In Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Patrick Ryan Discusses Ropes & Gray's AI Ascend Program

In “BigLaw firm makes statement with new billable hours/AI training policy,” an article in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, director of knowledge management innovation Patrick Ryan discusses Ropes & Gray's AI Ascend program. The program lets the firm’s associates and counsel count up to 100 hours of AI training and experimentation toward their annual billable hour requirements.

Patrick explains why the program matters at scale: “It's a small sliver [for the individual attorney], but it is a big investment when you scale it across the firm.” Given the firm's training offerings, he notes, 100 hours has been “an effective amount of time in giving people some space in their day to try tools, find things that work and don't work, and get more familiar with the firm's technologies.” That investment is paying off: Patrick reports that earlier this fall, the firm's associates and counsel passed 30,000 hours of AI training and experimentation under the program.

Patrick credits firm leadership with identifying the billable hour as “a point of friction for some folks finding time to be able to attend training, dig in on tools, and really get the experience that we needed to build the AI literacy and technical skills.” “The objective was to build skills while people were working,” he explains, “and we needed to smooth the path to allow people to do that while they were also doing client work.”

The AI Ascend program builds on the firm's TrAIlblazers program, launched in October 2025. The TrAIlblazers program gives first-year associates up to 400 hours of credit toward their annual billable hour requirement for AI training and experimentation, about 20 percent of their annual target.