ABA + TEDLaw

On October 1, 2026, approximately 150 law students, lawyers, educators, and legal leaders will gather in Chicago for an immersive professional development experience—and the launch of the year-long ABA + TEDLaw Founding Cohort.

This is not simply a one-day conference. It is the beginning of a shared learning journey designed to help participants explore how legal practice is changing, strengthen the human capabilities that technology cannot replace, and help shape a new model for lawyer development.

The October 1 experience will launch the ABA + TEDLaw Founding Cohort, a year-long community of approximately 150 participants from across the legal profession.

Cohort members will have opportunities to continue the conversations begun in Chicago, reflect on what they are learning, explore how AI is affecting legal work, apply new ideas to professional challenges, and build relationships across career stages and institutions.

Participants will also be invited to share feedback and help shape the future of ABA + TEDLaw programming.

Professional development should not end when the conference does. The Founding Cohort creates space for learning to deepen, ideas to be tested, and relationships to grow over time—culminating in a service-focused capstone where participants will put TEDLaw into practice by applying their learning to a meaningful challenge.

Through a learning experience developed in partnership with Luminance, participants will engage directly with legal AI through practical exercises involving contracts and other legal materials.

The focus will not simply be on what the technology can do. Participants will consider where AI adds value, where human judgment remains essential, how lawyers should verify and challenge AI-generated results, and what risks may arise from overreliance.

This hands-on experience is designed to help participants move beyond abstract conversations about AI and develop a more informed, critical, and responsible relationship with legal technology.

The cohort will also be supported by the TEDLaw Insight Tool, developed with Let’s Think, giving participants a simple way to reflect through written or audio prompts throughout the year.

This guided reflection helps lawyers identify patterns, challenge assumptions, connect experience to values, and strengthen judgment. Research has found performance gains of roughly 20% when reflection is built into learning— making it not only a tool for embedding learning but also for creating a practical business advantage.

As AI reshapes legal practice, the ability to pause, think critically, and learn deliberately may become one of a lawyer’s most valuable capabilities.

The experience is designed for people preparing for—and helping shape—the future of legal practice.

Law Firms

Firm leaders, professional and talent development leaders, innovation leaders, partners, associates, and emerging leaders.

Law Schools

Students preparing to enter practice, deans and academic leaders, faculty, career services professionals, and leaders in experiential learning, professional identity, and innovation.

Individual Attorneys

Lawyers at every career stage interested in leadership, innovation, AI, professional growth, and the future of legal practice.

For individuals, the initiative offers a rare opportunity to step outside the immediate demands of legal work, explore how the profession is changing, and build relationships with peers navigating the same transformation.

Participants will gain practical experience with AI, new frameworks for thinking about judgment and professional growth, access to continued reflection, and membership in a year-long community.

For law firms and law schools, participation is an investment in future talent and an opportunity to help develop lawyers who can think critically, exercise judgment, collaborate, lead, and adapt in an AI-enabled profession.

Organizations participating in the inaugural initiative will also have an opportunity to contribute feedback and help shape the future of ABA + TEDLaw programming and lawyer development.