Sarah, the director of professional development (PD) at a midsize corporate firm, watched the IT manager click through slides about the firm’s AI software. A dozen partners sat with glazed expressions.
Marcus, the managing partner, pulled Sarah aside. “We’ve invested heavily in these AI tools, but adoption is terrible. I’m starting to fear we’ve wasted our money.” Sarah had been thinking the same thing—but not about the technology investment. The problem wasn’t the AI tools; it was how the firm was trying to get people to use them.
Get to the ‘Why’
As a PD expert, Sarah understood something law firm leaders sometimes miss: successful technology adoption is about people—how we learn, what motivates us, and what fears we must overcome to embrace change. According to a recent Law.com analysis, many firms are not using AI as well as they could—and return on investment suffers because of gaps in training and in integrating technology with real-life workflows.
Sarah understood that the resistance to AI was less about the technology than it was about deeper professional and personal concerns. Partners worried about professional liability: “What if AI misses something important and I don’t catch it?” Associates worried about job security: “If AI can do document review and first drafts of agreements, what value do I bring?” And everyone had ethics and confidentiality questions about the new technology.
Successful training isn’t just about transferring information—it’s about creating buy-in, addressing fears, and helping people see how new skills serve their existing goals. Professional development teams know how to address this resistance.
When a partner says, “I don’t trust AI,” a PD expert recognizes this as a fear response that needs to be unpacked and addressed, not a technical problem that needs a software solution.
The firm’s IT department is not the team responsible for these issues; their job is to assess and explain how the software works. But adult learners must see a specific personal benefit before they’ll invest their valuable time and energy in acquiring any new skill. And firms need an all-hands-on deck approach to change management, including the folks responsible for making the investment in AI.
Research shows that lawyers as a cohort tend to be more skeptical and value autonomy more than other groups. Being told, “You must use AI because our firm expects you to,” or “We have to innovate…because we must,” simply won’t cut it.
Let Real World Successes Make the Case for AI
Sarah asked Marcus if she could join the firm’s AI task force. She offered to have her PD team take the lead in building a new AI training program. Partnering with the firm’s practice managers and chief technology officer, she began surveying lawyers about their current challenges and the pain points in their day-to-day practice and workflows. She and her team also asked the lawyers about goals for the new technology.
They learned partners were spending too much time rewriting agreements and briefs. Associates were doing work that was too generic because they weren’t fully versed in the nuances of clients’ specific businesses. And everyone was stressed because they felt pressure to deliver high quality work in less time.
Sarah publicly connected the dots between those pain points and the solutions AI could provide. She and her colleagues ran focus groups with cross-sections of lawyers, spanning various practices, seniority and geography. The result: a treasure trove of ideas to simplify practice using AI, plus a list of resistance points that could be addressed head-on.
Then Sarah did what PD professionals do best: she created a dynamic engaging set of exercises to demonstrate how AI could help each attorney. Instead of discussing algorithms and natural language processing, the PD team helped show how AI could help a busy partner review contracts 50% faster while maintaining quality. They showed how AI could help an associate spot issues they might otherwise miss. And they explained the seemingly infinite ways AI can boost efficiency and effectiveness of business development (BD) efforts.
As the list of such “use cases” grew, so did lawyers’ enthusiasm for AI.
Sarah recruited the firm’s early AI adopters to share examples of how AI improved their client relationships. Early adopters shared their user-friendly results: timesaving first drafts that they could use as a springboard, and ideas that zoomed in on specific clients’ concerns and pressures—exactly the bespoke solutions clients want from their outside counsel.
Sarah and the firm’s AI champions also shared how AI had (surprisingly to some) enhanced junior lawyers’ value through efficient de facto training and mentoring. As AI’s insights enabled junior lawyers to better understand clients’ business challenges, those lawyers started asking more thoughtful, real-time questions. This process saved senior lawyers time while elevating associates’ performance.
Drawing on her relationships in the broader Legal PD community, Sarah created a list of vetted respected external consultants. She found experts to discuss AI quality control measures and best practices for ethics and maintaining professional judgment. She also established peer learning programs, pairing lawyers comfortable with AI with those who were hesitant.
Most importantly, Sarah reframed the conversation: instead of positioning AI as a disruptive force lawyers were forced to adapt to, she helped present it as a tool to help them do what they already wanted to do—and were already doing. Just better. And faster.
Sarah’s success highlighted something many law firms overlook: PD experts are uniquely qualified to help implement complex technology adoption initiatives: they are key players in change management. They understand adult learning principles, know how to assess and design engaging curricula, and are accustomed to working with resistant learners.
PD professionals also often have good relationships throughout the firm. That trust translates into more honest conversations about concerns and greater willingness to engage with new learning opportunities.
Any sustainable change requires ongoing support, not just one-off training sessions, and the firm’s support must be broad, not narrow. Sarah leveraged her knowledge to create mentorship programs, office hours, and regular check-ins to help lawyers build competence over time.
Six months after Sarah’s group started its AI training, the firm’s adoption rates had increased dramatically. Client feedback was overwhelmingly positive because lawyers were using the tools strategically rather than just experimenting.
Marcus was thrilled with the results. Sarah wasn’t surprised.
Sarah’s experience illustrates a broader opportunity for Legal PD professionals. As AI becomes increasingly central to legal practice, the organizations that succeed will be those whose people use the technology effectively and proactively, and who can integrate it into their workflows. That’s not a technical challenge – it’s a human one that every level of the firm must help tackle.
To learn more:
- https://www.law.com/2025/10/09/anatomy-of-a-prompt-real-training-for-using-ai/
- https://www.hotshotlegal.com/white-papers/training-lawyers-for-the-age-of-ai#section-get-paper
- https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf
Lauren Krasnow is an executive leadership coach and consultant to legal leaders, and a speaker on leadership-related topics. She is a Global 100 Leader in Legal Strategy & Consulting. Contact her at lauren@laurenkrasnow.com.