Will AI Replace Legal Jobs in Fiji? Here’s What to Do in 2025

Will AI replace legal jobs in Fiji in 2025? Not overnight, but the shape of legal work is shifting: as of May 2025 Fiji has no comprehensive national AI law and the government is still building AI governance, data protection and cybersecurity policies alongside its National Digital Strategy (Fiji AI law overview (Law Gratis)), while global legal tech trends show AI is already speeding up document review, contract automation and research - potentially freeing nearly 240 hours per lawyer each year - so routine tasks are most exposed even as higher-value advisory work grows (How AI is transforming the legal profession (Thomson Reuters)).

For Fiji's students and junior lawyers this means practical upskilling matters: targeted courses in prompt-writing and workplace AI can turn automation into an advantage (consider short, applied programs like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work to learn those skills quickly: AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration (Nucamp)).

The near-term reality in Fiji will be hybrid - less paper pushing, more client strategy - and keeping pace with tools and governance is the smartest insurance against displacement.

“The role of a good lawyer is as a ‘trusted advisor,' not as a producer of documents… breadth of experience is where a lawyer's true value lies and that will remain valuable.”

Concrete projects and practical signals show AI is moving from buzzword to workplace tool across Fiji: the $400 million Koro Development Project explicitly embeds AI as a “productivity multiplier” to fast-track timelines and expand jobs rather than cut them - helping operators scale complex infrastructure work and absorb new engineering and support roles (Koro Development Project AI productivity - Fiji Sun); at the same time, global platforms trained AI models to add Fijian to Google Translate (255 languages), opening faster access to legal information and client communication in native language (Google brings Fijian to Google Translate - Pacific Islands AI).

For legal teams the signals are practical: use predictive coding for large discovery, rely on drafting prompts for routine pleadings, and adopt local compliance checklists so technology reduces risk while freeing lawyers to focus on strategy (AI Essentials for Work syllabus - practical AI skills for any workplace (Nucamp)).

The vivid takeaway: AI can multiply output - sometimes by fourfold - which means legal roles will lean more toward oversight, strategy and client-facing judgment than paper pushing.

“What AI actually does is deliver higher productivity for people,” Mr Cromb said. “Since we've put it [AI] on, we've actually put more people on, because we're able to do a lot more.”

In Fiji the legal tasks most exposed to automation are the routine, high-volume pieces of work - document review and large-scale discovery, citation and brief checking, standard contract assembly and repetitive legal research - because those are the functions AI already accelerates in practice; tools like predictive coding for discovery (see Relativity's predictive coding recommendation for Fiji litigation) and AI brief analyzers can turn mountains of files into a short, supervised checklist (Relativity predictive coding for discovery in Fiji litigation, Nucamp guide).

The downside for firms and clients is practical: without a clear national AI law in place, practitioners must be extra careful about privacy, privilege and error risks flagged in regional analyses - disclosing client data to third‑party models or relying on unchecked outputs creates real liability (Fiji artificial intelligence law overview - Law Gratis), and comparative Pacific guidance highlights misinformation, privacy breaches and privilege loss as common hazards when legal teams adopt AI (AI regulation guidance for Australia and the Pacific - PLN).

paper pushing

is at highest risk, while judgment‑heavy advisory work, courtroom strategy and client trust remain human territory - so firms should automate the tedious work but keep lawyers squarely in control of decisions and privilege.

Where legal opportunities will grow in Fiji is where complex money, regulation and digital infrastructure meet: expect rising demand for lawyers who can structure PPP and infrastructure deals, tighten procurement documents and shepherd transactions through Fiji's famously slow procurement timeline - an average 37‑month span from RFP to contract award that can turn a single tender into an odyssey for sponsors (Fiji infrastructure profile and procurement timeline - InfraCompass).

Rapid gains in the ICT and BPO sector - cloud services, data‑centre investment and software export opportunities - mean more contracts, cross‑border data terms and IP work for counsel who understand tech and incentives (Fiji ICT sector opportunities and investment overview - EOS Global Expansion).

