The Litigation Paralegal as Legal AI Influencer – Q3 2026 Facts & Findings
Written by Kim Bookout
Across litigation teams, core case work is moving faster, and paralegals empowered with AI are driving that change. Work that once took days, such as reviewing thousands of documents, building case chronologies, extracting key facts, and identifying inconsistencies across deposition testimony, is now being completed in hours with AI-enabled legal solutions. That shift is already underway within firms of every size.
But speed alone does not move a case forward. It still takes judgment and organization to determine what matters, what is missing, and how the facts connect in a way that holds up under scrutiny. That responsibility has not changed, but it is becoming more visible as AI is increasingly integrated into the work.
Paralegals and litigation support professionals have always understood how a case is built: where critical evidence lives, how facts connect across documents and testimony, and what information attorneys need to move forward. In an AI-enabled workflow, paralegals’ knowledge becomes the difference between raw output and usable insight.
Paralegals and litigation support professionals are emerging as the legal AI influencers on every case team because they are grounded in the case details, invested in accelerating administrative work, and engaged in maximizing the value technology delivers. Paralegals are also perfectly positioned as influencers because they determine how AI for litigation support is applied and can ensure it provides real benefits.
THE PRESSURE ON TEAMS IS BUILDING
Research from Ari Kaplan Advisors shows that 87% of attorneys believe AI-enhanced case strategy provides a competitive edge, particularly in areas like document analysis, transcript management, and chronology development. At the same time, 81% of litigators expect data challenges to increase as matters become more complex and require faster, more comprehensive analysis.1
Together, these trends point to a clear new reality: litigation teams are working with more information, at greater speed, with higher client expectations for efficiency, accuracy, and insight.
The profession has seen moments like this before. Digital exhibits, real-time transcripts, and machine learning in eDiscovery were all once considered disruptive. Each faced skepticism before becoming standard practice. As Shannon Lex Bales, Senior Manager of Litigation Support at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, explains in The future of AI in litigation, “The cycle repeats: pioneers experiment, prove value, the market follows, innovation becomes routine.”2
What is different in this cycle is not the pace of change, but where influence sits.
As AI is continuously incorporated into litigation workflows, the professionals who understand both the technology and the reality of case work are playing a leading role in shaping how it is used—and reaping the benefits. Paralegals who step into that role can become the team’s trusted AI experts, influence how AI is used, and raise their profiles as innovators.
WHY PARALEGALS ARE ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGY SELECTION STAKEHOLDERS
While AI can benefit every role in a litigation team, paralegals and litigation support professionals are likely the biggest users of AI. Yet, their perspective is not always a part of the evaluation process. When tools are selected without input from the professionals who will actually use them, they rarely deliver on their potential. As Laura Ewing-Pearle, Senior Manager of eDiscovery and Practice Support Technology at Baker Botts LLP, adds in The future of AI in litigation, “The result will be an expensive, unused gadget sitting in a corner.”3
Shannon Lex Bales describes the challenge and impact when paralegals are not part of technology discussions: “Innovation dies when those with solutions lack authority, while decision-makers stay removed from daily challenges. Progress requires flattening these structures, where a paralegal’s insight matters as much as a partner’s perspective.”4
This is where the opportunity for paralegals becomes clear.
As AI continues to shape litigation workflows, the professionals closest to the output are best positioned to determine how it is applied in practice. For litigation support professionals, that means moving beyond execution and into influence, demonstrating how their case knowledge improves how AI tools are applied, evaluated, and relied on. Through this, they analyze and enhance how the work gets done.
THREE WAYS TO EMBRACE THE ROLE
Paralegals’ influence on AI-assisted litigation runs through every stage of the work, sometimes even behind the scenes, from setting up the tools and evaluating what they produce to turning that output into something a team can act on.
1. Structuring the Work
The success of AI tools in litigation depends on how they are set up. The quality of the output is determined by what goes in: what documents are included, how they are structured, and what questions are asked.
This is where the litigation paralegal’s case knowledge becomes immediately valuable.
