Despite its quick transition to remote working and leveraging more technology, the legal profession isn’t ready to go completely secretary-less yet. While the profession has steadily shrank its secretary pool, legal outsourcing providers said legal assistants who perform practice group and client-specific “human touch” services aren’t easily outsourced or automated. Still, routine and administrative tasks are largely ripe for automation and outsourcing, they noted.

According to a recent “The Future of Jobs” report released by the World Economic Forum, legal secretaries are faring well among other U.S. jobs at high risk of automation. Between 2007 and 2018, legal secretary jobs shrank nearly 35% in the United States, compared to losing 70% of computer operator jobs and roughly 60% of executive secretary roles during that same period.