Director of AI Adoption

Description

About the Position

Warner Norcross + Judd is investing in the people and systems that will define how legal work gets done over the next decade. We have a partner leading AI strategy and a senior attorney leading our knowledge management function. What we are looking to add is someone who turns strategy into working capabilities that attorneys use every day.

The Director of AI Adoption is responsible for advancing how the firm applies AI, data, and modern delivery models to legal work. You will identify where innovation can meaningfully improve legal services and turn those opportunities into scalable, firmwide capabilities.

You will work in close partnership with practice group leaders and with the firm's business teams – Practice Management, IT, Professional Development, and Pricing – to translate emerging tools into solutions that fit naturally into attorneys' day-to-day work. That means designing initiatives that drive adoption, reinforce best practices, and align innovation with the realities of legal practice rather than working against them.

The ideal candidate is equal parts trusted advisor and hands-on builder — someone who thrives on rapid experimentation, translates complex challenges into high-impact solutions, and can point to systems they personally shipped and drove to real adoption. This is not just strategist writing decks or an engineer working in isolation.

What You'll Do:

AI Strategy and Firmwide Enablement

• Own execution of the firm's AI roadmap. Translate Warner’s AI vision into deployed, governed, measurable capabilities.
• Identify where AI and modern delivery models can meaningfully improve legal services and prioritize the opportunities worth firm investment.
• Act as an advisor to practice group leaders on where and how AI can add value across their practices.
• Report progress and impact to firm leadership with real metrics: usage, hours recovered, quality, and attorney satisfaction.

Workflow and Service Delivery Redesign

• Embed within litigation and transactional practice groups to document current-state workflows with enough specificity to drive redesign, translating attorney tasks and needs into scoped requirements and flagging opportunities to leverage existing builds or address known failure points.
• Own end-to-end AI legal workflow development: decomposing complex legal tasks, designing and testing prompts, aligning outputs to firm standards, and iterating rapidly across platforms.
• Design and execute testing protocols — prompt engineering, output benchmarking, and attorney-driven refinement — while maintaining structured decision logs that capture each workflow's task requirements, prompt logic, validation criteria, failure modes, and platform constraints.
• Partner with Practice Management and Pricing to connect redesigned workflows to how work is scoped, staffed, and priced, so that efficiency gains show up in realization and client value.
• Support client engagements by partnering with practice teams to deliver AI-assisted legal services directly to clients, maintaining the quality and professional standards expected in client-facing work.

Data and Knowledge Programs

• Partner with Knowledge Management to build the data and knowledge foundations that AI depends on — model documents, clause and precedent banks, matter and experience data, and searchable know-how.
• Improve the quality and structure of firm content so that it is usable as AI input, not just as human reference material.
• Build the measurement layer: define what gets tracked, instrument it, and make outcomes visible to practice group leaders and firm leadership.
• Work with practice groups to capture expertise that currently lives with individual attorneys and make it reusable across the firm.

Legal Technology Evaluation and Implementation

• Evaluate, pilot, configure, and roll out tools including generative-AI legal assistants, document automation, and matter analytics.
• Design and run structured pilots: define success metrics, gather attorney feedback, iterate, and make the call on what scales firmwide and what gets retired.

Change Management and Adoption

• Drive attorney and staff adoption through training, embedded support, and clear demonstration of time saved and quality gained.
• Partner with Professional Development to design and deliver attorney training programs — demonstrations, user guides, and feedback mechanisms — that build genuine confidence rather than one-time awareness.
• Ensure attorneys understand generative AI capabilities, limitations, and firm governance requirements.
• Build and maintain a scalable AI playbook codifying best practices, templates, decision trees, and implementation guides.
• Act as the connective tissue between the AI Strategy Partner, Practice Management, IT, Professional Development, Legal Support Manager, Pricing, Practice Group Chairs, and vendors.
• Stay current on AI developments, regulatory changes, and industry best practices, and share learnings and emerging patterns across the firm.

