Lawyers

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Low Risk
31%

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Vote Comments (234)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
23%
(Low Risk)
POLLING
40%
(Low Risk, Based on 6,795 votes)
Average: 31%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
5.2%
by year 2033
WAGES
$151,160
or $72.67 per hour
Volume
747,750
as of 2024
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.4/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

23% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): Jobs in this level have a limited risk of automation, as they demand a mix of technical and human-centric skills.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some very important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Persuasion

  • Negotiation

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Originality

User poll

40% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 23% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Lawyers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (quarterly)

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Lawyers' job openings is expected to rise 5.2% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for 'Lawyers' was $151,160, or $73 per hour

'Lawyers' were paid 205.4% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $49,500

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 747,750 people employed as 'Lawyers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.48% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 206 people are employed as 'Lawyers'.

Job description

Represent clients in criminal and civil litigation and other legal proceedings, draw up legal documents, or manage or advise clients on legal transactions. May specialize in a single area or may practice broadly in many areas of law.

SOC Code: 23-1011.00

Comments (234)

Leave a comment
Jude Jordan
29 Jul 2024 01:34
Lawyers will not be replaced by AI for a while because, regardless of how capable AI actually is in technical, ethical, and reasoning aspects, the people who will write into law and decide whether or not AI should be able to serve as lawyers, are themselves lawyers. The giant law industry as it is, will never allow for AI to legally serve as lawyers in the foreseeable future.
MATHEUS COSTA DE ARAUJO (No chance)
11 Dec 2024 01:22
There are numerous issues involved in being a lawyer. Knowing the law is one of them, but interpreting the law is another. Few people would trust robots to handle such important cases in their lives. Another thing that happens frequently is settlements. Robots don't have feelings, meaning that if a settlement seems advantageous from a rational point of view, the robot would suggest it's a good deal. However, emotionally, it might be a terrible agreement. I believe my explanation might have been a bit confusing, but I hope you understood.
Meriem Makri (No chance)
03 Sep 2024 14:20
New regulations are introduced daily, so the machines need to be updated regularly. Justice is not a field that can be easily automated because the profile of each individual seeking justice varies greatly, as do the ways in which the law is applied (such as mitigating circumstances, etc.).
Bigmonkey123 (Low)
12 Jul 2024 04:17
I think the puplic won’t really want a robot defending them
J
16 Jul 2024 22:18
I worked in the job, and robots are nicer than many humans. And even professional receptionists.

They'll do less errors, and don't require sleep. No more receptionist that is away. Longer opening hours.

Why do you say robots have no empathy, you fillthy racist? They have it. Robots would probably beat you up.
'fillthy' racist, apparently
19 Jul 2024 02:46
Robots have programmed empathy. They don't actually feel it, because it is a robot (could you guess?).
Not that I'd expect someone who doesn't even know the definition of 'racist' and just flings the word around however would know what empathy is...
And besides, you never even addressed what they said. They didn't even bring up empathy, as their point was about people not wanting a robot to defend them. You've brought up a completely nonsensical rebuttal to an argument that doesn't exist.
J (No chance)
11 Jul 2024 08:23
Being a lawyer requires understanding emotion, being able to improvise, and thinking out of the box.

These are the tasks that robots won't be able to fulfill for at least a decade from now.
BIG BALLZ (Low)
28 May 2025 16:55
Sometimes the law is not absolute and requires a certain amount of human sentiment. This is definitely something which should not be handed to AI robots.
ez (Low)
07 Jul 2024 22:01
this job requires skills like persuasion, originality, social perceptiveness, and more, which make it hard to automate.
Daddy Dirtbag (No chance)
05 Jul 2024 04:20
Robots would be way less convincing
Amariah (No chance)
22 Apr 2025 08:42
i voted no chance because their robots and being a lawyer is about having emotion to persuade and fight and argue, which is something robots cant really have, emotion.
Marty (No chance)
06 Sep 2024 16:08
Not only does AI struggle to instantiate legal reasoning in reality, but on principle, it is a terrible idea to offload interpretation and reasoning to computers when it is about abstract concepts that govern the practical lives of human beings.
AIPredictor (Low)
09 Jul 2024 19:12
It is a low chance that a lawyer's job would be replaced by robots because of the fact that AI lacks the fundamental arguing skills and the "human" perspective into the side of things. An example of this would be if a lawyer is defending a client by saying the statement, "What would you do in this situation" and working your way up to it was the best decision they could have made. Also the robot lawyers would have to base their arguments off of data, which would mean their own lawyer would turn against them if having more proof for the other side
Vihan Vartak (Low)
17 Jun 2025 15:18
lawyers are based on peoples trust and require a sense of humanity that ai cant remake , eventhouugh ai is good for research and papers it cant entirely replace it but it can bbe integrated and used by the lawyers for convenience
Ronald J
21 Nov 2024 15:38
There is no way an A.I. can take over the law!!!!! How scary
John (No chance)
18 Aug 2024 07:46
It requires nuanced opinion-formation and decision-making skills that cannot be replicated by a program. Not to mention, depending on the field, it may involve gut instinct and other talents which only humans have.
Sara Hedén (No chance)
10 Dec 2025 09:20
An AI can't know the difference between good and bad. They're unable to argue and process the evidence of the case.
Get Real (No Chance)
14 Jan 2025 23:14
If you were a Judge or part of a Jury, would you be more likely to back the guy with a human lawyer or the one with an AI lawyer?
AC
26 Jan 2025 21:56
Human lawyer. Interesting question.
Matt F (No chance)
15 Nov 2024 10:26
No automation can accurately interpret the law without creating it's own legislation based on the parameters of existing legislation
علي يحيى
10 Nov 2024 07:27
I don't believe that artificial intelligence can replace the legal profession, even to a small extent, because it is a human-centered profession.
James (Low)
04 Jul 2024 23:14
Lawyers are one of few occupations that require persuasivness to be good at your job. An AI cannot immitate human persuasivness unless it is made to be socially and mentally aware. This is a very unlikely scenario as it would come with big risk factors.
Phoenix5869 (No chance)
26 Apr 2024 12:55
No chance in the next 20 years. Lawyers have such a high stakes, complicated job, and I think it`s extremely unlikely they will be automated anytime soon. maybe in 30-35 years, but not 20. 20 years is honestly pretty ridiculous.
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