Haynes Boone has launched a firmwide initiative recognizing that working effectively with generative artificial intelligence is a core lawyering skill. Beginning with summer associates and extending to associates, counsel and partners, the firm is integrating hands-on AI training as part of its standard attorney development program while supporting thoughtful adoption of AI tools.
Rather than treating AI as a one-time technology rollout, Haynes Boone is embedding AI training into its attorney development strategy. The firm's approach combines practical training, workflow design, knowledge management and responsible technology adoption to help every Haynes Boone lawyer develop the judgment and practical skills needed to use AI effectively in service of clients.
"AI is becoming a foundational part of how lawyers work, learn and serve clients," said Haynes Boone Chair and Firmwide Managing Partner Taylor Wilson. "Our priority is to ensure every Haynes Boone lawyer understands how to use these tools thoughtfully, responsibly and effectively. It is about investing in our people, strengthening our client service and building the knowledge and judgment required to use AI well."
The firm's approach is guided by a "leave no lawyer behind" philosophy. Haynes Boone has developed training for lawyers at all levels of AI familiarity – from novice to intermediate to advanced – to help them build and test sophisticated AI-enabled workflows. The training emphasizes responsible use, confidentiality, privilege, accuracy, professional judgment and attorney review.
The firm has conducted live AI workshops for lawyers across multiple offices, grouping participants by experience level. The small-group format encourages discussion, hands-on practice and peer learning. Lawyers at every stage of practice participate in these workshops, creating opportunities to share practical use cases, discuss emerging risks and reinforce consistent standards for responsible AI use. To support the workshops, Haynes Boone has partnered with Hotshot, a learning platform that provides lawyers with experiential and on-demand training on AI, legal and business skills.
“The philosophy here is simple: Lawyer prompts, lawyer decides," said Tony Capecci, director of practice innovation at Haynes Boone. "AI can accelerate parts of legal work, but lawyers remain responsible for every question they ask, every answer they evaluate and every piece of work they deliver. Our training is designed to help lawyers use AI to strengthen – not replace – the professional judgment our clients depend on."
A recent AI workshop for summer associates was an experiential learning curriculum developed by the Haynes Boone Innovation Team in partnership with the Haynes Boone Attorney Development Team and Hotshot. Summer associates used the firm's approved tools in hands-on exercises based on fictional legal and business scenarios, including drafting client communications, preparing employee-facing materials and tailoring a client alert to a specific business context.
The exercises are designed to reinforce skills that are central to legal practice: effective prompting, iteration, factual accuracy, audience awareness, tone, confidentiality, privilege and critical review of AI-generated work. Participants submitted client-facing work product and a reflection worksheet identifying where AI helped, where it fell short and what responsible-use issues arose. Evaluation focused not only on the final work product, but also on the judgment used to assess, revise and improve AI output.
"Generative AI requires lawyers to ask better questions, provide better context, evaluate answers critically and take responsibility for the final work," Wilson said. "Those are core professional skills, and we are building them into our training from the start."
Haynes Boone's broader AI strategy prioritizes the firm's knowledge base and the quality of its data. The firm is focused on organizing precedents, work product, taxonomies, matter data, practice knowledge and internal processes so lawyers can derive meaningful value from AI tools as the technology evolves. The firm's approach recognizes that AI success depends on empowering both sides of the equation: the tools and the lawyers.
"Tools will change," Wilson said. "What will endure is the quality of our judgment, our knowledge base and our ability to apply technology effectively in servicing our clients. That is where we believe we have a long-term advantage."
About Haynes Boone
Haynes Boone is among the fastest-growing Am Law 100 firms, providing full-service, Chambers-ranked counsel across sectors, including corporate, energy, financial services, real estate, restructuring, litigation, intellectual property and specialty transactions. Companies at all stages rely on Haynes Boone, whether they’re in the Fortune 500 and/or S&P 500, well-funded, exchange-listed, privately held or in emerging-growth mode. More than 750 lawyers practice across 21 global offices in California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai.
