AI may be changing how paralegals work, but it isn’t replacing the judgment, accountability, and human expertise that the legal profession depends on. Read on to learn what that means for your role and how you can thrive in an AI-driven legal world.
“The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.”
Samuel Johnson, Writer, critic, moralist
AI is on everyone’s mind, and reports connecting AI to job loss have stoked fears—especially in a tech-centric city like Austin—that robots will soon be coming for all our jobs. Beyond the understandable financial worries that come with unemployment, there are the existential ones, too: Do people really not see the value of the work I do?
On this front, there is good news for paralegals, and maybe even an opportunity. Wherever you’re landing on the spectrum of AI responses, from fearful rejector to early adopter, we have the answers you need when it comes to paralegal work and the AI boom, with key insights from Brittany Posadas, Paralegal Program Manager and instructor for the Paralegal Certificate Program at The University of Texas at Austin.
The Big Question
Before we tackle anything else, the primary question on everyone’s mind is, of course, What about my job? According to Posadas, there’s no need to worry just yet. “I think AI will just be supplementing, not replacing our work right now,” she said, “A lot of the use of AI that I’m seeing, at least on the paralegal side, is summary-based. Paralegals do a lot of summarizing documents, and I’m seeing AI used [for that].”
Before you let that concern you, ask yourself: What can’t AI do? “It’s not replacing the human brain or human analysis,” Posadas said. “So while I may have an AI engine that’s helping me to summarize some high-level information, that’s not a substitute for me to go in and look for specific things that only I am going to know about my case and about my clients.”
For Posadas, AI means optimization, not obsolescence. “I think AI can help me to work more efficiently,” she said, “but it cannot be a substitute for [my] brain.”
AI and Accountability
There is an oft-quoted phrase from a 1979 IBM training manual that goes like this: “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” The same is true of decisions in the field of law. Just as we wouldn’t want our doctors to co-opt their critical thinking or decision-making skills to a robot with no real stake in the game, clients are expecting their legal representatives to use their unique, experience-based human expertise to protect their best interests, which AI can never replicate.
“Attorneys and paralegals… are having to learn how to navigate AI appropriately for security and protection and privacy compliance for our clients,” Posadas said.
Whatever benefits we gain from AI, remember that it’s not the chatbot who will have to own its mistakes, but you. Check, double-check, and check again rather than finding yourself blindsided by the sort of mistake only a computer could make. Efficiency can be wonderful, but never at the expense of exactness, certainty and security.
The Future of Paralegal Work
AI isn’t going away, but thankfully, neither is the paralegal profession. It’s just getting streamlined and, hopefully, becoming a little bit easier to do. According to Posadas, paralegals should think of AI like any other tool: something to be learned about and, in time, fully grasped. “Eventually,” she said, “at a maximum level, we’re going to have paralegals who are super-skilled and super-efficient. You will see paralegals who become masters of AI.”
And like any tool, AI will need practitioners. “It’s almost like how the creation of computers did not get rid of the secretary,” Posadas argued. “Secretaries need to operate computers. Same thing. We have paralegals who are going to need to be able to operate AI, but I don’t think it’s going to take over.”
It is your experience and expertise, coupled with a human touch, that make you and your work so valuable. And AI isn’t coming for that anytime soon.
Ready to learn more? UT Austin’s Center for Professional Education now offers the self-paced, online course Embracing AI for Legal Professionals, which is designed to give you hands-on experience in over a dozen AI tools.
Andrew Forrester is a writer whose work has appeared in Parents Magazine, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. Andrew also teaches English and creative writing in Austin, Texas, and has a Ph.D. in English literature from Southern Methodist University.
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