Legal secretaries
An AI agent can at least partly carry out 90.5% of the task time of legal secretaries, and finish 13.5% alone. The barrier that holds most of the rest back is access to the systems the work runs on.
60th of 433 · interval 71.7–100.0
29th of 433 · interval 0.0–32.1
43rd of 433 · interval 50.3–71.8
task statements rated by two models and weighted by importance and frequency. World employment: 0.7 million.
How the tasks rate
What stops the agent
Share of task weight flagged by each barrier; a task can carry several.
| Task statement (O*NET occupation) | Sonnet · Haiku | Barriers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organize and maintain law libraries, documents, and case files.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 9.5% | L2 | L2L2 | 65% | 2.0 h | Physical presence, Access to systems |
| Make photocopies of correspondence, documents, and other printed matter.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 9.5% | L0 | L1L0 | 8% | 10 min | Physical presence, Access to systems |
| Receive and place telephone calls.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 9.3% | L2 | L2L2 | 52% | 8 min | Trust and care, Access to systems |
| Prepare, proofread, or process legal documents, such as summonses, subpoenas, complaints, appeals, motions, or pretrial agreements.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 8.6% | L2 | L2L2 | 70% | 1.5 h | Accountability, Access to systems |
| Mail, fax, or arrange for delivery of legal correspondence to clients, witnesses, and court officials.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 8.4% | L2 | L2L2 | 55% | 20 min | Physical presence, Access to systems |
| Assist attorneys in collecting information such as employment, medical, and other records.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 7.8% | L2 | L2L2 | 60% | 1.5 h | Physical presence, Accountability, Access to systems |
| Schedule and make appointments.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 7.7% | L3 | L3L3 | 82% | 15 min | Access to systems |
| Complete various forms, such as accident reports, trial and courtroom requests, and applications for clients.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 7.6% | L2 | L2L2 | 70% | 38 min | Accountability, Access to systems |
| Submit articles and information from searches to attorneys for review and approval for use.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · supplemental task | 6.3% | L2 | L3L2 | 72% | 35 min | – |
| Prepare and distribute invoices to bill clients or pay account expenses.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 6.1% | L2 | L2L2 | 72% | 45 min | Accountability, Access to systems |
| Draft and type office memos.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 5.8% | L3 | L3L3 | 90% | 25 min | – |
| Make travel arrangements for attorneys.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · supplemental task | 5.5% | L2 | L2L3 | 75% | 1.3 h | Access to systems |
| Attend legal meetings, such as client interviews, hearings, or depositions, and take notes.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · supplemental task | 4.2% | L2 | L2L2 | 52% | 1.8 h | Physical presence, Trust and care, Access to systems |
| Review legal publications and perform database searches to identify laws and court decisions relevant to pending cases.Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants · supplemental task | 3.8% | L2 | L2L2 | 72% | 1.8 h | Access to systems |
Level: consensus of the two models (the lower level when they disagree). Share: part of the task’s working time an agent could take over. Human time: minutes a competent person needs for one instance, as estimated by the models.
Exposure is not delegation
| Measure | Value | Percentile | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADI (this index) | 90.5% | 86 | |
| Eloundou et al. (2024), GPT exposure β | 0.682 | 94 | |
| Felten et al. (2021), AI occupational exposure | 1.015 | 78 | |
| Webb (2020), AI patent exposure | 9 | 4 | |
| Eisfeldt et al. (2026), generative AI exposure | 0.643 | 96 | |
| Anthropic Economic Index, observed use | 0 | 16 |
Earlier indices measure whether AI can touch a task; ADI measures how much of it an agent can carry out from a goal. – : the source does not cover this occupation.
Neighbouring occupations
| Occupation | ADI | % |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting associate professionals 3313 | 100.0 | |
| Credit and loans officers 3312 | 98.2 | |
| Statistical, mathematical and related associate professionals 3314 | 97.5 | |
| Insurance representatives 3321 | 97.0 | |
| Medical secretaries 3344 | 96.4 | |
| Office supervisors 3341 | 92.5 | |
| Commercial sales representatives 3322 | 91.8 | |
| Government tax and excise officials 3352 | 91.7 | |
| Business services agents not elsewhere classified 3339 | 91.6 | |
| Securities and finance dealers and brokers 3311 | 91.1 | |
| Buyers 3323 | 89.0 | |
| Administrative and executive secretaries 3343 | 87.5 |
Dashed line: legal secretaries (90.5%).
Espinal Maya, Cristian, and Santiago Jiménez Londoño. 2026. ADI v2026.1: Agent Delegability Index data, code and MCP server. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23552918. Record: Legal secretaries (ISCO-08 3342), https://balamlabs.org/adi/occupations/3342
@misc{espinal2026adidata,
title = {{ADI} v2026.1: Agent Delegability Index data, code and {MCP} server},
author = {Espinal Maya, Cristian and Jim{\'e}nez Londo{\~n}o, Santiago},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Zenodo},
version = {v2026.1},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23552918},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23552918},
note = {Record: Legal secretaries (ISCO-08 3342)}
}The same record as static JSON, with its citation: /adi/v2026.1/isco/3342.json.