More than half of Victorian lawyers use AI – but only a quarter have cut client fees as a result
News Source
•Thu, 29 Oct 2026 23:00:37 GMT
📰 What Happened
A census of 2,221 Victorian lawyers found 55 percent now use AI in their work, up from 37 percent a year earlier, but only just over a quarter say they have reduced client fees as a result of the efficiency gains. Lawyers also reported that clients arriving with chatbot-generated advice add to their workload because the material has to be corrected.
🔍 The Backstory
The survey was conducted by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner's legal services research centre for its 2026 census. The 2025 edition found use was concentrated among lawyers under 30, but that gap largely disappeared this year, with usage still low among those aged 60 and over. Adoption was highest in trade practices at 85 percent, banking and finance at 78 percent and IT and telecommunications at 78 percent.
🎯 Why It Matters
The gap between adoption and billing points to a commercial question the profession has not settled: whether AI savings are passed to clients or captured as margin. It also raises professional responsibility issues, since lawyers remain accountable for errors in AI-assisted advice even when the tooling is widely used.
A census of 2,221 Victorian lawyers found 55 percent now use AI in their work, up from 37 percent a year earlier, but only just over a quarter say they have reduced client fees as a result of the efficiency gains. Lawyers also reported that clients arriving with chatbot-generated advice add to their workload because the material has to be corrected.
The survey was conducted by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner's legal services research centre for its 2026 census. The 2025 edition found use was concentrated among lawyers under 30, but that gap largely disappeared this year, with usage still low among those aged 60 and over. Adoption was highest in trade practices at 85 percent, banking and finance at 78 percent and IT and telecommunications at 78 percent.
The gap between adoption and billing points to a commercial question the profession has not settled: whether AI savings are passed to clients or captured as margin. It also raises professional responsibility issues, since lawyers remain accountable for errors in AI-assisted advice even when the tooling is widely used.