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Will AI really replace paralegals?

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By Legal Cheek on

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The Legal Cheek team discuss AI and the future of legal jobs — listen now 🎙️


The Legal Cheek Podcast returns this week as publisher Alex Aldridge and writer Lydia Fontes discuss two stories that have made the legal news in recent weeks.

In this week’s episode, we dig into the unorthodox tactics of Thomas Isaacs — the aspiring barrister who went viral on LinkedIn for taking his job search back to basics. Is this a brilliant new strategy to get noticed in an increasingly competitive job market? And what is this first-class AI and computer science graduate doing becoming a lawyer in the first place?

We also discuss the news that the “Godfather of AI”, Geoffrey Hinton, told the Diary of a CEO podcast that AI could spell trouble for paralegals, asking how often these sorts of predictions really come true. Is the legal market as vulnerable to AI replacement as is often made out?

You can listen to the podcast in full via the embed above, or on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

3 Comments

AI will replace lawyers and professionals

AI will absolutely replace paralegals, lawyers, all professional services in the near future assuming AI capabilities continue to grow exponentially as they did in the last 2-3 years.

Lawyers are easily outsmarted by AI – law is a stagnant, backwards profession still billing by the hour, whereas both efficiency, accuracy, and economy are increasingly attainable by using AI.

Law students are increasingly turning to AI for their essays. Lawyers are increasingly using AI for both transactions and litigation. By hiring a lawyer you are basing hiring someone to use AI for you. Clients can simply use AI themselves, cutting out the middlemen (that are lawyers).

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yeah, until the first AI fuck up that ends up in court.

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AI will not replace lawyers and professionals

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was written by AI given how poor of an understanding the comment has of the legal industry (but yeah, students do use AI, how does that lead to lawyers being replaced).

Try suing your AI when poo inevitably hits the fan (or engaging in a feedback discussion). Try bringing the AI to the negotiation table to secure a favourable compromise in person.

Put simply, AI will not replace any lawyer. In 2-3 years, assuming continued rapid expansion of functions it can process, it could turn into a useful targeted legal personal assistant which will mean fewer openings / lower headcount at a junior level.

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