The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies could trigger a four per cent decline in the number of lawyers in England and Wales by 2027, according to a new report. The study warns AI could halt the historic year-on-year growth in the number of lawyers in its tracks, with the profession shrinking by 7,000 lawyers to 169,200 when compared to 2017. However, the decline would only happen if AI take-up was even faster than predicted. The report's baseline findings are that the number of lawyers is likely to rise by a modest two per cent over the period, although overall employment in the sector will fall by four per cent thanks to a sharp decline in the number of legal secretaries and other office support staff as their roles are taken over by technology. The report notes: "In 1998 there were two legal professionals to one legal secretary, and the ratio was one to one when adding in other office support staff, but by 2017 the ratios had increased to five legal professionals per legal secretary, and two legal professionals for every secretary or other office support worker. "In 2027, there are projected to be around 20 legal professionals per legal secretary, and five legal professionals for every secretary or other office support worker.

The adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence could lead to the UK legal sector shedding 13,000 jobs, according to a report by the Law Society of England and Wales. The report on the future shape of the legal workforce projected a 13,000 fall in the number of jobs by 2027, equivalent to a four per cent drop. The body said the number of legal secretaries is projected to fall by nearly two thirds and other office support staff by a quarter. Many major law firms have already axed support staff, particularly in expensive locations such as London. Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer offered voluntary redundancy to all 180 of its secretaries in London in 2017, while both Ashurst and Baker McKenzie have made staff cuts in the City this year.

There are approximately 1.3 million lawyers in America. A law firm is also made up of support staff such as paralegals, legal assistants and legal secretaries. In total, are approximately 271,000 paralegals and 202,000 legal secretaries in the United States. So with almost 500,000 law firm support staff jobs in America, the most common question I'm asked is: "Will automation and machine learning cause me to lose my job?" Duties carried out by most law firm support staff are administrative in nature. The most common are word processing, research, proofreading, data entry, filing and in some cases, document drafting.