Industry group, 5411
Legal Services
1,224,710 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $115,940 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 637 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 65%
- 24%
- 12%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 19% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 20%. Today's estimate: 25%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 30 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paralegals and Legal Assistants | 304,820 | 24% | 149 million | $62K |
| Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 125,980 | 41% | 108 million | $55K |
| Lawyers | 448,040 | 10% | 90 million | $158K |
| Office Clerks, General | 30,700 | 54% | 35 million | $41K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 20,990 | 78% | 34 million | $58K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 25,020 | 59% | 31 million | $42K |
| Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers | 19,260 | 67% | 27 million | $57K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 23,510 | 43% | 21 million | $46K |
| Billing and Posting Clerks | 11,080 | 77% | 18 million | $60K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 20,340 | 35% | 15 million | $76K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 7,170 | 64% | 9.6 million | $46K |
| General and Operations Managers | 19,000 | 23% | 9 million | $114K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 105 smaller jobs (58,540 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Prepare, edit, or review legal documents, including legislation, briefs, pleadings, appeals, wills, contracts, and real estate closing statements.Paralegals and Legal Assistants170 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Gather and analyze research data, such as statutes, decisions, and legal articles, codes, and documents.Paralegals and Legal Assistants98 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Investigate facts and law of cases and search pertinent sources, such as public records and internet sources, to determine causes of action and to prepare cases.Paralegals and Legal Assistants87 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Prepare for trial by performing tasks such as organizing exhibits.Paralegals and Legal Assistants82 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Prepare, draft, and review legal documents, such as wills, deeds, patent applications, mortgages, leases, and contracts.Lawyers66 million hours81% of the task within reach
- Analyze the probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents.Lawyers62 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Study Constitution, statutes, decisions, regulations, and ordinances of quasi-judicial bodies to determine ramifications for cases.Lawyers53 million hours95% of the task within reach
- 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.Lawyers46 million hours46% of the task within reach
- Examine legal data to determine advisability of defending or prosecuting lawsuit.Lawyers43 million hours98% of the task within reach
- Evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.Lawyers38 million hours92% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Next to this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services2,445,140 people24% now, 69% by 2028
- Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services1,872,730 people24% now, 65% by 2028
- Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services1,719,390 people18% now, 61% by 2028
- Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services1,091,370 people34% now, 75% by 2028
- Scientific Research and Development Services931,790 people16% now, 57% by 2028
- Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services881,820 people26% now, 44% by 2028
- Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services481,600 people28% now, 65% by 2028
- Specialized Design Services151,930 people27% now, 70% by 2028
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works