UK AI Exposure · Professional occupations
Solicitors and lawyers
Solicitors advise and act on behalf of individuals, organisations, businesses and government departments in legal matters.
- Employees (UK)
- 127k
- Median annual pay
- £53,314
- Exposure score ?
- 0.0/10 Minimal direct 0.0 · with tools 8.5
- Wage exposure
- £0
Higher exposure than 2% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
Most of this role's work is still genuinely hard for AI to do. Physical presence, bodily skill, high-context judgment, direct human care - the things that don't translate to text.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
You're not in the firing line today. But the frontier moves. Build enough AI fluency now that you can direct it for the parts of your work that could benefit. People in unexposed roles who understand AI become unusually valuable inside their organisations.
The tasks in this role, ranked by AI exposure
Below are the real tasks O*NET records for this occupation, sorted highest exposure first. "AI can do this" means a language model can already handle the task directly. "AI can help" means an LLM can assist but not replace. "Human work" means today's AI doesn't touch it. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
0 of 22 tasks in this role are things an AI can already do today. Task list mapped via O*NET "Lawyers" (23-1011.00).
Interpret laws, rulings and regulations for individuals and businesses.
Analyze the probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents.
Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case.
Present and summarize cases to judges and juries.
Represent clients in court or before government agencies.
Select jurors, argue motions, meet with judges, and question witnesses during the course of a trial.
Evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.
Present evidence to defend clients or prosecute defendants in criminal or civil litigation.
Advise clients concerning business transactions, claim liability, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits, or legal rights and obligations.
Examine legal data to determine advisability of defending or prosecuting lawsuit.
Prepare, draft, and review legal documents, such as wills, deeds, patent applications, mortgages, leases, and contracts.
Study Constitution, statutes, decisions, regulations, and ordinances of quasi-judicial bodies to determine ramifications for cases.
Negotiate settlements of civil disputes.
Supervise legal assistants.
Probate wills and represent and advise executors and administrators of estates.
Prepare legal briefs and opinions, and file appeals in state and federal courts of appeal.
Confer with colleagues with specialties in appropriate areas of legal issue to establish and verify bases for legal proceedings.
Act as agent, trustee, guardian, or executor for businesses or individuals.
Search for and examine public and other legal records to write opinions or establish ownership.
Perform administrative and management functions related to the practice of law.
Help develop federal and state programs, draft and interpret laws and legislation, and establish enforcement procedures.
Negotiate contractual agreements.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
This role's strict α score is low because its top tasks are judgment, not drafting. But those same tasks compress dramatically when AI is paired with the right context and tools. The three highest-stakes tasks below are usually where we start.
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Interpret laws, rulings and regulations for individuals and businesses.
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Analyze the probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents.
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Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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