The physical demands of this position are representative of those that must be met by an employee in order to successfully perform the essential functions of the position. These include being both mobile and stationary throughout the workday, having the ability to transport 25 pounds and being able to operate a computer and other business equipment found in the office. 

What Makes You Successful:

Success in this role comes from combining strategic leadership with hands-on execution and a strong understanding of how legal work gets done. The ideal candidate builds credibility with attorneys and firm leaders, translates complex practice needs into practical AI-enabled solutions, and drives those solutions from experimentation through meaningful adoption. They are comfortable working across functions, navigating ambiguity, and leading change, with the judgment and technical fluency to balance innovation with quality, client service, and the realities of legal practice.

About You:

Experience, Education, and Training:

• Demonstrated hands-on execution implementing legal technology or AI systems, with measurable adoption you can describe.
• Experience working across firm business functions — knowledge management, IT, professional development, pricing, or operations — and translating between them and practicing attorneys.
• Comfort operating in a billable, client-service environment, with an understanding of the pace, quality expectations, and confidentiality requirements associated with delivering work product directly to clients.
• Strong aptitude for process improvement and legal technology, including generative AI and large language models, with sufficient understanding of where AI succeeds and fails to engage both legal teams and technical partners.
• Direct experience with legal AI platforms (Harvey, Legora, Lexis+ AI, or comparable), including hands-on building and iterating on prompts and workflows with accountability for output quality.
• Strong change-management instincts; you understand that in a law firm the hard part is behavior change, not software.
• Ability to collaborate with attorneys and leadership at all levels, establishing credibility with senior stakeholders and influencing decisions in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, with firsthand understanding of attorney pressures, pace, and quality expectations.
• Strong writing, project management, and organizational skills with sound judgment — able to manage multiple concurrent initiatives, lead and document design sessions, translate technical concepts for varied audiences, and independently advance priorities.
• Collaborative and adaptable team player who tackles challenges with initiative, creativity, and accountability, bringing a client-focused, solutions-oriented mindset.

Preferred Experience 

• J.D. from an accredited law school.
• Three (3) or more years of experience practicing as an attorney at a firm or comparable legal environment.
• Experience with data or analytics programs and comfort working with structured firm data.
• Experience training legal teams on new tools, including developing educational materials or governance policies.
• Experience building or deploying a legal-technology product.

Warner Norcross + Judd offers a competitive package benchmarked to the firm's Michigan market and calibrated to the candidate's experience. Travel to the Grand Rapids or Detroit office would be required monthly. The role is full time Monday through Friday with standard office hours of 8 am - 5 pm Eastern with flexibility on start and end times based on candidate's location. 

What sets Warner Apart
At Warner Norcross + Judd, we know that talented professionals have choices. That's why we've built a workplace that supports your success both professionally and personally.
 
Benefits Designed to Support You

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Firm-paid life insurance and disability coverage
• 401(k) with employer contribution or match, depending on plan design
• Generous paid time off and leave programs
• Paid firm holidays
• Remote work flexibility
• Wellness programs
• Employee assistance program
• Professional development and growth opportunities
• Paid parental leave
• Tuition reimbursement programs

Why People Choose Warner
At Warner, our culture is guided by our motto: "Fun, Pride + Profit...in that Order." We believe people do their best work when they feel connected to their colleagues, supported in their careers, and empowered to maintain balance in their lives.

When you join Warner, you'll find:

• A collaborative environment where teamwork and mutual respect are valued
• Meaningful opportunities to grow your skills and advance your career
• A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion that encourages participation and leadership at every level
• Flexibility that supports both professional achievement and personal well-being
• A firm that invests in its communities through charitable giving, volunteerism, and scholarship programs
• Colleagues who are passionate about delivering exceptional service while enjoying the work they do
  

About Warner
Warner is a full-service corporate law firm with 230+ attorneys practicing in nine offices throughout Michigan: Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Macomb, Midland and Muskegon. To learn more, visit www.wnj.com, or connect with us on LinkedIn or Facebook.