What Does It Take to Get Big Law Associates Excited About AI? - Bloomberg Law News

Welcome back to the Big Law Business column. Iâm Roy Strom, and today we look at how law firms are pushing associates to use and think about AI tools. Sign up for Business & Practice, a free morning newsletter from Bloomberg Law.

Big Law firms are coming up with creative ways to get associates to use new technologies, even as there is broad anxiety over how those tools will impact lawyersâ careers. As AI proliferates through the legal industry, law firms are pushing associates to use the tools to find new ways of working more efficiently. They are making competitions out of it, hiring consultants to advise on an AI mindset, and even developing human skills that technology canât replace just yet.

At Ropes & Grayâs registered funds practice, two first-year associates each month present to partners ways they have been using artificial intelligence. One example showed how AI could help quickly analyze a new type of agreement that associates and partners were unfamiliar with and compare it with public documents available through the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

âSeeing a first-year be sort of âseniorizedâ very quickly in that way was exciting for everyone else,â Elizabeth Reza, a partner in Ropesâ asset management group, said.

The first-years giving the presentations get billable credit for their efforts through a firmwide program that allows them to devote 20% of their billable hours to learning how to use generative AI in their daily work.

Ropes & Grayâs young lawyers also participated in a âWorld Cupâ type of competition along with the firmâs summer associates to develop a real-life workflow problem that could be solved by AI. Participation counted for full billable credit. The 25 teams were judged on problem-solving, feasibility, appropriate AI use, and presentation quality.

The winning team, âCtrl + Alt + REIT,â developed an AI-driven workflow that extracts information from transaction documents to assist in the drafting of large volumes of real estate closing and execution documents. They got a trophy and a dinnerâbut the firm got a couple dozen ideas that could scale across work done by first-year lawyers.

âNobody tried to solve for a giant bot that solves every problem,â said Patrick Ryan, director of legal knowledge management at Ropes. âThey honed in on processes they are involved in.â

At Sheppard LLP, lawyers are getting a crash course in how to use AI to think differently.

The firm has hired Conor Grennan, a former chief AI architect at the NYU Stern School of Business, who has done âAI Mindsetâ trainings at companies including Microsoft, Amazon, McKinsey, and Google. Sheppard says it is one of the first law firms to adopt Grennanâs program, which has the tagline: âStop using AI like a search engine.â

Grennan presented in May to about 50 of the firmâs senior leaders, including lawyers and business executives. The firm will roll out his training exercises more broadly this fall, Kate Cain, Sheppardâs chief innovation and knowledge management officer, told me.

The training has the firm beginning to think about AI through two types of changes: âtime-saversâ and âgame-changers.â

âHow can we embed this in the way we workâtime-saversâefficiency things,â Cain said. âBut also game-changers. Itâs not enough to do things faster. We need to be able to think big and think for the long term.â

Monica Youssef, who leads professional training at Sheppard, said the programs are designed to show associates that AI can be used to help them provide more value faster.

âThe industry hasnât changed significantly in a long time,â Youssef said. âBut what these associates are seeing now firsthand is that if you used to do something by hand for 15 years, now you can find a creative solution.â

Across internet message boards, itâs easy to find associates fretting about how frequently they use AI or how it will impact their careers. A Reddit post about AI âtaking overâ Big Law associatesâ entire roles garnered more than 80 responses.

As AI changes the ways associates have traditionally worked, Winston Taylor is focused on sharpening a group of decidedly human skills.

The firm about a year ago developed a list of skills it calls the âdurable dozenâ that it believes will become more important as humans navigate a more AI-enabled profession. They include things like work ethic, empathy, and coachability.

Those skills are being taught to the firmâs lawyers including through a partnership with Chicagoâs Steppenwolf Theater Company, said Robyn Schuster, director of professional development. In one example, the actors coach lawyers through one of their scenes, describing how they read their acting partnersâ emotions to respond to them in real-time.

The firm will expand the skills training next week as it hosts 30 students headed into their first year of law school. The incoming students have no relationship with Winston, and the firm says it isnât a recruiting effort. Itâs part of Chairman Steve DâAmoreâs view that law firms should help develop the professionâs future members, and a response to the view that law school training doesnât necessarily coach the skills that lead to Big Law success, Schuster said.

The durable skills can be used to inform how lawyers interact with AI, she said, but they are also crucial for the human elements of success like reading a room full of clients and responding on-your-feet to their needs.

âIt feels like the fear is more like the AI will replace the humans,â Schuster said. âAnd what gives me hope is that these 12 things at this moment are not something that AI can automate away from us.â

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On energy work: Five law firms are the first beneficiaries of an Energy Department plan to spend $50 million on outside legal services after Elon Muskâs DOGE culled agency attorneys, Eric Killelea reports. White & Case, Hunton Andrews Kurth, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Vinson & Elkins, and James K. Mitchell Law have picked up work so far.

On the ABA: Legal ethics experts see a new American Bar Association opinion on the duty government lawyers have to report suspected wrongdoing as a potential jumping off point for a broader push to adjust ethics rules, Sam Skolnik reports.

Thatâs it for this week! Thanks for reading and please send me your thoughts, critiques, and tips.

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