Practical compliance and risk-control capacity will be prized as firms navigate foreign equity sponsorship, tax breaks and procurement complexity; using a tailored compliance checklist can turn that regulatory maze into repeatable legal services and advisory retainers (AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus - Nucamp).

The vivid takeaway: advisers who blend dealcraft, procurement know‑how and digital law will be the busiest lawyers in Suva and beyond.

Law students and new graduates in Fiji can turn uncertainty about AI into career momentum by stacking practical placements, mentorship and short immersive experiences: apply early to local firm internships like Shekinah Law's mentor‑led program (10 days–1 month for students; 3–6 months for graduates) and to Munro Leys' structured four‑block intake - places are limited and Munro Leys even provides a FJD $100/week honorarium to help with basic costs while exposing interns to Commercial, Litigation and IP work (Shekinah Law Fiji legal internship program, Munro Leys Fiji intern programme with honorarium); complement firm experience with a short Think Pacific placement in Suva or a 14‑day team internship to build cross‑sector skills, live in local communities and sharpen cultural IQ while contributing to projects aligned with the Fiji National Development Plan (Think Pacific Global Team Internship in Fiji).

Practical steps: tailor each application with transcripts and a concise cover letter, seek a named mentor so tasks are supervised, time a firm block around university semesters, and log real‑world tasks (drafting, discovery support, procurement briefs) on a skills CV - imagine returning from a village placement with a polished brief and a local referee on your application; that combination (experience + mentor + documented outcomes) makes the jump from graduate to hireable much shorter.

“Absolutely amazing experience and definitely the best 10 weeks of my life in Malake.”

What practising lawyers in Fiji should do now is act as the department that both protects and enables: lead a cross‑functional GenAI governance forum with IT, risk and HR, map business priorities and run a targeted spend/sourcing review so limited budgets buy the right tools, and build a contract playbook plus tidy legal data so AI works against clean, governed inputs; pilot GenAI sandboxes for first‑pass tasks (NDAs, DPAs, routine reviews) while keeping lawyers as final decision‑makers, and invest in prompt engineering and contract management training so teams know when to rely on automation and when to escalate (see practical questions for CLOs and the six‑step approach to transformation in EY's guidance).

For contract review workflows, adopt secure, playbook‑driven tools and practices rather than general public models - Juro's contract‑review guidance is a useful practical checklist for safe first‑pass automation - and track ROI so technology serves strategy, not the other way around.

“There's never been a greater time to be an in-house legal professional.”

Legal employers and firms in Fiji should redesign entry pathways and workplace practices so talent pipelines actually work for both graduates and firms: formal internship blocks with clear supervision, modest stipends and named mentors will turn short placements into hireable experience (Munro Leys' four-block programme even pays an honorarium of FJD $100/week and limits two interns per block to ensure close supervision - see the Munro Leys internship programme details), while mentor-led short placements like Shekinah Law's 10‑day to 6‑month internships show how firms can fast-track practical skills with structured guidance; pair those programs with a published AI compliance checklist and safe first‑pass tooling so routine review is efficient without risking privilege or privacy (Shekinah Law legal internship information, Fiji legal practice AI compliance checklist).

The vivid, practical change: a fortnight‑long supervised placement plus a documented skills log and a small stipend often matters more to retention than fancy job ads.

“My favorite thing learned is that Fiji's Family Care Leave includes those who live in your dwelling; dwelling being interpreted to include everyone in the village.”

Regulation and ethics for AI in Fiji are rapidly evolving but still patchy: as of May 2025 there is no comprehensive national AI law, and the government is building AI governance into a broader National Digital and cybersecurity strategy that aims to guard internet users and embed responsible use across sectors (Law Gratis: Fiji AI law overview and analysis - https://www.lawgratis.com/blog-detail/artificial-intelligence-law-at-fiji).

