Artificial intelligence won’t kill the law degree. It will redefine it
Artificial intelligence won’t kill the law degree. It will redefine it
Publish Date: 2026-04-20 05:30:00
Source Domain: www.smh.com.au
April 20, 2026 — 7:30pmSave
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Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, claimed recently that artificial intelligence is approaching “human-level performance” on “most, if not all” professional tasks. He projected that most white-collar work tasks “will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months”.
Suleyman’s comments are just the latest in a long line of similar predictions, which pose confronting questions for professionals, those studying to become professionals, and those wondering what to study at university, or whether to attend at all.
AI is reshaping worlds of work, and the legal profession will change too.Getty
Legal professionals are frequently listed among those whose careers are most vulnerable to AI. So, is law school still worth it? We believe it is. While AI is reshaping worlds of work, and the legal profession will change too, broader conditions also intensify uncertainty: geopolitical conflict, economic strain, and climate stress.
Law graduates nonetheless leave university with something powerful: an adaptable human skill set that is becoming more, not less, important in AI-saturated workplaces and civic life. Law degrees do not simply train people to apply rules. They cultivate capacities for judgment, interpretation, empathy, critical analysis, ethical reasoning, negotiation, institutional design, and the constructive navigation of complexity. These are precisely the capabilities that automated systems struggle to replicate.
At the University of Sydney Law School, we have been thinking hard about how legal education must adapt to the future our graduates now face, not only so they thrive, but so they can help the communities they serve to flourish. Although we have taught law and technology for years, we are now…
