A Welcome Boon or a Dreaded Replacement? Paralegals Split on Generative AI

While some paralegals are excited about low-level tasks being taken over by generative AI, others are worried about the impact on their billable hours—or the stability of their roles within law firms.

A Welcome Boon or a Dreaded Replacement? Paralegals Split on Generative AI by Cassandre Coyer
Kaylee Walstad, EDRM

[EDRM Editor’s Note: This article was first published July 25, 2023  on LegalTech News site and authored by Cassandre Coyer]

Minutes into the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” story, the main character’s father loses his job to the shiny red robot at the toothpaste factory. The tale now rings familiar for some legal professionals, except here the toothpaste factory is the legal industry and the performant red machine is generative artificial intelligence.

A recent report from Wolters Kluwer and Above the Law found that a majority of legal professionals see generative AI replacing certain back-office and support positions, with 41% believing the technology is a threat to paralegals specifically.

Several paralegals spoke to Legaltech News about how they’re preparing for the generative AI wave, with some worrying about the stability of their roles, while others are preparing for their responsibilities to evolve.

Sheila Grela, litigation paralegal at Buchalter: ‘What Can Be Done to Add Value?’

Sheila Grela, a litigation paralegal at Buchalter, has been a paralegal for more than two decades. She told Legaltech News that prior technological advancements have prepared her for the inevitable reassessment of her role’s responsibilities and skills that will be brought on by generative AI.

Portions of their jobs, they’re concerned about. One of the things that paralegals routinely do is research. So is there going to be an easy way for someone to punch in someone’s address or email or information and get all the things they might need to figure out where they’re at to serve a subpoena? Are you still going to need a paralegal to figure out if the address is real?

Sheila Grela, litigation paralegal at Buchalter

“The one thing I’m working on is a list of old tasks, and what can be done to add value now that you’re not doing that old task,” she explained.

Grela noted that she is for now in an “investigative” stage, one that she recommends other paralegals to be in as well. For now, she finds too many are still uneducated about the opportunities and risks that generative AI brings to the legal profession.

“Getting the information from the right place is the job of paralegals, period, and that includes getting educated on these new technologies,” she explained. Grela added, “If you don’t understand the basic concepts about what’s going on, it’s really hard to make a decision about the next thing you need to do for your career.”

Still, while she’s mostly excited about the technology’s potential to automate some of her more tedious and time-consuming tasks, she pointed to some of the concerns from other paralegals around her.

“Portions of their jobs, they’re concerned about,” she said. “One of the things that paralegals routinely do is research. So is there going to be an easy way for someone to punch in someone’s address or email or information and get all the things they might need to figure out where they’re at to serve a subpoena? Are you still going to need a paralegal to figure out if the address is real?”

Read the entire article here.

Author

  • Mary Mack is the CEO and Chief Legal Technologist for EDRM. Mary was the co-editor of the Thomson Reuters West Treatise, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel for 10 years and the co-author of A Process of Illumination: the Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery. She holds the CISSP among her certifications.

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