Lead AI-driven change across your legal organization.
AI is reshaping not only how legal work is done, but how law firms and in-house legal departments relate to one another. Firms are rethinking strategy, business models, pricing, and governance in light of new capabilities, while corporate legal teams are building their own AI tools, shifting work in-house, and raising expectations around value and risk. The leaders and organizations that will thrive are those who can see—and lead across—both sides of this transformation.
Leading AI Transformation in Legal Practice is a four-day, in-person executive program at Harvard Law School focusing on the strategic, organizational, and management questions that determine the value of AI investments.
Leading AI Transformation in Legal Practice is designed to help senior law firm partner/leaders and chief officers and corporate General Counsel and other senior in-house leaders to:
- Develop a clear, practical view of the legal AI landscape—on both the law firm and in-house sides—and identify where AI can create sustainable competitive advantage for your organization.
- Make informed Build / Buy / Compose decisions about AI tools and systems and communicate a coherent technology strategy to key stakeholders.
- Lead organizational change around AI using adaptive leadership approaches to build momentum, recruit and empower internal champions, and navigate resistance.
- Design governance structures and policies that align AI use with professional responsibility obligations, organizational values, and evolving regulatory expectations.
- Rethink business models, pricing, and resourcing in light of AI-enabled work, including what should be handled in-house and what is best suited for outside counsel.
- Build and sustain a cross-market, global peer network who are grappling with similar AI strategy and implementation challenges.
Through case discussions, interactive exercises, and a half-day AI Design Hackathon, the program equips participants with the frameworks, judgment, and practical tools required to lead AI-driven transformation in their own organizations—and across the broader legal ecosystem. Participants will leave this highly practical program with an implementation-ready AI use case specification, a draft governance and measurement plan, and a 90‑day action plan tailored to their own organizations.
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PROGRAM GOALS
Leading AI Transformation in Legal Practice will provide you with perspectives, concepts, management tools, and skills that will help you lead AI-driven change across your legal organization and its key relationships.
Leading AI Transformation in Legal Practice aims to help participants navigate:
- Law firm strategy, governance, and partnership dynamics in an AI-enabled market
- In-house legal operations, vendor management, and insourcing decisions
- Professional responsibility and ethical obligations across practice settings
- The evolving relationship between outside counsel and corporate legal departments in the AI era
- The organizational change, measurement, and business-model choices that drive real value from AI
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CURRICULUM
The Learning Model
Case studies, interactive lectures, classroom discussions, and small group work will give you multiple perspectives on how AI is transforming legal services and what it takes to lead that transformation. Learning by case method allows participants to work through real-world strategic, organizational, and ethical problems in a classroom setting, while the half-day AI Design Hackathon provides a structured, hands-on opportunity to translate those insights into an implementation-ready plan for your own organization.
Topics
Participants will develop a holistic understanding of the strategic, organizational, and governance questions raised by AI in legal practice. The course will explore topics such as:
- The evolving legal AI market and its impact on law firms, corporate legal departments, and their relationship with AI-related vendors;
- Build / Buy / Compose decisions, including the strategic implications of agentic systems and natural-language “vibe coding”;
- Change management, adaptive leadership, and the role of AI champions in driving adoption;
- Measuring AI value: distinguishing machine learning performance from management measurement and designing ROI and KPI frameworks;
- Business-model innovation in an AI-enabled legal market, including alternatives to the billable hour;
- Governance and professional responsibility, including “regulation by design” approaches; and
- Training, talent development, and the future of the profession when traditional early-career work is increasingly automated.
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PARTICIPANTS
This program is designed for senior leaders who are responsible for shaping AI strategy, governance, and implementation within their organizations.
Roles include:
Law Firm Leaders:
- Managing Partners and Firm Chairs
- Chief Operating Officers and Chief Innovation Officers
- Practice Group Leaders and Department Heads
In-House and Government Legal Leaders:
- General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers
- Deputy General Counsel and Associate General Counsel
- Chief Legal Operations Officers and Heads of Legal Technology
Participants should have some influence over the strategy of the organization. Participants will typically have 10-15 years of experience. No technical background is required.
The cohort will be limited in size to ensure rich discussion, deliberately mixing law firm and in-house leaders to foster dialogue and cross-market insight.
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FACULTY
Our core faculty are members of the Harvard Law School faculty – distinguished academicians, educators, researchers, authors, and practitioners in their respective fields. Representing various disciplines, they are close to practice through relationships with law firm leaders and through personal involvement as consultants for top firms around the world.
Teaching Team
Scott A. Westfahl, Harvard Law School — Co-Faculty Chair
David B. Wilkins, Harvard Law School — Co-Faculty Chair
Robert Mahari — Harvard Law School and Akiva
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ADMISSIONS
Visit the Admissions page for information on the process.
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