Imagine yourself as a lawyer a decade from now: AI drafts your legal arguments, predicts outcomes and even suggests negotiation strategies. Does it make your job easier, strengthen justice or simply replace human judgement by an algorithm?

As teenagers, we can feel a lot of pressure to choose a profession based on passion or quality of life. Now there is a new factor to consider: the impact of AI on our chosen fields.

I’ve always wanted to study law, and yet I keep hearing reasons why not to, and AI is one of the key reasons. Whether it is fearmongering or genuine cause for concern, AI is changing how many of us think about our future jobs.

Is AI a threat or a tool?

Even before reaching the courtroom, AI is changing the way we study. It can make it easier by generating flashcards and making quizzes to help study. Students can now generate summaries of cases or legal arguments. This is very convenient and can help make studying and working more efficient.

This hypothetical isn’t as far-fetched as it seems. Some courts already use algorithms to assess bail or parole risks. But when justice is guided by data, who is held accountable when that data is wrong?

Between fear and excitement

As a student, I find myself caught between excitement and anxiety. On the one hand, I’m amazed by the potential of AI to democratise access to justice.

Imagine an AI assistant that can instantly translate complex legal jargon into plain language for anyone seeking help. That vision excites me because it could make the law more inclusive than ever before.

However, then comes the fear. AI may be efficient and make jobs easier but there is still the question of accountability. If an AI system provides incorrect legal advice, drafts a misleading argument or recommends an unjust outcome, who is responsible? The lawyer who used it, the law firm that implemented it, or the company that built the algorithm?

Law depends on responsibility and traceability, yet AI often functions as a “black box” – meaning we can see the input and output, but can’t see or understand how it made the decision. This produces results without clear reasoning or accountability.

Another serious concern is data privacy. Lawyers often deal with highly sensitive data and personal information and AI tools often rely on processing large amounts of data. If client data is entered into an AI platform, is it secure? Could it be stored, leaked or even used to train future models without consent? Misuse of this could lead to a breach of attorney-client privilege.

An even bigger question is: if AI becomes even more powerful and accessible to everyone, would lawyers even be needed in the same way? No one knows the answer yet. Some might argue that AI will help to create new roles – such as legal AI ethical officers, legal prompt engineers, legal bias anthropologists – rather than destroy them. In this view, the legal world will not disappear, it will evolve.

Call to action

Of course, it’s very daunting to think that AI could ‘take over your job’ before even your career begins. The speed of technological advancement makes it easy for you to seem uncertain or even irrelevant, but it is important to stay open-minded about what’s to come.

Warnings about AI can sound apocalyptic and dramatic, but they exist for a reason. They remind us that innovation without ethics can spiral into harm. Instead of rejecting AI we should study it, question it and learn how to use it responsibly.

I don’t think that AI marks the end of law, it marks its transformation. The challenge for our generation should not be to fight off AI but rather learn to work with it and ensure that technology does not replace justice but helps to serve it.