Codified Counsel01
Codify how the firm actually practices
Document your matter types, workflows, templates, and house style as firm IP. This is the step most implementations skip, and skipping it is why most of them fail.
DIY
Plenty of firms put AI to work on their own. Doing it well is the hard part. Retaining us to get it right is a real expense, so if you have the expertise and the bandwidth to do it well yourself, here are the same steps we would run, written plainly, so you can decide with your eyes open.
Start here
Most firms start with the tool, and that's why their AI underdelivers. Doing it well means the opposite order: practice first, applying the technology last. Take the steps below in sequence. For the thinking behind why this order works, see the four Ds of AI fluency.
Document your matter types, workflows, templates, and house style as firm IP. This is the step most implementations skip, and skipping it is why most of them fail.
Write down how partners are actually compensated. Any change that ignores the comp model dies at the partnership vote, however well it works technically.
Find every tool already in use across the firm, governed or not, before it becomes a malpractice question. You will likely find more than you expect.
Define how you will measure whether AI output is good enough for your work, by matter type, against your own standards, not in the abstract.
For each workflow, choose whether to configure a tool, buy one, or simply document the process. Most firms over-build. Restraint is part of the work.
Run a neutral vendor process. Resist the demo; write your requirements first, tied to your codification, and make vendors answer them.
Spell out milestones, acceptance criteria, and quality checks so the integrator builds to your practice, not to a generic template.
Usage policy, confidentiality handling, ABA Model Rules, client-disclosure posture, and a named owner who keeps all of it current.
Decide what happens to the work associates used to learn from. The apprenticeship question does not answer itself, and it does not wait.
Models, pricing, limits, and regulation change constantly. Revisit your decisions on a schedule, not when something breaks.
Before you commit to the in-house path
None of the steps above is secret. What makes the in-house path heavier than it looks is rarely any one task, it is these three, together:
If you begin this yourself and want to pressure-test the plan, or hand off the parts that are hardest alone, that is a perfectly good reason for a discovery call.
Schedule a discovery call →