Law firm lays off hundreds of employees as AI takes on more tasks

Baker McKenzie has begun cutting hundreds of support roles worldwide as artificial intelligence starts handling more routine work inside the global law firm.

A quiet but important change is underway inside one of the world’s largest law firms. Baker McKenzie has begun laying off a big number of employees across its global business services teams. Bloomberg, citing sources of legal industry publication RollOnFriday, reported that the firm is cutting roles across multiple locations, including London, Belfast and offshore centres. The scale of the move is important as less than 10 percent of Baker McKenzie’s worldwide support workforce is said to be made redundant, translating to roughly 600 to 1,000 employees. The cuts are not limited to one department. The report indicates that roles in know-how, research, marketing and secretarial teams have been affected.

Baker McKenzie has described the layoffs as part of a wider reorganisation rather than a sudden cost-cutting exercise. A spokesperson said the firm recently conducted a careful review of its business professional functions to “position the Firm for continued growth and remain agile in a fast-evolving business context”.

That review, the firm said, involved rethinking how work gets done, including through greater use of AI. The aim was to introduce efficiencies while investing more in roles that directly support client needs. In simple terms, tasks that can now be handled faster or more cheaply by AI tools are being reduced, while others are being changed or phased out.

The firm has also been careful to point out that it is not acting alone. Other major law firms have already taken similar steps. In recent months, Clifford Chance slashed around 10 percent of its UK business services staff, Irwin Mitchell removed its litigation paralegal roles, and Freshfields cited AI as it laid off paralegals last year.

Baker McKenzie has hinted that this process is not finished. While some roles may disappear entirely, others are expected to evolve as AI becomes more deeply embedded in daily operations. “We have not taken decisions around these proposed changes lightly,” the spokesperson said, adding that affected employees would be supported through the transition.

The developments at Baker McKenzie mirror a much larger trend playing out across industries. Technology companies, once seen as the biggest job creators of the digital era, are also trimming their workforces as automation improves. Amazon, for instance, recently laid off around 16,000 employees globally as part of an ongoing effort to simplify teams and reduce layers of management.