Litigation support professionals understand which documents are hot and where critical facts are likely to surface. Paralegals are uniquely positioned to identify the best source documents for each AI task (sentiment analysis, inconsistency flagging, chronology building), craft the best prompts for these tasks, structure the document set, define the scope, and frame the analysis. Paralegals who take ownership of this stage are influencing the team by driving better, more actionable AI outputs.
2. Applying Judgment to AI Outputs
AI can process and summarize information at scale, but it does not understand context.
It may identify themes across thousands of documents and miss the single transcript that undermines them. It may flag inconsistencies without recognizing that they are explained by prior stipulations. It may surface documents as relevant without accounting for how they were produced or whether they are reliable.
Evaluating that output requires someone who understands the case.
The litigation paralegal, who knows the witnesses, the timeline, the discovery history, and the client’s stance, is uniquely positioned to assess what AI produces. This is not a secondary quality check. It is where output becomes usable and defensible.
Melina Efstathiou, an AI strategic advisor specializing in disputes and investigations, notes in The future of AI in litigation that AI “will not replace judgment but will scale it—enabling litigators to codify their playbooks, anticipate risks, and deliver sharper client outcomes.”5
The paralegal’s playbook is what gives AI output its value.
3. Turning Output into Action
Even accurate AI output is only useful if it can be acted on. Paralegals play a critical role in transforming AI-generated findings into organized, actionable, and accessible work product.
A 40-page AI-generated summary does not replace a clear briefing that highlights the few issues a partner needs to understand before making a decision. A list of flagged inconsistencies is much less valuable without an explanation of what they mean for the case theory.
Turning analysis into insight is already a core paralegal skill.
What changes is the source material. Instead of synthesizing documents alone, litigation support professionals are now doing it alongside AI-generated analysis. The judgment required is the same, but the impact is greater.
As Kate Orr, Managing Director of Practice Innovation at Orrick, describes in The future of AI in litigation, litigation teams are focused on “developing practice-specific use cases” and “building internal expertise to design and evaluate workflows.”6
With direct visibility into both the case work and the needs of attorneys, litigation paralegals are well-positioned to lead that effort.
MAKING YOUR CONTRIBUTION VISIBLE
Taking ownership of the work is the first step. Making it visible is what makes it influential.
Paralegals who are driving how AI is used in a case should be explicit about that work in status updates, matter notes, and conversations with attorneys. The language does not need to be technical. It can be as simple as, “I reviewed the AI-generated timeline against the source documents and flagged two inconsistencies that affected the chronology. Here is what I found and what I recommend.”
That kind of communication does more than report progress. It demonstrates value and reinforces the paralegal’s role as an active contributor to case strategy.
As Shannon Lex Bales puts it, “The most successful firms don’t have the biggest tech budgets; they’ve mastered something simpler yet harder: trusting their teams.”7
The paralegals who build that trust by showing how their judgment improves AI-driven work will define how the role evolves.
YOUR OPPORTUNITY IS NOW
The volume of data in litigation continues to increase rapidly, and pressure on teams to move faster and do more with less is not going away. What matters more than ever is the ability to apply judgment, connect facts, and turn information into decisions that hold up under scrutiny.
Paralegals and litigation support professionals are already doing this work. AI does not replace your experience and expertise. It depends on it.
The ones who step forward to take ownership of how these tools are used, evaluated, and applied have the opportunity not only to adapt to this shift but to define where they go.
RESOURCES
1 – Industry research: Case strategy software as a competitive advantage, https://www.opus2.com/resources/research/industry-research-case-strategy-software/
2 – The future of AI in litigation: Predictions and advice from legal industry experts, page 19, https://www.opus2.com/resources/research/the-future-of-ai-in-litigation-ebook/
3 – Id. at 9
4 – Id. at 19
5 – Id. at 14
6 – Id. at 5
7 – Id. at 19
Kim Bookout is a Director of Solution Consulting at Opus 2, a leading legal software and services provider. Relying on 20 years of experience as a senior litigation paralegal, she is committed to finding the best technologies to help law firms and their clients develop optimal outcomes.
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