AI is shrinking entry-level legal jobs. Here's what's happening.
Law firms are hiring fewer junior lawyers. AI tools now handle the work that traditionally trained new attorneys: document drafting, legal research, and precedent analysis.
Super Lawyer, an AI system developed by South Korean legal tech company Law&Company, scored in the top 5% on the country's bar exam. It answered 111 of 150 questions correctly-above the passing threshold of 103. A lawyer at a major domestic firm said, "Except for the top 10% of associates, AI is more efficient. Firms no longer have incentives to hire large numbers of new lawyers."
The impact is immediate. Law firms report difficulty finding junior attorneys with 2-3 years of experience. As fewer entry-level positions open, law school graduates struggle to gain the practical experience needed to advance.
The numbers
South Korea lost 211,000 youth jobs (ages 15-29) between late 2022 and mid-2025, according to the Bank of Korea. Of those, 208,000-98.6%-were in sectors heavily affected by AI. Meanwhile, jobs for workers in their 50s increased by 209,000 during the same period.
Youth unemployment reached 26.4% in the first quarter of 2026. Young people now represent one in four unemployed workers. Youth employment has declined for 14 consecutive quarters.
What's happening in other fields
Universities are reducing teaching assistant positions as AI grades assignments and answers student questions. At Korea University, one professor replaced one-third of his teaching assistants with an AI trained on course material that responds to students 24/7.
The trend extends globally. U.S. companies announced 1.17 million layoffs from January through November 2025-a 54% jump from 760,000 the prior year. The UK's National Foundation for Educational Research projects up to 3 million jobs in administration and secretarial roles could disappear by 2035.
What this means for your career
If you're early in your legal career, the path to partnership is narrowing. The traditional pipeline-hire junior lawyers, train them on routine work, promote the best-is collapsing. Firms see no reason to staff large associate classes when AI handles document review and research faster and cheaper.
For paralegals and junior attorneys, this creates two pressures: competition from AI on basic tasks, and fewer positions available to enter the profession in the first place.
Consider developing skills that AI cannot easily replicate: client relationship management, strategic judgment, negotiation, and courtroom presence. The lawyers firms want to keep are the ones clients demand.
Learn how AI is reshaping legal work, or explore how paralegals can adapt as tools like Super Lawyer become standard in law firms.
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