Also called: Legal Technologist, Legal Innovation Specialist
Builds software and AI tools that automate legal work, like contract generators or research bots.
Legal engineers sit between programmers and lawyers. They might map out how a lawyer reviews a lease, then build an AI workflow that does the first draft. Some work at legal-tech startups, others at big law firms' innovation teams.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in computer science or a JD with strong coding skills.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught, Professional school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Information Science, Data Science, Linguistics.
Growing much faster than average (about 8% over 10 years). Approximate; legal-tech hiring is growing quickly.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. A role growing because of AI: building and testing legal tools. Coding help from AI may later trim some junior building work.
Classes: AP Computer Science A, AP English Language, AP U.S. Government, Statistics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1299.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.