Thorntons is, with 650 employees, one of Scotland’s largest full-service legal firms. They are spread across 12 different sites, including offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. Within Thorntons, an innovation team is aiming to facilitate technology adoption across the firm. As part of the TiPS accelerator, Thorntons has been focusing on the adoption of GenAI in the specific Microsoft Copilot.
The Challenge
A key challenge in adopting GenAI within law firms is the need to upskill legal professionals while they are operating within a billable hour system. Lawyers prioritise client work, making it difficult to allocate time for learning and experimenting with new technologies. This challenge is further compounded by concerns about GenAI’s reliability, such as the risk of hallucinated outputs, ethical implications, and potential damage to professional reputation, leading to hesitation in engaging with the technology. Overcoming these barriers requires firms to create learning opportunities that fit within lawyers’ demanding schedules while also finding ways to increase professionals’ engagement for a successful adoption.
The Solution
To equip their workforce to be able to use GenAI in their future legal work, the firm developed a comprehensive upskilling and engagement strategy aimed at removing fear and knowledge barriers. They hired two service designers to support the firm’s transformation strategy and a learning and development expert to embed structured training. A travelling tech hub was introduced to bring AI learning directly to professionals, making the technology more accessible and reducing resistance. Additionally, the firm launched a sandbox environment, providing a safe space for learning. This was reinforced by a learning digital skills framework led by the learning and development team, ensuring ongoing professional growth and confidence in GenAI, resulting in a higher uptake of GenAI.
The Results and Impact
By implementing those solutions, from September 2024 to March 2025, Thorntons has increased the users for Microsoft Copilot by 75 % from an initial 20 to 35 people. Furthermore, the AI special interest group has grown from 53 members to 79 members. The members of the AI special interest group are being educated and champion the technology through the various parts of the business, as well as the different sites of the law firm.
Key Takeaways
Technology adoption is a long process that requires change and change needs to involve a variety of actors. Simply bringing the technology into the firm is not sufficient; people need to be brought on board by engaging them and providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to use the technology confidently.
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