Law firm intelligence
McDermott Will & Schulte
McDermott Will & Schulte: 11 tracked AI moves since 2023 across GenAI Assistant, training & talent and agentic & workflow.
Capability Index
37
Cooling
Market rank
64
of 277 tracked firms
- Tracked since
- 2023
- Evidence records
- 11
- Capability areas
- 8
- Latest activity
- Jan 2026
Panorama read
McDermott Will & Schulte shows cooling visible AI activity, with the strongest recorded concentration in genai assistant. No named technology relationship is yet established in the tracked evidence.
Analysis based only on published evidence tracked by TVPi; it is not a claim about unobserved firm activity.
Capability intelligence
Tracked capabilities and adoption
Areas inferred from public moves, with recency and supporting evidence visible at a glance.
GenAI Assistant
5 movesMcDermott Will & Schulte's German Office Adopts BEAMON by BRYTER for AI Workflow Automation
Training & Talent
3 movesMcDermott Will & Schulte Announces 2026 AI Strategy Overhaul with Mandatory Certification Academy
Agentic & Workflow
2 movesMcDermott Will & Schulte's German Office Adopts BEAMON by BRYTER for AI Workflow Automation
Compliance & Regulatory
2 movesMcDermott Will & Schulte Launches Client-Facing AI Toolkit Product
Infrastructure & Platform
1 moveMcDermott Will & Schulte Anchors $110M LegalTech Fund II with $10M Commitment
Knowledge Management
1 moveMcDermott Will & Schulte's German Office Adopts BEAMON by BRYTER for AI Workflow Automation
Activity intelligence
Momentum and strategy mix
Activity by quarter
Strategy move mix
- Other36%
- Product Adoption27%
- Internal Build18%
- Key Hire9%
- Investment9%
Outcome evidence
Proof points and verified case studies
“McDermott is the lead anchor of The LegalTech Fund, the first VC fund exclusively dedicated to legaltech. $20M committed across two funds." — McDermott announcement”
Evidence ledger
Tracked activity
Every published record for this firm, newest first.
- OtherJan 8, 2026Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Announces 2026 AI Strategy Overhaul with Mandatory Certification Academy
CKO Hunter Jackson announced a shift from tool rollouts to a planned 9-12 week mandatory AI certification academy covering prompt engineering and practice-specific use, ending in a tool-idea pitch contest, with rollout across the firm's 1,700 lawyers targeted for 2026. Jackson said the shift was partly delayed by integration friction from the Schulte Roth & Zabel merger's older ChatGPT stack.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
- InvestmentNov 17, 2025Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Anchors $110M LegalTech Fund II with $10M Commitment
McDermott Will & Schulte (then McDermott Will & Emery) committed $10M as anchor to The LegalTech Fund II ($110M total, first VC fund exclusively for legaltech). Also invested $10M in Fund I (2021). Other Fund II LPs include Orrick, Burford Capital, Clio, DocuSign, Harbor, Thomson Reuters Ventures. The firm also built its own AI portal and hired Director of AI Innovation Christopher Cyrus (Sep 2024).
Firm Press Release · Confirmed confidence
- OtherNov 1, 2025Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Runs Multi-City 'Prompt-a-Thon' AI Training Roadshow
McDermott ran a multi-city 'prompt-a-thon' training roadshow (Miami associates' retreat plus Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley sessions) with a custom AI tool idea contest; CKO Hunter Jackson cited it as the direct inspiration for the firm's subsequent 2026 AI strategy overhaul.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
- Product AdoptionOct 1, 2025Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte's German Office Adopts BEAMON by BRYTER for AI Workflow Automation
McDermott's German team, led by partner Dr. Thomas Hauss, adopted BEAMON by BRYTER as a combined AI productivity workspace and workflow-automation platform, pairing individual AI enablement with defined-use-case automation and an internal 'Prompt Lab' for sharing prompts.
Vendor Announcement · Confirmed confidence
- OtherSep 1, 2025Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Launches Client-Facing AI Toolkit Product
McDermott launched the 'AI Toolkit,' a subscription client product delivered via its 'McDermott Access' portal, offering an AI Governance Implementation Plan, Generative AI Acceptable Use Policy, AI Inventory Template, vendor diligence questions, a board-level AI Committee Charter, and training. Original MWE-era launch date is unconfirmed; a rebranded post-merger version was published September 2025.
Firm Press Release · Confirmed confidence
- Internal BuildJul 17, 2025Observed
Schulte Roth & Zabel Builds Internal 'Schulte AI Module (SAM)' with Firmwide Training
Schulte Roth & Zabel built an internal generative AI tool, the 'Schulte AI Module (SAM),' and hosted a firmwide 'Foundations of GenAI' training session covering SAM's capabilities and the firm's responsible-use AI policy for Knowledge Management, IT, and Professional Development teams.
LinkedIn · Confirmed confidence
Show 5 earlier records
- Key HireOct 1, 2024Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Appoints Christopher Cyrus as First Director of AI Innovation
McDermott Will & Schulte (then McDermott Will & Emery) hired Christopher Cyrus as its first-ever Director of AI Innovation. Cyrus previously ran Cyrus Legal Insights, consulting numerous AmLaw 50 firms and in-house legal departments on generative AI use cases. His mandate is to implement custom AI solutions and drive firmwide innovation.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
- Internal BuildJan 1, 2024Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Deploys Private ChatGPT Enterprise Servers, Builds Custom AI Tools
McDermott licensed ChatGPT Enterprise, running its own private servers to process client data securely -- the firm's press materials describe it as the first AmLaw firm to implement its own ChatGPT servers -- then spent the following year building custom internal tools on that infrastructure, including deposition-summarization tools.
Firm Press Release · Confirmed confidence
- Product AdoptionJan 1, 2024Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Licenses Thomson Reuters CoCounsel
Alongside its ChatGPT Enterprise deployment, McDermott licensed Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel legal AI assistant for research and drafting, per Chief Knowledge Officer Hunter Jackson, building a multi-tool AI portfolio rather than relying on one platform.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
- OtherOct 17, 2023Observed
Schulte Roth & Zabel Builds Recurring GenAI Compliance Advisory Practice for Hedge Fund Clients
Special Counsel Jessica Margolies built a recurring speaking and advisory practice on GenAI compliance for private fund managers -- covering internal vs. external LLM use, SEC exam risk, and AI vendor diligence -- presenting at multiple industry conferences and podcasts through 2023-2024, reflecting the firm's position as a leading hedge fund law firm.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
- Product AdoptionJan 1, 2023Observed
McDermott Will & Schulte Licenses Microsoft Copilot as First Firmwide GenAI Assistant
McDermott (then McDermott Will & Emery) licensed Microsoft Copilot as its first firmwide GenAI tool. Per Chief Knowledge Officer Hunter Jackson, the firm later moved on to ChatGPT Enterprise and CoCounsel in 2024, suggesting Copilot alone did not meet its custom legal-workflow needs.
Trade Press · Confirmed confidence
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