Dorsey & Whitney’s innovative approach ensures everyone at the firm - lawyers and business professionals - gain important training before being given access to the firm's GenAI tool.

The Challenge: Preparing Users for AI Success

When Dorsey & Whitney decided to implement ndMax, an AI assistant integrated with their NetDocuments system, Caroline Sweeney recognized a critical challenge. As the firm's Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, she knew that simply providing access to a powerful tool wouldn't be enough.

"What I didn't want to have happen was to roll out a generative AI tool that people weren't understanding how to properly query and then have them say, 'Well, it doesn't work,'" Sweeney explains. "There has to be training." The firm needed a way to ensure everyone would have the skills necessary to use the technology effectively. This was especially important in a profession where most people haven't been trained in how to interact with AI systems.

"As generative AI has become a thing in the legal industry, it requires a fair amount of education for people," explains Sweeney. “First, understanding what it is we're even talking about—because we've been using AI in the form of machine learning for many years, but generative AI is a newer concept.”

A Strategic Solution: Train First, Access Later

Dorsey's leadership team, including Sweeney and Carla Tollefsrud, Programs Director at the firm, devised a straightforward but powerful approach: make AI training a prerequisite for tool access.

After evaluating various training options, they selected Hotshot's AI offering, which includes a short prompting course as the required training for the ndMax AI Assistant. This course provides the essentials quickly and easily without overwhelming people’s schedules.

The firm established a clear policy: no one at the firm—lawyers or business professionals—would receive access to the ndMax tool until they had completed the prompting training.

While only the prompting course was required for tool access, the firm made Hotshot's full suite of AI courses available to everyone at the firm, encouraging deeper education and training on a range of AI topics, such as LLMs for lawyers, risks and limitations, understanding AI terms and concepts, use cases, and applications in different practice areas. The firm also recently encouraged all members to take the Hotshot AI Ethics & Professional Responsibility training which provides a valuable summary of the ethical implications of GenAI. And of course, the ability to offer CLE-certified AI training has appeal for the attorneys.

"The feedback that we always get for Hotshot is as soon as an associate sees it, they're impressed, and they want more. We have always had very strong feedback for Hotshot training from both associates and partners,” Tollefsrud noted.

The Required Hotshot Course: Prompting

The Hotshot prompting course provided to Dorsey's lawyers and business professionals teaches effective techniques for interacting with AI systems in legal contexts. The course begins by addressing organizational policies and AI limitations before diving into key prompting techniques including iteration, role definition, context setting, providing clear instructions, and effective prompt structuring. It also covers specialized applications like prompting for legal writing and organizing complex information, concluding with 10 practical prompting tips while maintaining security and privacy standards. Dorsey’s AI Task Force found this course to be especially useful when evaluating the programming prior to their recommendation to making Hotshot available firmwide.

Implementation: Creating a Culture of Learning

The completion requirement was announced at practice group retreats in a series of plenary sessions. Sweeney demonstrated the tool's capabilities through case studies and practical examples—building excitement while emphasizing the training requirement.

"The idea here is that generative AI has the potential to assist all of us in our day-to-day jobs, and knowing how to do the prompting—I call it the upskilling of people—is critical to all of this being implemented effectively," Sweeney explains.

To ensure compliance, the firm set up a tracking system. "We've been getting weekly reports from the Hotshot team showing the breakdown of everybody's completion," Tollefsrud notes. "It's been working really well."

This approach created a clear expectation and consistent message across the firm. When people asked if the training was truly required, the answer was unambiguous: "Yes, if you want access to this tool, that's a requirement."

Results: From Requirement to Opportunity

What began as a required training quickly led to broader interest in AI learning. The firm found that once people completed the introductory prompt engineering course, many were motivated to explore additional AI topics available through Hotshot.

"People that watch the prompting course are then motivated to watch the other ones," Tollefsrud said. "I think they're going to be so fascinated. I just turned them on while I was making dinner, and they were really compelling.”

The initial AI task force members provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about the training approach. "The people came back saying, 'Yeah, this is the route that we should go,'" Tollefsrud says. Some specifically noted the practical benefits: "I wish we had had this when we were testing this platform because I think it would have helped me query better and have a different perspective."

Perhaps most importantly, the training requirement helped set up users for success with the AI tool. By establishing a consistent baseline of knowledge, the firm increased the likelihood that people at the firm would have positive experiences with the technology, reducing frustration, and encouraging adoption.

Looking Beyond Technology: A Transformative Approach

Dorsey's approach recognizes that generative AI adoption extends beyond technology implementation to become a fundamental shift in how legal work is performed.

"This is not just about rolling out technology," Sweeney notes. "This is a shift in how potentially we do business, how we hire, how we bill, how we staff projects, and how we train people."

The firm is now considering incorporating AI training into lawyer onboarding and summer associate programs, recognizing that AI competency is becoming essential for legal professionals. As the technology and best practices evolve, the firm plans to continue updating its training curriculum.

The Bottom Line

Dorsey's training-first approach established a baseline of AI competency across all lawyer and business professional levels while avoiding common implementation problems and reducing risk. The prerequisite training not only prepared people to use the firm’s chosen GenAI tool effectively but also sparked broader interest in AI education across the firm.

Hotshot can work with your team to implement the concepts discussed above. Contact us to learn more about how we can support your firm or organization with on-demand, interactive, and experiential learning.