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Baker McKenzie

Heavily Impacted

“Hundreds of support staff axed as AI takes over brief drafting and contract analysis. Lawyers kept their jobs — for now.”

Legal TechnologyImpacted: 2026

Key Metric

Hundreds eliminated across IT, admin, knowledge management, marketing, and secretarial roles

What They Did

Baker McKenzie is one of the world's largest law firms and a Top 10 global BigLaw firm, with 77 offices in 45 countries employing thousands of lawyers and support staff. The firm advises major multinational corporations on cross-border transactions, regulatory compliance, litigation, and employment law. Like all large law firms, it employs hundreds of non-lawyer professionals — knowledge managers, IT specialists, marketing staff, paralegals, secretaries, and administrative personnel — who form the operational backbone behind the lawyers.

How LLMs Killed Them

LLMs have made the knowledge-intensive support work that large law firms rely on dramatically more automatable. AI tools can now draft contracts, analyze documents, conduct legal research, prepare briefing notes, and summarize case law in minutes — tasks that once required teams of paralegals, legal secretaries, and knowledge managers working for days. Baker McKenzie conducted a firm-wide review in early 2026 and concluded that hundreds of non-lawyer positions could be eliminated because AI had absorbed their workloads. The lawyers themselves were largely spared — for now.

Timeline

  • 2023–2025: Major law firms began trialing AI tools like Harvey, CoCounsel, and custom GPT deployments for legal research, drafting, and document review.
  • 2025: Baker McKenzie and other BigLaw firms reported AI was saving thousands of hours on routine document review and contract analysis tasks.
  • February 2026: Baker McKenzie announced hundreds of layoffs across multiple non-lawyer support functions including IT, knowledge management, administration, DEI, leadership & learning, secretarial, marketing, and design.
  • February 2026: Multiple legal industry analysts described the announcement as a "wake-up call" — the first major BigLaw firm to conduct mass layoffs explicitly attributing the cuts to AI adoption.
  • 2026 onward: Legal industry analysts expect similar announcements from other major firms as AI tools mature further.

By the Numbers

  • Hundreds of non-lawyer support staff eliminated
  • Roles affected span 8+ business support functions: IT, knowledge management, admin, DEI, leadership & learning, secretarial, marketing, and design
  • Lawyers largely retained — AI is automating support functions first
  • First Top 10 BigLaw firm to announce mass AI-driven layoffs

Sources