Author

Samuel Junghenn

Will AI Replace Lawyers?

The Answer Will Shock You (And Determine Your Career’s Fate)

The Real Threat Isn’t What You Think—But It’s Already Destroying Legal Careers

The Question That’s Keeping Every Lawyer Awake at Night

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“Will AI replace lawyers?”

It’s the question whispered in law firm corridors, debated at bar association meetings, and frantically googled by legal professionals at 2 AM. It’s the fear that lurks behind every ChatGPT headline and every article about “the future of law.”

But here’s the truth that will shock you: You’re asking the wrong question.

AI won’t replace lawyers. But here’s what will happen instead—and it’s already happening right now, in law firms across Australia, New Zealand, and around the world:

Lawyers who master AI will replace lawyers who don’t.

And if you think you have time to “wait and see” how this plays out, you’re about to discover why 2025 will be the year that separates the legal profession’s winners from the unemployable.

The Partner Who Discovered the Real Threat

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Sarah Mitchell thought she was safe. A commercial litigation partner at a respected Sydney firm for twelve years, she had the experience, the client relationships, and the track record that traditionally guaranteed job security in the legal profession.

Then came the meeting that changed everything.

Sitting across from opposing counsel—a junior associate barely three years out of law school—Sarah watched in stunned silence as this young lawyer presented a comprehensive case analysis that would have taken her team weeks to prepare. The associate had completed it in two days.

The weapon? AI tools that Sarah didn’t know existed.

Her client’s question afterward still echoes in her mind: “Why aren’t we using these tools? How can a junior lawyer outpace your entire team?”

That was six months ago. Today, Sarah has transformed her practice, increased her billing efficiency by 400%, and is taking on cases that were previously beyond her firm’s capacity. But here’s what terrifies her: the experienced lawyers who haven’t made this transition are now struggling with basic tasks that AI-enabled lawyers complete as routine work.

Sarah discovered the uncomfortable truth: Experience without AI skills is becoming worthless.

The Fear vs. The Reality: Why Everyone’s Got It Wrong

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While lawyers obsess over whether AI will replace them, they’re missing the real revolution happening right under their noses. The statistics reveal a transformation so rapid it’s rewriting the rules of legal competition:

AI adoption by legal professionals has exploded from 19% in 2023 to 79% in 2024—that’s not gradual change, that’s a stampede.

But here’s where it gets interesting: this isn’t just about lawyers using ChatGPT for research. The American Bar Association found that AI adoption nearly tripled from 11% in 2023 to 30% in 2024, with the most dramatic increases in firms competing for high-value work.In Australia, 40% of businesses are currently adopting AI, and more tellingly, 31% of Australian law firm professionals are secretly using AI systems to support their work—whether their firms have policies about it or not.

The lawyers who are asking “Will AI replace me?” are missing the point. The lawyers who are asking “How can I master AI before my competitors do?” are winning.

The Great Divide: Skills, Not Just Tools

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Here’s the shocking reality that most legal professionals haven’t grasped yet: we’re witnessing the emergence of two completely different species of lawyers.

Species #1: The AI-Enhanced Lawyer These lawyers have developed a new meta-skill—the ability to leverage AI to amplify their legal expertise exponentially. They’re not just using AI; they’re mastering it, refining it, and turning it into an unfair competitive advantage.

Species #2: The Traditional Lawyer These lawyers are still operating with the same tools, processes, and approaches they learned in law school. They’re skilled, experienced, and increasingly irrelevant.

The productivity gap between these two species isn’t incremental—it’s catastrophic.

Thomson Reuters’ research shows that AI could free up 4 hours per week for legal professionals, translating to $100,000 in additional billable time per lawyer annually. But that’s just the beginning.

Harvard Law School’s Centre on the Legal Profession documented something that should terrify every lawyer still dragging their heels: in high-volume litigation, AI systems reduced associate time from 16 hours to 3-4 minutes. Lawyers are seeing productivity gains greater than 100 times.

Read that again: From 16 hours to 4 minutes.

That’s not the difference between being efficient and inefficient. That’s the difference between being competitive and being extinct.

The Short-Term Thinking Trap That’s Destroying Careers

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While the AI-enhanced lawyers are building insurmountable advantages, traditional lawyers are making a fatal error: they’re prioritising short-term comfort over long-term survival.

The excuses are familiar:

• “I’m too busy with current cases to learn new technology”
• “AI isn’t ready for complex legal work”
• “My clients don’t expect me to use AI”
• “I’ll wait until the technology matures”

But here’s what’s really happening while they make these excuses:

74% of hourly billable tasks are now vulnerable to AI automation. The tasks with the highest automation potential? Information gathering, data analysis, and document processing—which account for 66% of the work done by the average law firm.

Every day you delay learning AI skills, your competitors get further ahead.

The Client Revolution: When Buyers Dictate the Rules

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While lawyers debate whether to embrace AI, their clients have already made the decision for them. 70% of clients either prefer or are neutral toward firms that use AI, and 67% of corporate counsel expect their law firms to use cutting-edge technology, including AI.

