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

For a small jurisdiction like San Marino that routinely intersects with Italian and EU rules, the rise of generative AI isn't an abstract headline - it's a practical challenge and opportunity: Thomson Reuters AI-driven legal efficiency white paper warns firms they're losing millions to billing inefficiencies that AI can recapture, while industry forecasts show contract automation and smarter research will shift routine work toward faster, higher-value advising; at the same time, nearby EU and Italian rules mean compliance duties and human‑oversight requirements will matter for cross‑border practice (EU and Italian AI compliance rules for legal professionals).

Legal teams in San Marino should pair risk mapping with practical upskilling - for example, a focused course like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp teaches prompt skills and tool use needed to protect revenue and advise clients in 2025.

“We all expect AI to have a long-term impact on the work of legal professionals, but these numbers remind us, again, of the resilience of this community.”

AI is already reshaping day‑to‑day legal work in San Marino by automating the repetitive scaffolding that once filled junior lawyers' desks - think faster legal research, document review, client intake and even demand‑letter and case‑summary generation - so firms can focus human time on strategy and cross‑border nuance; global commentators note tools that find the right precedent or flag contract risk in seconds (one study even compared an AI NDA review at 26 seconds to 92 minutes for humans), and vendors tailored to legal workflows promise better onboarding and security for sensitive data (see Practice AI guidance on selecting legal‑ready AI tools, IE University roundup of AI trends in law, San Marino jurisdictional comparison prompts for legal drafting).

“Technology alone isn't enough,” said Hamid Kohan, President and CEO of Practice AI™.

In San Marino's compact legal market the tasks most exposed to automation by 2025 are the repetitive, data‑heavy roles that scale easily - think document review, large‑batch legal research and routine paralegal work - and that's exactly what a recent ranking (reported by Lexpert coverage of the Dolman Law Group study on AI impact in legal jobs) highlights: document review lawyers top the list because their day is built around managing vast volumes of documents with little interpersonal nuance, followed by legal researchers and high‑volume paralegal roles.

Broader labour studies remind firms not to overplay or underplay the change: workplace analyses show two‑thirds of jobs in Europe may be exposed to some AI automation and headline figures differ (see the workplace exposure overview at Nexford analysis of AI workplace exposure and job impact), while sector‑specific recalculations suggest legal roles may be more modestly affected (about 17% exposure in a recent recalculation reported by Artificial Lawyer analysis of Goldman Sachs' legal job AI risk).

For San Marino that means firms should protect entry‑level training pipelines and redeploy human judgement to cross‑border advising and client relationships - the human advantages that machines can't replicate.

“As AI continues to influence various industries, it is essential to distinguish between the benefits AI can offer and the challenges it may present. AI can enhance efficiency in managing repetitive tasks and accessing data quickly. However, lawyers' critical thinking, empathy, and nuanced understanding remain indispensable, ensuring the profession's human element is preserved.”

Short‑term (2025) for San Marino's legal market means a fast rebalancing rather than wholesale job losses: routine, high‑volume tasks - batch contract review, NDA and DPA processing, intake triage - will be largely automated so small firms and in‑house teams can close deals in minutes instead of weeks (one Juro example shows a 30,000‑contract review collapsing from months and millions in cost to days with automation), while demand spikes for people who can stitch law and systems together - legal engineers, playbook designers and data‑literate practitioners who keep AI reliable and auditable; early adopters gain a clear edge but partner resistance and governance gaps still slow change (Withum's mid‑year check‑in finds leadership inertia remains a top inhibitor even as 73% of respondents say AI improves firm operations and about 47% now document AI risk strategies).

Practically, that means entry‑level roles focused on repetitive review will shrink, paralegals and researchers will be reskilled into oversight and workflow roles, and firms that simplify their tech stacks and embed dynamic playbooks will win speed and compliance.

For San Marino - where cross‑border nuance matters - short‑term winners will be teams that combine domain expertise with prompt engineering, data metrics and clear AI governance.

Read the full trends at the Juro contract automation case study and the Withum AI adoption report.

“An agent might read your contract, know all the context… and instead of recommending actions, it takes them. It just does it.”

Medium‑term to 2030 for San Marino's legal market looks like steady demand for expert, cross‑border advice rather than broad displacement: global forecasts show the legal services market expanding through the decade (TechSci projects about USD 0.79T in 2024 to USD 1.03T by 2030, while Research and Markets puts 2025 at USD 1.02T and 2030 nearer USD 1.34T), and Europe's legal tech sector is growing faster still (Grand View Research forecasts the Europe legal‑tech market to reach USD 11.58B by 2030 at an ~8.9% CAGR), which signals more powerful, auditable tools arriving in the region.

For a micro‑jurisdiction that must dance with Italian and EU rules, that combination means routine, high‑volume work will be compressed by tech while specialised practices - data privacy, cross‑border compliance, ESG and transactional structuring - become the highest‑value work.

Small firms that pair tight governance with targeted EU‑aware tools (see an EU‑focused legal drafting platform for small jurisdictions) will avoid risky shortcuts and capture the advisory margin; imagine a small San Marino firm turning a paper‑choked closing into a transparent, tool‑driven checklist with an auditable trail, freeing lawyers to focus on judgment and client relationships rather than batch processing.

