The Brief:
Solicitor numbers have exploded since 1987, from 19,000 to 114,000, growing more than 4x faster than the overall workforce.
But with AI eating into lawyers’ work and letting everyday people self-rep, will that growth curve hold?
Lawyers have had the best run of any profession in the country. The question now is whether it keeps going.
New ABS data shows solicitor numbers have jumped from roughly 19,000 in 1987 to about 114,000 in 2026. That’s a 500% increase in 39 years.
For context, Australia’s total workforce grew 113% over the same period. Solicitors smashed that figure by more than 4x.
The Australian columnist Bernard Salt reckons the surge comes down to legal language basically colonising the economy. Litigation, compliance, mediation, remediation, regulation — none of that was everyday vocab 40 years ago.
There’s simply more work for lawyers to do today than there was 40 years ago.
Accountants grew 224% over the same stretch. Teachers only 49%. Plumbers 129%.
But will the next chapter look the same?
Top firms like Allens, MinterEllison and Mallesons are well into their AI adoption journey. Much of the grunt work that’s long kept lawyers busy can now be done by AI.
It’s not just happening inside firms either. The Fair Work Commission is already dealing with a wave of AI-assisted claims from self-repped litigants, with unfair deactivation claims from Uber drivers alone jumping from virtually none to 569 in a single year.
Over in the UK, AI law firm Garfield won a small claims trial against a fully-lawyered opponent, costing its client £400 in fees to recover £7,000. AI isn’t just doing the grunt work for lawyers anymore, it’s starting to let everyday people skip lawyers altogether.
Forty years of growth was built on ever-expanding demand for lawyers. Whether that demand keeps pace once AI starts doing the heavy lifting is the real test ahead.
Source: The Australian