But here’s the part that should scare you: clients aren’t just accepting AI—they’re starting to demand it. They want faster results, better analysis, and superior value. Firms that can’t deliver these benefits are losing clients to competitors who can.

The message is crystal clear: master AI or lose clients.

The Employment Crisis No One’s Talking About

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Now we get to the part that will determine whether you have a legal career in two years.

Robert Half’s 2025 legal hiring report explicitly states that employers are seeking professionals with digital skills and AI expertise, while expert predictions warn of the rise of the “x10 lawyer”—professionals who use AI to multiply their capabilities—and predict “strong dis-employment effects for lawyers”.

Translation: firms are realizing they don’t need as many lawyers to handle the same workload, but they desperately need lawyers who can amplify their capabilities through AI.

The lawyers without AI skills are becoming redundant.

The transformation is accelerating at breakneck speed. The global legal AI market is expanding at 17.3% annually, and as one expert noted: “AI in legal tech is advancing so rapidly that by 2025, it will reach areas once considered untouchable”.

Here’s the brutal reality: 85% of legal professionals believe AI integration will require new roles and skills, and 75% expect to change their talent strategies within two years. A junior lawyer with AI skills can now outperform a senior lawyer without them. Solo practitioners with AI tools are competing with large firms on complex matters.

AI skills now determine who gets hired, promoted, and who keeps their job.

The Death of the Billable Hour (And What It Means for Your Income)

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The transformation is so fundamental that it’s destroying the legal profession’s core business model. 43% of legal professionals predict the decline of hourly billing within five years.

Why? Because when AI can complete work in minutes that previously took hours, charging by the hour becomes impossible. Firms that stick to hourly billing while competitors move to value-based pricing will see revenue decline.

If you can’t demonstrate value beyond time spent, you can’t compete.

The Australian and New Zealand Advantage (That Won’t Last Forever)

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There is one piece of good news in this story for local lawyers: both Australia and New Zealand are taking light-touch regulatory approaches to AI, creating temporary competitive advantages for early adopters.

New Zealand is pursuing a “light-touch, proportionate and risk-based approach to AI regulation”, while Australia is focusing on guardrails only for high-risk applications.

This means local firms have more freedom to experiment with AI than competitors in heavily regulated jurisdictions.

But this window won’t stay open forever. The firms that capitalize on this opportunity now will build insurmountable leads. Those who wait will find themselves trying to catch up to leaders who had months or years to perfect their AI-enhanced processes.

The Universal Threat: From Graduates to Partners

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This transformation isn’t limited to any particular level of the profession. AI proficiency is becoming a requirement across all roles:

For New Graduates: Law schools are integrating AI into curricula, meaning new lawyers will arrive with AI skills as baseline expectations.

For Associates: Research warns of “AI-induced gaps in associates’ knowledge and skill bases” requiring those without AI skills to undergo intensive retraining.

For Partners: Senior lawyers who can’t guide AI implementation or validate AI outputs will find their leadership roles diminished.

For Support Staff: Roles will be “redefined to include broader strategic responsibilities” requiring “reskilling to align with novel responsibilities”.

No one is safe without AI skills.

The Brutal Truth: Adaptation or Extinction

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While lawyers continue asking “Will AI replace lawyers?”, the real question has become: “Will AI-skilled lawyers replace you?”

The answer is already playing out in law firms worldwide. Legal professionals are “no longer asking if they should adopt AI but how they can do so effectively”.

The transformation isn’t coming—it’s here. The competitive advantages aren’t theoretical—they’re being built every day by lawyers who chose to master AI while their competitors made excuses.

Your Last Chance: The Choice That Determines Everything

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Sarah Mitchell, the Sydney partner from our opening story, recently shared an insight that captures the reality facing every legal professional: “Six months ago, I thought AI was something I’d need to learn eventually. Now I realise it was something I needed to learn yesterday.”

The evidence is overwhelming. AI adoption isn’t just growing—it’s creating a permanent divide between lawyers who can compete in the new landscape and those who can’t.

The question you came here asking—”Will AI replace lawyers?”—has been answered. AI won’t replace lawyers.

But lawyers with AI skills will replace lawyers without them.

And that replacement isn’t coming in some distant future. It’s happening right now, one client at a time, one hire at a time, one competitive advantage at a time.

You have a choice to make today:

Option 1: Continue prioritising short-term comfort, telling yourself you’ll learn AI “when you have time,” hoping this transformation will slow down or that your experience will protect you.

Option 2: Recognise that AI proficiency has become as essential to legal practice as knowing how to read a statute, and start building these skills immediately before the gap becomes impossible to close.

The lawyers choosing Option 1 are betting their careers on hope.

The lawyers choosing Option 2 are building the future. They’re discovering how AI can transform their practice, often starting with a simple demonstration of what’s possible when legal expertise meets cutting-edge technology. If you’re ready to see how AI could revolutionise your firm’s capabilities, you can explore what that transformation looks like here.

Which option will you choose?

Because in 2025, that choice will determine whether you’re practising law or looking for a new profession.