Privacy sits on mixed foundations - the Constitution (Clause 24) guarantees a right to personal privacy while sector laws and the Cybercrime Act 2021 cover specific disclosures, and some sources note there is not yet a unified data‑protection regime or authority (DLA Piper: Fiji data protection summary - https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&c=FJ).

Practical governance signals include university reviews of academic integrity for AI use, international cooperation on online harms, and guidance-ready principles like the Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence that stress transparency, human determination and cybersecurity as core safeguards (Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence - https://www.caidp.org/universal-guidelines-for-ai/).

The vivid takeaway: Fiji's legal map for AI is still a stitched quilt of constitutional rights, sector rules and new strategy papers - so lawyers and firms must treat AI projects as governed experiments until a full framework arrives.

Area: National AI law - Status (May 2025): No comprehensive AI law yet; governance being developed - Source: Law Gratis: Fiji AI law overview and analysis (https://www.lawgratis.com/blog-detail/artificial-intelligence-law-at-fiji)
Area: Data protection & privacy - Status (May 2025): Constitutional privacy (Clause 24), sector laws cover disclosures; no unified data‑protection authority - Source: DLA Piper: Fiji data protection summary (https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&c=FJ)
Area: Education & awareness - Status (May 2025): FNU reviewing academic integrity and running awareness campaigns on responsible AI use - Source: Law Gratis: Fiji AI law overview and analysis (https://www.lawgratis.com/blog-detail/artificial-intelligence-law-at-fiji)
Area: International cooperation - Status (May 2025): Participation in international cybercrime and AI working groups to combat online harms - Source: Law Gratis: Fiji AI law overview and analysis (https://www.lawgratis.com/blog-detail/artificial-intelligence-law-at-fiji)

The Koro Development Project's scale - a government‑backed, multi‑million dollar precinct broken ground at the Kalabu Tax‑Free Zone in Nasinu - turns what might look like routine law into a portfolio of high‑stakes roles: procurement specialists to draft RFPs, manage RFQs and ensure transparent tender processes; legal officers to review procurement contracts, grants and funding agreements and to run the daily flow of legal requests; and transactional counsel to shape investment and project agreements as global partners arrive (the development is projected to create thousands of jobs, with some reports estimating up to 15,000 new positions).

These needs match well with the practical duties listed in regional postings - for example, SPC's procurement and legal officer descriptions stress preparing procurement documents, advising decision‑makers, and drafting and reviewing contracts - so career paths for lawyers in Fiji will likely center on procurement law, contract management and governance for large infrastructure projects like Koro (Fiji Times coverage of the Koro Development Project groundbreaking, DevelopmentAid listing for the SPC Procurement Officer role, Devex listing for the SPC Legal Officer role).

“Koro will stand not just as a precinct, but as a powerful expression of who we are and what we believe in.”

Next steps for legal professionals in Fiji: treat AI adoption as a staged programme, not a panic - start with a quick process audit to find repetitive, high‑volume tasks to pilot, set up a cross‑functional AI governance forum (legal + IT + risk) and require human sign‑off on all model outputs so machines augment judgment, not replace it; participate in national conversations while Fiji's AI governance and data rules are still being written (see the May 2025 review of Fiji's AI law and national strategy at Law Gratis) and use practical, legally focused training to build skills fast - short applied courses like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work teach prompt‑writing and workplace AI in 15 weeks and are a solid way to get usable capability into the team (register here: Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work 15-week bootcamp).

Adopt trustworthy, legal‑grade tools for research and discovery, keep a firm‑level compliance checklist while experimenting, and remember the cautionary signals from the region: AI can automate document review and generate legal insights, but it also hallucinates - always verify citations and preserve client confidentiality (see Pacific Islands AI on AI in Fijian legal practice).

“If you're a lawyer afraid of AI taking your job, you're absolutely right! If you run the firm, you're safe! If you grind out the hours for someone else who runs the firm, there's no doubt that you are seriously exposed.”