Yet today’s paralegal role is a moving target. According to Clio’s 2024 Legal Trends Report, 69% of hourly billable work performed by paralegals has the potential to be automated by AI. Meanwhile, alternative employers — from corporate legal departments to tech companies — are aggressively recruiting experienced paralegals for adjacent roles in legal operations, compliance and information security.
These competitive pressures create a dual challenge: As AI automates routine tasks, law firms risk losing their most talented paralegals to employers offering better compensation, career advancement and flexibility. With that in mind, there are six concrete action items to help transform in-house paralegals into strategic assets who want to stay with your organization.
1. Create Clear Role Definitions and Guidelines
Many law firms underutilize their paralegal talent simply because attorneys don’t fully understand what paralegals can do, says Sheila Grela, a NALA Certified Paralegal and Certified eDiscovery Specialist. This knowledge gap leads to inefficient work distribution, with attorneys either performing tasks that could be delegated or assigning paralegals work below their skill level. It can also lead to issues with client billing.
“There’s a lot of examination and analysis going on with regard to industrial or enterprise type clients making sure that the work is being done by people that match the complexity of the work,” Grela says. This is especially true in the insurance industry, where attorneys may bill their full rate for work that could be done by a paralegal.
To help with this, firms should have clear guardrails in place to determine what goes to the paralegal versus the attorney, whether it’s eDiscovery work, document management, analysis or client communication.
2. Develop Comprehensive Technology Onboarding and Tool Cataloging
Cataloging tech can be a roadblock for paralegals if it isn’t done right. Without proper cataloging, paralegals have no way of knowing the library of tools that are available to them.
Large firms in particular can have extensive tech stacks, but they may fail to document or communicate tool availability during onboarding, Grela says. This can lead to significant knowledge gaps, especially for paralegals who may be transitioning from smaller firms and are unfamiliar with the array of available tools and best practices in areas like case management, transcription services or eDiscovery. Without a proper tech catalog in place, firms are essentially setting up their paralegals to continue unnecessary manual work.
3. Position Paralegals as AI Implementation Leaders and Workflow Engineers
Even though AI will continue to automate routine paralegal tasks — while becoming more proficient at them over time — the input and output still need a human eye that can support workflow design and identify errors. Paralegals are primed to step into this role, and law firms should take advantage of that.
According to Josh Kalish, legal consultant and managing partner with Law Firms of the Future, this starts with upskilling your paralegals to be the AI oversight your firm needs. In fact, he predicts that the most successful paralegals of the future will enhance their value by becoming workflow architects and systems administrators, and their firms will hopefully reap the rewards.
“The firms that figure out how to implement and deliver legal services in this changing technological environment are going to be the ones that are going to thrive,” Kalish says.
4. Expand Client-Facing Responsibilities and Strategic Work
As AI helps legal support staff move away from mundane tasks and make room for more impactful work, paralegals will have an opportunity to shift into more client-facing opportunities. This can be a huge advantage for attorneys and allow them to better focus their time.
