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Rise of Technology Causing Paralegal Jobs to Disappear?
A while back I looked here at whether the position of court reporter (aka "medieval scribes" according to some) was long for this world. Now I see, via The Estrin Report, that another key role in the legal profession appears to be fading away: the paralegal.
According to a study conducted by The Associated Press that analyzed detailed employment data from 20 countries, technology is being steadily adopted and replacing workers in virtually every type of business. The study found that the most vulnerable workers were those "doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for" such as "a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case." Indeed, The Estrin Report post notes that "out of the top disappearing jobs, paralegal is in the top 7 positions."
The Estrin Report writes that technology is not the only factor at work in eliminating paralegal jobs. Others include the five-year downturn in the legal market, which has led associates starved for billable hours to take on assignments that they previously would have pushed down to paralegals. In light of the dour outlook, The Estrin Report offers several suggestions that paralegals should consider pursuing right now, including becoming a "technology wiz" in your specialty and cross-training to become knowledgeable in multiple practice areas. Read the full list of suggestions for paralegals here.
Posted by Bruce Carton on February 6, 2013 at 04:23 PM | Permalink
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