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Why I feel AI or LLMs will never replace lawyers (maybe slightly reduce the need for so many, but that is still debatable in the Indian context where our economy is booming at an unprecedented rate, and when economy grows, lawyers grow) is that law as a profession is regulated and borne out of the need for subjective decision making, taking calls, and at the end of the day, someone to take the fall or someone to 'certify' certain aspects. In this regard, law really distinguishes itself from other pursuits such as engineering or management, where a lot of decision making is largely objective. Objective decision making is the first of decisions which will be replaced with AI/ LLMs. Even for law, completely objective or purely language based tasks, such as summaries or list of dates, or checking volumes of data for specific dates, or straightforward compliance requirements in bare acts will be easily replaced and are already being replaced with AI. But for things like structuring, which needs much higher order thinking, subjectivity in taking certain calls (such as, would a 49% subsidiary violate FOCC restrictions in combination with other factors), humans will continue be relevant. At the end of the day, it also largely depends on what us humans, collectively, are comfortable delegating to a machine. My personal belief is that law, with ramifications for violating it, will never be fully machine run or led. I mean sure, the in house counsels and A0s will churn out shitty drafts using AI, but hey, that doesn't change much for higher ups in the law firms.
Forget in house counsels, I am privy to live cases where clients (without any in house legal) have used Chat GPT to generate legal notices for claims. The notices seemed more meticulous and slicker than any which would have been drafted by a lawyer !