Paralegals & Legal Assistants
LegalAI exposure
- Data source: BLSPublished: '26.08
High· relative
LowFour relative bandsVery highGroup-level value
Scale, basis and source
Four relative bands (Low / Moderate / High / Very high)
831 detailed occupations in the BLS Employment Projections table. Assigned per National Employment Matrix (NEM) code, so occupations sharing a NEM code carry the same band
- Data source: AnthropicPublished: '26.03
0.293
0.000Range of values carried here0.745Scale, basis and source
- Data source: ILOPublished: '25
0.39
0.09Range of values carried here0.70Group-level value
Scale, basis and source
Generative AI exposure index, 0–1 as published
ISCO-08 unit group — every occupation sharing the code gets this value
Computed by this site, not published by the ILO: of the 1,012 occupations this site links to the ILO dataset, 44% score at or above this value.
What kind of figure this source publishes
The BLS category is a relative rank, not an absolute level, and it is not a first-hand measurement: it groups an occupation's percentile ranks across several published studies into four bands. It is not an employment or wage forecast, not a probability of adoption, and it does not separate automation from augmentation.
Task-level exposure
Exposed tasks onlyValues in this tab are predicted labels, not observations. Eloundou et al. (2023) published two rating regimes — human raters and GPT-4 — and the β shown here is derived from the GPT-4 rater basis alone; the same task can take a different value under the other regime. The unit and the meaning differ from the observed shares (%) in the other tabs, so do not place them on the same axis.
| Task | βE1 + 0.5 × E2 |
|---|---|
Prepare legal documents, including briefs, pleadings, appeals, wills, contracts, and real estate closing statements.O*NET Task ID 1634 | 1.0 |
Prepare affidavits or other documents, such as legal correspondence, and organize and maintain documents in paper or electronic filing system.O*NET Task ID 18491 | 1.0 |
Gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents.O*NET Task ID 1636 | 0.5 |
Direct and coordinate law office activity, including delivery of subpoenas.O*NET Task ID 1639 | 0.5 |
Keep and monitor legal volumes to ensure that law library is up-to-date.O*NET Task ID 1641 | 0.5 |
Appraise and inventory real and personal property for estate planning.O*NET Task ID 1642 | 0.5 |
Prepare for trial by performing tasks such as organizing exhibits.O*NET Task ID 18492 | 0.5 |
File pleadings with court clerk.O*NET Task ID 18494 | 0.5 |
Arbitrate disputes between parties and assist in the real estate closing process, such as by reviewing title searches.O*NET Task ID 18496 | 0.5 |
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.O*NET Task ID 21062 | 0.5 |
Call upon witnesses to testify at hearing.O*NET Task ID 1638 | 0.0 |
Meet with clients and other professionals to discuss details of case.O*NET Task ID 18493 | 0.0 |
β = E1 + 0.5 × E2 · E1 = tasks where direct LLM access alone cuts time by at least 50%, E2 = tasks where software built on top of an LLM cuts time by at least 50%. Values take only 0 / 0.5 / 1.0.
Data sources & licenses — O*NET®, Eloundou et al. (2023): see full notices on the Credits page
Occupation information
Recent Changes Affecting This Occupation
Apr 2026: OpenAI Jobs Transition Framework (April 2026) classifies paralegals in the 18% high-risk cluster: heavy document review, citation checking, and templated drafting are core LLM strengths.
[Source: OpenAI Jobs Transition Framework, April 2026]Mar 2026: Brookings: regulated sectors (law) show constrained AI adoption due to privacy and liability concerns.
[Source: Brookings Institution]Mar 2026: HBR: Paralegals classified as automation-vulnerable due to high text-processing task share. Job postings declining as AI handles document review and legal research.
[Source: HBR (Mar 2026)]