Judicial Law Clerks
In short: today's best AI models could do about 71% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 93% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 7% of the time, stays with people.
Assist judges in court or by conducting research or preparing legal documents.
13,290 people do this job in the US. $64,920 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on28 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet9 h
- Stays with people3 h
Judicial Law Clerks, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 28 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 9 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 3 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Research laws, court decisions, documents, opinions, briefs, or other information related to cases before the court (about 9 h); Prepare briefs, legal memoranda, or statements of issues involved in cases, including appropriate suggestions or recommendations (about 7 h); Draft or proofread judicial opinions, decisions, or citations (about 5 h).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 93%
- 3%
- 3%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 71%.
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.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 382nd largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 18 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.077% to 0.063% (released February and March 2025); 0.023% to 0.023% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.011% to 0.011% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.077% | 211 of 708 | 5 of 18 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.063% | 232 of 703 | 5 of 18 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.023% | 352 of 655 | 4 of 18 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.028% | 329 of 672 | 4 of 18 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.023% | 386 of 677 | 4 of 18 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 364 of 434 | 1 of 18 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 382 of 447 | 1 of 18 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 1% of this job's working time as physical work. For 1% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 1% in a purpose-built cell. 0.01 of 3, the 658th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 99%
- In a purpose-built cell 1%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 18 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research laws, court decisions, documents, opinions, briefs, or other information related to cases before the court.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 25% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 1.6 work days | 86%Half by now | |
| Prepare briefs, legal memoranda, or statements of issues involved in cases, including appropriate suggestions or recommendations.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 25% | 5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days | 73%Half by now | |
| Draft or proofread judicial opinions, decisions, or citations.Done daily by most who do it. | 25% | 1 work day2.5 h to 3.1 work days | 52%Half by now | |
| Review complaints, petitions, motions, or pleadings that have been filed to determine issues involved or basis for relief.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 9% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Confer with judges concerning legal questions, construction of documents, or granting of orders.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Attend court sessions to hear oral arguments or record necessary case information.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Review dockets of pending litigation to ensure adequate progress.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | 99%Half by now | |
| Prepare periodic reports on court proceedings, as required.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Participate in conferences or discussions between trial attorneys and judges.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 1% | 1.7 h50 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Keep abreast of changes in the law and inform judges when cases are affected by such changes.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 0.9% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Respond to questions from judicial officers or court staff on general legal issues.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 0.8% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Enter information into computerized court calendar, filing, or case management systems.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 0.7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Lawyers32% now, 58% by 2028
- Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates85% now, 94% by 2028
- Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers82% now, 88% by 2028
- Paralegals and Legal Assistants74% now, 84% by 2028
- Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants59% now, 60% by 2028
- Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners73% now, 79% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Judicial Law Clerks is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 71% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 93% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (92% to 93% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Judicial Law Clerks come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Research laws, court decisions, documents, opinions, briefs, or other information related to cases before the court (86% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Prepare briefs, legal memoranda, or statements of issues involved in cases, including appropriate suggestions or recommendations (73% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); and Draft or proofread judicial opinions, decisions, or citations (52% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Judicial Law Clerks stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Confer with judges concerning legal questions, construction of documents, or granting of orders; Attend court sessions to hear oral arguments or record necessary case information; and Supervise law students, volunteers, or other personnel assigned to the court. Together such tasks are about 7% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Judicial Law Clerks?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks, the 382nd largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 18 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 17%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Judicial Law Clerks?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 1% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 1% of the working time. Its index is 0.01 of 3. One example: Espresso Book Machine for "maintain judges' law libraries by assembling or updating appropriate documents". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 18 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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