useful question for future lawyers may be: which parts of this work can technology do, and where does a lawyer add value?
WHAT SKILLS WILL FUTURE LAWYERS NEED?
The arrival of generative AI doesn't mean everything employers previously valued has suddenly become irrelevant.
Future lawyers will still need strong legal foundations.
They'll still need to communicate well, think critically, understand clients and exercise good judgement.
But there is another skill becoming increasingly important: digital acumen.
That doesn't necessarily mean knowing how to build AI systems or becoming an expert in every new tool. It means being comfortable with technology, understanding what it can and can't do and knowing when it is — and isn't — appropriate to use it.
Skills that could become increasingly valuable include:
- judgement
- critical thinking
- commercial awareness
- communication
- empathy
- understanding clients and context
- adaptability
- digital acumen
In many ways, AI could make some traditionally "human" skills more important, not less.
If technology can produce information quickly, the value a lawyer brings increasingly comes from knowing what to do with it.
DO LAW STUDENTS NEED TO BECOME AI EXPERTS?
No.
You don't need to graduate from law school as an AI expert to have a future in law.
What can help is being curious about the technology.
Experiment with AI where you're permitted to do so. Learn what different tools are capable of. See where they perform well — and where they don't.
That includes understanding limitations such as hallucinations and learning that using AI effectively isn't simply about knowing how to use it. It's also about recognising when not to use it.
Employers are beginning to explore this with graduates too.
Some firms now ask candidates about their experiences using AI during applications or interviews. The example doesn't necessarily need to involve legal work. What matters can be your ability to explain what you tried, how you approached it, what worked, what didn't and what you learned.
Curiosity and judgement can matter more than being able to call yourself an AI expert.
HOW CAN LAW STUDENTS PREPARE FOR AI IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
You don't need to predict exactly what legal practice will look like in five or ten years.
You can start preparing for change now.
| SKILL | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Build your legal foundations | Legal problems aren't always clear-cut. Lawyers need to weigh competing information, identify risks and make decisions when there isn't one obvious answer. |
| Experiment with AI | An AI-generated answer isn't automatically the right answer. Lawyers need to question information, test assumptions and identify what's missing. |
| Get practical legal experience | Knowing the law is one thing. Working out how to use it to achieve a client's objective is another. |
| Pay attention to technology during work experience | Clients aren't simply legal problems to solve. Lawyers need to understand the people and organisations they're advising, communicate complex information clearly and navigate difficult or sensitive situations. |
| Keep up with the profession | Representing a client's interests requires an understanding of people, context and competing priorities. |
| Use AI to challenge your thinking | Rather than asking AI to do the work for you, experiment with using it as a coach or "sparring partner". You could write something yourself and ask AI to identify gaps, challenge your reasoning or suggest ways to improve it. |
There is another important distinction too: the lawyer remains professionally responsible for their work.
AI can help produce an answer. It can't take responsibility for the advice ultimately given to a client
COULD AI CREATE NEW LEGAL CAREER OPPORTUNITIES?
AI isn't only changing existing legal jobs. It's also contributing to new ways of working in and around the legal profession.
Law firms and legal teams are developing capabilities in areas such as:
Legal technology · Legal operations · Legal innovation · Legal engineering · Consulting
Large firms may have dedicated digital or innovation teams working alongside practising lawyers.
Technology could also change where graduates begin their careers.
Traditionally, many lawyers have started in private practice before moving in-house later. But as in-house teams use technology to complete more work themselves, some organisations may look at bringing graduates directly into their teams.
The legal careers available to today's students may not follow exactly the same path as the careers that came before them — and some future roles may not even exist yet.
SO, WILL AI REPLACE LAWYERS OR TAKE LEGAL JOBS?
Legal careers are changing. Some routine tasks are already being automated, junior roles may evolve and nobody can say with certainty exactly what the legal workforce will look like as AI develops.
But being a lawyer has never just been about producing documents or finding the right piece of information.
It's about understanding the law, understanding your client and using judgement to decide what to do next.
For law students and graduates, preparing for an AI-enabled profession doesn't mean becoming a technology expert overnight.
Learn the law. Develop your judgement. Build your human skills. Get curious about technology. And be ready to adapt.
The tools may change. Your job is to learn how to use them well.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT AI AND LEGAL CAREERS
AI may change the work junior lawyers do, but that doesn't necessarily mean replacing the role altogether. As AI supports tasks traditionally completed by junior lawyers, such as research, drafting, document review and due diligence, graduates may spend more time checking and interpreting AI-generated work, applying judgement and contributing to more complex work earlier in their careers.
Some paralegal tasks could increasingly be automated, particularly routine work such as document review and discovery. However, a paralegal role involves more than individual tasks. As AI takes on some routine work, paralegal roles may evolve rather than simply disappear.
Work that is routine, standardised and process-driven may be more affected by AI. Examples discussed in the webinar included conveyancing, high-volume commercial contracts, NDAs, procurement contracts, discovery and document review.
Work involving greater levels of judgement, advocacy, complexity and human interaction may be harder to automate.
Yes, but you don't need to become an AI expert. Law students can benefit from experimenting with AI where permitted, understanding what it can and can't do, and learning about limitations such as hallucinations.
It's also important to learn when AI is useful and when not to use it. Employers are beginning to ask graduate candidates about their experiences with AI, including what they've tried and what they've learned.
AI is changing legal careers, but the webinar didn't suggest that students should reconsider a career in law because of it. Instead, the discussion focused on how legal roles are likely to evolve as AI automates or supports particular tasks.
Lawyers will still need skills such as judgement, critical thinking, communication, empathy and an understanding of clients and context. AI may also create different opportunities in areas such as legal technology, legal operations, legal innovation and legal engineering.