San Marino's small, cross‑border market is fertile ground for new legal roles that pair traditional judgment with technical oversight: expect demand for AI governance professionals and compliance lawyers who can translate the EU AI Act's obligations into firm‑level controls, privacy‑savvy counsel who manage extraterritorial risk, and contract‑automation specialists who turn batch reviews into auditable workflows; Thomson Reuters' Future of Professionals Report 2025 stresses that firms must invest in talent and training to capture AI's ROI, while OneTrust's 2025 AI‑Ready Governance Report shows governance teams are already shifting from gatekeepers to enablers and prioritising capability building - facts that point to roles in policy, red‑teaming, and vendor risk assessment as realistic hires for 2025.

Smaller San Marino firms can also niche‑specialise: legal engineers and playbook designers who embed EU‑aware guardrails into drafting tools, and data‑literate associates who manage model audits and explainability for clients tied to Italy and the EU; Bloomberg Law and IE University both flag that incoming lawyers will be expected to show AI familiarity, so upskilling will be a competitive edge.

Picture a notary's mountain of closing binders replaced by a one‑page, tool‑driven audit trail - that practical efficiency is where these emerging roles add real client value, not just technical novelty, and local firms that hire or train for governance, privacy and automation stand to win.

invest in talent and training

For San Marino's legal professionals the most practical reskilling path in 2025 blends quick, task‑focused learning with an accredited governance credential: start with a short, practical course to gain AI literacy and prompt oversight, then add a governance program that covers the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST frameworks so firms can map compliance into everyday playbooks.

Options that fit busy schedules include BABL AI's AI Governance for Legal Professionals Certification (four short courses, a capstone and a week‑long practical pace) to build risk‑assessment and contract clauses that stand up to cross‑border scrutiny, Berkeley Law's Generative AI for the Legal Profession for hands‑on prompt and use‑case practice in under five hours of content, and Coursera's AI Governance module to translate ethics into operational controls; employers often sponsor these and some offer shareable certificates or MCLE credits.

Think of it as replacing a pile of closing binders with a one‑page, auditable checklist - train quickly, certify visibly, and then embed governance into the firm's intake, vendor and matter workflows so humans remain the decisive safeguard.

Practical, immediate steps will protect clients and capture AI's efficiency gains in San Marino: convene a firm‑level AI governance board to own policy, vendor approvals and audits (formal governance beats ad‑hoc pilots); run an EU‑focused compliance inventory now because the EU AI Act reaches third‑country deployers and may apply to San Marino matters; adopt a risk‑based classification (red/yellow/green) for uses so confidential client data is never pasted into consumer tools; require vendor due diligence and SOC 2 / contract terms for any platform handling client material; mandate verification logs and senior‑attorney sign‑off for AI research or filings; and launch short, mandatory AI literacy plus ethics training for all fee‑earners so

verify, verify, verify

becomes routine.

These are not theoretical - use practical playbooks and checklists to move fast: OneTrust's EU AI Act checklist helps turn obligations into a workable intake and registry, Casemark's firm playbook shows how to translate ethics and citation verification into enforceable firm rules, and RSM's governance framework maps vendor, risk and lifecycle controls into an operational program.

Think of it as swapping a stack of closing binders for a one‑page, auditable checklist that proves due diligence and keeps clients safe.

Policy, ethics and regulation for San Marino now sit at the intersection of a newly binding Council of Europe treaty and a bold, extraterritorial EU agenda - San Marino was an early signatory to the Council's Framework Convention on AI, which ties AI duties to human rights, transparency (including identifying AI‑generated content) and lifecycle oversight, and those same principles are mirrored in the EU's AI Act and guidance that reach beyond member states; for practical compliance that means small firms handling Italian or EU matters must treat AI governance as a front‑line duty, from inventories and vendor due‑diligence to human‑in‑the‑loop checks and auditable records.

Start with treaty‑aligned policies and a risk‑based inventory, map EU‑act exposure for cross‑border matters, and build simple verification steps so AI outputs are flagged and reviewed before client use - the result is less legal risk and a clear, auditable one‑page trail that proves due diligence.

Read the Council of Europe treaty summary and the EU AI Act tracker for operational detail as you align firm policy.

“And compliance officers should take note. When our prosecutors assess a company's compliance program - as they do in all corporate resolutions - they consider how well the program mitigates the company's most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI. That's why, going forward and wherever applicable, our prosecutors will assess a company's ability to manage AI-related risks as part of its overall compliance efforts.”

San Marino's legal community faces a clear, practical choice: move fast with guardrails or risk losing margin and control as clients demand faster, auditable results; three steps make that manageable.

First, map exposure and governance - run a cross‑border AI‑use inventory aligned with government readiness and international frameworks (see the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index) and prioritise vendor due diligence so sensitive client data never rides on consumer tools.

Second, reskill intentionally - use short, work‑focused training to build prompt, oversight and data‑readiness skills and convert paralegals into oversight roles; firms should take the profitability runway highlighted in the Thomson Reuters 2025 Legal Market Report to invest in tech and talent rather than cut staff.

Third, operationalise compliance: stand up a small AI governance board, require verification checkpoints (turn a stack of closing binders into a one‑page, auditable checklist) and embed metrics so human review remains the default.

For San Marino practitioners who want a practical, employer‑friendly upskilling path, Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration is a focused option to gain prompt and tool skills quickly.