Paralegals and Legal Assistants

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Occupation snapshot

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
3.1/10
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.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

53% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

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

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 282 votes

65% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 53% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Paralegals and Legal Assistants will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants was $61,010 ($29 per hour).

The median annual wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants was 23.3% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Paralegals and Legal Assistants' job openings is expected to rise 0.2% by 2034

View employment trend

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.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 367,220 people employed as 'Paralegals and Legal Assistants' within the United States.

This represents around 0.24% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 419 people are employed as 'Paralegals and Legal Assistants'.

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What people are saying (9)

Leave a comment
Amanda (Low)
19 Nov 2023 19:45
Where I work in family law I have to take into account all scenarios of someone’s life and add everything up. There is so much critical thinking that needs to be done and no two cases are the same as no two people are the same. You cannot automate my job. You can make it easier with technology but you cannot plan for the crazy things that come up in people’s lives.

A robot cannot tell when a client or opposing counsel is lying to it. Also a lot of times we have to poke and prod into people’s lives and ask them questions they don’t want to answer or tell anyone. This type of questioning I don’t believe a robot would be able to know to poke deeper into someone’s life or question why. If someone said no to a question a robot would take that at face value and not pry deeper to get the truth. So I think that my job will be safe as long as there are still attorneys practicing law.
Marty (Moderate)
03 Dec 2024 18:28
There certainly will be fewer supporting staff required in law firms. However, I'm skeptical that AI will replace more than 50% of people in this field; a human person is always more versatile in the office environment.
Gean M (Highly likely)
16 Dec 2022 09:59
With the launch of the GPT3 chat, it will no longer be necessary to have an army of paralegals to analyze the text of legal cases.
j (Uncertain)
17 Jan 2026 12:19
Lawyers dont like change
GPT often wrong about law, getting lawyers into actual trouble
GPT draws on older information-- law is constantly evolving and older sources cannot be counted on
Stephen Watkins (Highly likely)
24 Mar 2024 02:02
Considering how lawyers and law firms want to maximize profits, they will do whatever they can to minimize costs--including human wages--and enhance profits, and that will include removing workers and replacing them with tools which can do their jobs more effectively.
Ivan (Moderate)
21 Mar 2023 03:40
AI could do a resume of a caselaw faster and more efficient than any paralegal. It could probably do a complete legal research, given the right parameters, in a matters of seconds.
Anella Harmeyer (Low)
16 Dec 2022 15:42
The ability to analyze laws and precedents and apply them to court cases takes a high level of critical thinking skills.
Kris (Highly likely)
06 Jan 2022 17:13
I work in this field and have already witnessed automation taking over with e-filing. I agree it is being replaced by automation. There will always be a niche or exception in the work that will require human oversight. It's not a growing field! Risky and underpaid!
Logan (No chance)
10 Oct 2024 15:45
No robot can ever interview people and make them feel comfortable like a human can.
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Job description

Assist lawyers by investigating facts, preparing legal documents, or researching legal precedent. Conduct research to support a legal proceeding, to formulate a defense, or to initiate legal action.

O*NET-SOC code: 23-2011.00