Paralegal

Legal support puts entry-level paralegals close to AI's strongest lane: research, document review, drafting, summaries, citation checks, and case-file organization. Federal projections still count about 376,200 paralegal and legal-assistant jobs and 39,300 yearly openings, but growth is essentially flat at about 0.2%. The human floor is attorney supervision, filing deadlines, client facts, court procedure, and verification when legal AI produces mistakes. That floor matters, but it is not a license or a broad practice monopoly. Entry-level research and drafting support are the most exposed pieces.

Starting out as a paralegal now means testing the setting carefully. Litigation, corporate legal departments, government offices, and freelance electronic discovery (e-discovery) support do not carry the same exposure. A first job should teach procedure, deadlines, evidence handling, client communication, and supervised judgment, not only research summaries or document tagging. The path gets stronger with e-discovery systems, litigation support, compliance, contract operations, or a clear bridge to law school, but a reader should be honest about how much entry work AI tools can absorb.