Heavy pressure ahead for paralegals.

Paralegal is the cleanest case-study of AI's reshape and not its erase. The role that was "doc review and citation checking" is no longer that role — but the role itself didn't disappear. It moved up the value chain.

Automation here is heavy and only getting heavier. Discovery, e-filing, deposition summaries, citation work, form drafting — all production work the model does in minutes for what used to take hours. Many firms cut paralegal headcount in 2025 and 2026. The market wobbled.

Then it stabilised, because two things turned out to be true. One: somebody still has to verify the model didn't hallucinate a precedent. Two: complex evidence chain-of-custody and intake-interview craft don't transfer to an AI. The new paralegal job is closer to "AI-augmented case manager" — overseeing model output, owning client communication, running the case logistics.

Resilience is medium-low and falling. The pivot path is into specialised investigation work, into client-facing roles, or into a JD. Nothing in this dispatch is great news for someone doing pure document work. It's better news for someone willing to learn the supervisory craft.