In Law360: Barnes & Thornburg Taking ‘Practical’ Approach to AI Rollout

"We think it's been advantageous to go that route and kind of bake it into what we believe is the practice of law," said Chief Legal Operations Officer Jared Applegate.

Chief Information Officer Joan Holman added that the firm has been focused on putting the technology in the hands of lawyers who are enthusiastic and eager to use it. "I think by taking this approach, we'll be much better off in the long run, because we'll have people coming to us, as opposed to us forcing it," she said.  

The March 2 article noted that the legal ops team works closely with the firm's biggest clients and attorney teams to figure out practical uses for AI tools. 

"They're actually one of the few firms that have a dedicated practice that … looks to use AI to streamline legal operations," said Brett Crowell, general counsel at private investment firm Atar Capital. "A couple firms have created AI-focused groups that say that they're doing a lot, but in practice, I haven't actually seen them doing very much at all, at least not anything that's very practical or very useful from my perspective."

Last year, the firm helped Atar Capital, a client of private equity practice co-chair Ryan Barncastle, review thousands of contracts for one of its portfolio companies to make a business decision, Law360 reported. Crowell said Barnes & Thornburg was one of the few law firms that told him they had the resources to help him with this project.

"They're actually one of the few firms that have a dedicated practice that … looks to use AI to streamline legal operations,"

-Brett Crowell, General Counsel, Atar Capital

Today, roughly 70% of the firm’s litigators are using AI daily – and usage is expanding firmwide.  

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