Not Very Resilient
Last Update: 7/31/2026
AI Resilience Score for Legal Secs & Admin Asst.:
24.0%
Median Score
Meaningful human contribution
Measures the parts of the occupation that still require a human touch. This score averages data from up to four AI exposure datasets, focusing on the role’s resilience against automation.
Low
Long-term employer demand
Predicts the health of the job market for this role through 2034. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it balances projected annual job openings (60%) with overall employment growth (40%).
Med
Sustained economic opportunity
Measures future earning potential and career flexibility. This score is a blend of total projected labor income (67%) and the role’s inherent ability to adapt to economic and technological shifts (33%).
Low
This reflects the reliability of your score based on the number of data sources available for this career and how closely those sources agree on the outlook. A higher confidence means more consistent evidence from labor experts and AI models.
Most data sources align, with only minor variation. This is a well-supported result.
Contributing sources
AI Resilience Report forLegal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
$55,570 median salary•19,600 annual openings•SOC Code: 43-6012.00
Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants are less resilient to AI impacts than most occupations, according to our analysis of 7 sources.
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants are labeled "Not Very Resilient" because the core tasks of this job, like scheduling, drafting documents, transcribing meetings, and filling out forms, are exactly what AI tools are already doing faster and cheaper inside software most law firms already own. Adoption is accelerating fast, with legal professionals using AI jumping from 31 to 69 percent in just one year, and the BLS projects about a 6% drop in legal secretary jobs from 2024 to 2034.
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More career infoAnalysisChatNewsMoreThis role is not very resilient
Legal secretaries and administrative assistants are labeled "Not Very Resilient" because the core tasks of this job, like scheduling, drafting documents, transcribing meetings, and filling out forms, are exactly what AI tools are already doing faster and cheaper inside software most law firms already own. Adoption is accelerating fast, with legal professionals using AI jumping from 31 to 69 percent in just one year, and the BLS projects about a 6% drop in legal secretary jobs from 2024 to 2034.
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View analysisChat with CoachLatest newsMore career infoAnalysisChatNewsMoreAnalysis of Current AI Resilience
Legal Secs & Admin Asst.
Updated Quarterly
How is AI changing Legal Secs & Admin Asst. jobs?
Right now, AI is mostly augmenting (helping with) the work of legal secretaries and administrative assistants rather than fully replacing them — but that augmentation is happening fast. Robert Half explains that AI is taking over the repetitive, time-consuming parts of the job for administrative pros — including scheduling, meeting transcription, email drafting, auto-creating tasks, and building slide decks [1]. In law specifically, the 2026 Thomson Reuters AI in Professional Services Report [2] found that 55% of firms now use general-purpose AI, 38% use enterprise tools like Microsoft Copilot, and 35% use legal-specific AI — mostly for drafting correspondence (55%), document review (74%), and summarization (73%).
A separate 2026 Legal Industry Report covered by LawSites [3] shows gen-AI use among legal professionals jumped from 31% to 69% in a single year. These are exactly the tasks — scheduling, paperwork, form-filling, drafting subpoenas — that legal secretaries handle. Brookings flags secretaries and administrative assistants (1.7 million workers) as one of the largest occupations in the top quartile of AI exposure [4], and BLS projects legal secretary jobs will decline about 6% from 2024–2034 [5].
Sources
How fast is AI adoption growing for Legal Secs & Admin Asst.?
Adoption is moving quickly because the tools are cheap, easy to use, and already inside Microsoft 365 — the Association of Legal Administrators notes staff are using these tools "whether firms formally adopt automation tools or not" [6], with confidentiality and ethics being the main brakes. On the labor side, The Agency Recruiting reports the traditional law-firm pyramid is "compressing" [7], with firms hiring fewer entry-level roles and more tech-fluent paralegals and legal-ops specialists. The hopeful takeaway: human judgment, client communication, and knowing legal procedure still matter — and being the person who knows how to direct the AI is becoming one of the most valuable skills you can build.
Sources
Will AI replace Legal Secs & Admin Asst.?
In part. We think AI will eventually automate a real share of this work, but the people in these roles still have real options if they move with intention.
The exposure here is genuine. Legal secretaries and administrative assistants earn a 24.0% AI Resilience Score from us, which puts them among the more disrupted occupations we track. The core tasks, including drafting correspondence, scheduling, document review, and summarization, are exactly what today's AI tools do well (lawnext.com, nydailyrecord.com). Brookings flags this occupation group as one of the largest in the top quartile of AI exposure [4], and BLS projects a roughly 6% decline in legal secretary jobs through 2034 [5].
What stays human is client communication, ethical judgment, and knowing legal procedure well enough to catch what the AI gets wrong. That last skill matters more than it sounds. Firms are already shifting toward hiring tech-fluent paralegals and legal-ops specialists instead of traditional entry-level roles [7]. So the career journey here is less about defending this exact job title and more about building toward those adjacent paths. Learning to direct AI tools, understanding legal workflow, and strengthening client-facing skills are the moves that keep you relevant as the role keeps changing.
Sources
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Latest AI news for Legal Secs & Admin Asst.
These articles highlight the evolving role of AI in legal settings, emphasizing the need for adaptability among Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants. For instance, the article on AI legal assistants illustrates how these tools can streamline tasks like drafting and research, making efficiency a key competency. Additionally, the research revealing job vulnerability underscores the importance of developing tech skills to stay relevant. By embracing AI and enhancing their digital literacy, students can build resilience in their careers, positioning themselves as indispensable in an AI-augmented workplace.
Why Legal Professionals are Turning to AI Legal Assistants
www.harvey.ai • 6/20/2026
AI legal assistants help lawyers work faster. Learn how firms are using legal AI for drafting, research, review, matter analysis,...
More than 48,000 New Mexico jobs highly vulnerable to AI disruption
www.bizjournals.com • 3/29/2026
Research reveals which workers lack the skills and resources to adapt as AI reshapes the job market, with women disproportionately at risk.
AI set to displace clerical, customer service, junior professional roles
businessday.ng • 2/10/2026
Artificial IntelligenceArtificial intelligence (AI) is expected to significantly reshape the global labour market over the next five years.
AI poses bigger threat in jobs with more women, study finds
www.cbsnews.com • 1/29/2026
Workers in clerical and administrative roles could have the most trouble adapting to the impact of AI on jobs, new research shows.
85 Predictions for AI and the Law in 2026
natlawreview.com • 1/5/2026
85 legal professionals across legal practice, academia, and the legal technology sector to assess how AI is expected to shape the profession...
More Career Info
Career: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
They help lawyers by organizing files, scheduling meetings, and handling important paperwork to keep everything running smoothly.
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Employment & Wage Data
Median Wage
$55,570
Jobs (2024)
156,300
Growth (2024-34)
-5.8%
Annual Openings
19,600
Education
High school diploma or equivalent
Experience
None
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2024-2034
Task-Level AI Resilience Scores
AI-generated estimates of task resilience over the next 3 years
1
Attend legal meetings, such as client interviews, hearings, or depositions, and take notes.
2
Prepare and process legal documents and papers, such as summonses, subpoenas, complaints, appeals, motions, and pretrial agreements.
3
Assist attorneys in collecting information such as employment, medical, and other records.
4
Receive and place telephone calls.
5
Organize and maintain law libraries, documents, and case files.
6
Review legal publications and perform database searches to identify laws and court decisions relevant to pending cases.
7
Submit articles and information from searches to attorneys for review and approval for use.
Tasks are ranked by their AI resilience, with the most resilient tasks shown first. Core tasks are essential functions of this occupation, while supplemental tasks provide additional context.
