AI exposure: Lawyers
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.
Reading this score
computedLawyers is one of the unusual cases where capability and friction are both high. Current systems can produce a great deal of this work, with average capability across its tasks at 2.1 out of 4. Only 22.0% of the weighted task load comes out as exposed, because 32.0% of it runs into something structural. Jobs in this band tend not to disappear. They change shape, and the person stays.
What holds the line here is accountability. Across this occupation's 22 tasks it averages 2.67 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, someone licensed has to sign the work. Capability and permission are different things. Where a statute or a professional body requires a named, liable human to approve the output, the work can be drafted by a machine and still require the person.
The most exposed thing this job does is Search for and examine public and other legal records to write opinions or establish ownership, at 45.0%. The least is Act as agent, trustee, guardian, or executor for businesses or individuals, at 1.7%. A gap of 43.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within legal occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 25.9% across the group's 7 roles, with 3 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 22 tasks, 2 are currently banded exposed, 12 assisted and 8 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.12 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.62 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.60 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.67 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.31 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.66 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Roles in this band tend to change shape rather than disappear. The output gets drafted faster and the person moves toward review, judgment and accountability. The useful question is not whether to use these tools but who is trusted to sign off on what they produce.
Task by task
22 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search for and examine public and other legal records to write opinions or establish ownership. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.70 | exposed |
| Prepare legal briefs and opinions, and file appeals in state and federal courts of appeal. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.86 | assisted |
| Analyze the probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.41 | assisted |
| Evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.31 | assisted |
| Examine legal data to determine advisability of defending or prosecuting lawsuit. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.21 | assisted |
| Prepare, draft, and review legal documents, such as wills, deeds, patent applications, mortgages, leases, and contracts. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.18 | assisted |
| Study Constitution, statutes, decisions, regulations, and ordinances of quasi-judicial bodies to determine ramifications for cases. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.04 | assisted |
| Perform administrative and management functions related to the practice of law. | 32.4% | 25.9% | 41.7% | 3.63 | exposed |
| Interpret laws, rulings and regulations for individuals and businesses. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.54 | assisted |
| Advise clients concerning business transactions, claim liability, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits, or legal rights and obligations. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.27 | assisted |
| Help develop federal and state programs, draft and interpret laws and legislation, and establish enforcement procedures. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 3.48 | assisted |
| Negotiate contractual agreements. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 3.94 | assisted |
| Confer with colleagues with specialties in appropriate areas of legal issue to establish and verify bases for legal proceedings. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 3.84 | assisted |
| Probate wills and represent and advise executors and administrators of estates. | 11.7% | 38.3% | 50.0% | 3.90 | assisted |
| Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Supervise legal assistants. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.01 | untouched |
| Select jurors, argue motions, meet with judges, and question witnesses during the course of a trial. | 8.2% | 25.2% | 66.7% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Negotiate settlements of civil disputes. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Represent clients in court or before government agencies. | 1.7% | 23.3% | 75.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Present and summarize cases to judges and juries. | 1.7% | 23.3% | 75.0% | 4.36 | untouched |
| Present evidence to defend clients or prosecute defendants in criminal or civil litigation. | 1.7% | 23.3% | 75.0% | 4.29 | untouched |
| Act as agent, trustee, guardian, or executor for businesses or individuals. | 1.7% | 23.3% | 75.0% | 3.74 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.