Davis Wright Tremaine is teaching lawyers AI in small peer cohorts

Davis Wright Tremaine, an AmLaw 100 firm with more than 600 lawyers across nine US offices, is piloting a different way to drive AI adoption. Instead of another tool demo, it is putting about 70 people into small facilitated peer cohorts.

The design is specific. Participants of mixed seniority from across practice groups and offices meet virtually for six sessions, in groups of eight to 10, led by external coaches trained in helping people through change. The cohorts run from late October to the end of the year and cover four themes: approaching AI with an inventive mindset, leading change internally, experimenting and deciding what must remain human in legal practice. It was built with Keep Company, a platform for relationship-based people programs.

The firm is also measuring. It will track changes in AI usage through the pilot and set firm-specific baselines before deciding how to support learning across the wider firm.

Chief talent and inclusion officer Yusuf Zakir put the thinking simply: people learn best from each other, and the focus is developing talent, not just technology.

I think this is one of the more honest AI learning designs I have seen from a professional services firm. The blocker in most firms is not access to tools. It is whether a senior associate feels safe admitting they do not know how to use them, and whether anyone has decided which parts of the work should stay human. Small cohorts with a coach are a good place to have that conversation. Baselines before scaling are a good discipline too.

The test will be whether the cohorts produce changed habits in the practice groups, not just good conversations inside the sessions.

If you want people to be candid about what they do not know yet, our Psychological Safety workshops are built for that.

Sources:

• Davis Wright Tremaine announcement