Barnes & Thornburg Expands Embedded AI Capability Across Practices With Dedicated Attorney Leaders

Barnes & Thornburg — a national law firm with more than 850 lawyers in 26 markets — today announced that 38 attorneys across the firm are now serving as dedicated AI Practice Champions, working within their practices to advance how AI is used in the delivery of legal services to clients.

The expansion reflects how Barnes & Thornburg has approached AI from the beginning: not as a standalone capability or a top-down mandate, but as a practical tool embedded directly into how lawyers practice and how work is delivered to clients.

“AI is not taking work away from lawyers. It is changing which parts of the work clients are willing to pay for, and the firms that understand that distinction will lead,” said Brian McGinnis, co-chair of the firm’s AI practice.

“We need attorneys who are actively using these tools, who understand the impact on their clients, and who can help their colleagues do the same,” added Kaitlyn Stone, co-chair of the firm’s AI practice. “That expertise belongs where the work is — in the hands of the lawyers delivering it.”

A Practical Approach, Built on a Decade of Legal Operations Investment

Barnes & Thornburg's approach to AI is deliberately straightforward: buy best-in-class tools, put them in the hands of lawyers, keep adoption high, and learn through real client matters.

This is not new territory for the firm. More than a decade ago, Barnes & Thornburg made an early investment in a cross-functional Legal Operations capability — professionals with direct in-house experience, many of whom are former clients, embedded alongside attorney teams to support workflow design, pricing, and change management. That foundation created a structural advantage then, and it creates one now. AI is simply the next capability being integrated into a delivery model that already knows how to absorb change.

The AI Practice Champions span nine practice areas and 36 focus areas, including Corporate (M&A, Private Equity, Venture Capital), Litigation (Commercial Litigation, Class Action Defense, White Collar, Business Tort, Drug and Device), Restructuring & Bankruptcy, Healthcare, Government Services & Finance, Real Estate, Environmental, Intellectual Property, and Labor & Employment.

Embedded, Not Forced, Adoption

Rather than requiring attorneys to use AI or treating it as a separate workstream, the firm has focused on moving AI from the edge of legal work to its core — putting tools in the hands of those who are eager to use them and letting adoption grow naturally from demonstrated results.

“Barnes & Thornburg has built AI into the core of how we operate — not bolted on as a standalone initiative but grounded in a decade of legal operations investment,” said Chief Legal Operations Officer Jared Applegate. “Our AI conversations start with real client pain points, not abstractions. The adoption numbers speak for themselves — and the Practice Champions are how we carry that into every practice group, client matter by client matter.”

Nearly 90% of the firm's attorneys are actively using AI, and more than 1,000 users have already logged into Harvey since its firmwide deployment. In the past 30 days alone, attorneys submitted more than 150,000 prompts across the firm’s AI platforms. Harvey licenses have been deployed to all attorneys and legal personnel, alongside CoCounsel, ChatBT — the firm's general AI portal — and practice-specific solutions.

Guiding Clients in Real Time

The AI Practice Champions work alongside Barnes & Thornburg's AI Industry Group, led by Stone and McGinnis, which focuses on serving clients whose businesses have been affected by AI. Together, they provide a real-time feedback loop between the technology the firm deploys and the clients and attorneys it serves.

“We are clear-eyed about where the market is,” said Chief Information Officer Joan Holman. “AI is evolving quickly. Clients are still learning. So are we. The Practice Champions give us a direct connection between the tools we deploy and the attorneys using them on behalf of clients — and that connection is invaluable as we continue to evaluate, expand, and refine what we offer.”

The firm's cross-functional team — spanning Legal Operations, IT, and other firm functions — evaluates and selects best-in-class technologies, ensures tools are secure, stable, and appropriate for legal work, and supports adoption through training, enablement, and continuous refinement. Clear policies, vetted tools, defined review and accountability, and strong security and confidentiality standards allow the firm to deploy AI confidently in high-stakes, high-volume matters.

"The more attorneys use these tools in real matters, the more they see opportunities we can investigate together," Holman added. "That's how adoption works — through use, not mandates."

About Barnes & Thornburg

Barnes & Thornburg operates 26 offices across the United States, enabling more than 850 lawyers to serve clients nationwide. As one of the 100 largest law firms in the country, we provide seamless coast-to-coast coverage for high-stakes litigation, complex transactions and innovative IP matters. Our national reach and knowledge of local markets help clients conduct business confidently wherever opportunities arise. Visit btlaw.com.