ABA + TEDLaw

The lawyers best prepared for what comes next will also need judgment, adaptability, leadership, collaboration, ethical reasoning, and a strong sense of professional identity – distinctly human capabilities that become more important, not less, in an AI-enabled profession.

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 isn't simply another conference.

It's an opportunity to help shape what lawyer development could become.

The people in the room are part of the learning experience.

ABA + TEDLaw is intentionally bringing together people who don't ordinarily learn alongside one another: law students and new lawyers, experienced practitioners and senior leaders, law firm and in-house counsel, government and public interest lawyers, educators, professional development leaders, and innovators.

Why?

Because the challenges facing the profession don't have a single right answer, and they won't affect everyone in the same way.

A law student may see AI differently from a managing partner. A public interest lawyer may bring a different perspective on access, ethics, and professional responsibility than an innovation leader at a global firm. An experienced practitioner brings judgment developed over decades; a new lawyer brings questions and expectations shaped by an entirely different professional environment.

Those differences aren't incidental.

They're part of the curriculum.

Different experiences challenge assumptions, deepen dialogue, strengthen judgment, and make the learning richer for everyone.

The ABA brings deep expertise in legal education, professional development, and the legal profession. TEDLaw brings an immersive learning model built around compelling ideas, experience, facilitated dialogue, meaningful reflection, and application.

Together, we're exploring a different approach to lawyer development – one focused not only on what lawyers need to know, but on how they think, exercise judgment, collaborate, lead, adapt, and continue to grow.

This Is Not a Day of Sitting and Listening

October 1 is designed around active participation.

Participants will move between:

TED-style ideas and provocative conversations
Facilitated small-group dialogue
Experiential activities and realistic scenarios
Hands-on exploration of legal AI
Guided reflection
Cross-career and cross-disciplinary collaboration
Practical application

The goal isn't simply to talk about the future of legal practice.

It's to begin preparing for it together.

Experience AI. Then Examine Your Judgment.

AI will be part of the experience because it is increasingly part of legal practice.

Through a learning experience developed with Luminance, participants will work directly with legal-grade AI through practical exercises involving contracts and other legal materials.

But the question won't simply be, What can this technology do?

Participants will explore harder questions:

Where does AI add value? When is human judgment essential? How should lawyers verify and challenge AI-generated results? What happens when we trust technology too much, or too little?

The experience is designed to move participants beyond abstract conversations about AI toward a more informed, critical, and responsible relationship with the technology.

October 1 is the beginning, not the end.

Participants will become members of the inaugural ABA + TEDLaw Founding Cohort, continuing the learning and relationships begun in Chicago throughout the following year.

Cohort members will have opportunities to reflect on what they're learning, explore how AI and other forces are changing legal work, apply new ideas to professional challenges, and continue conversations with people across career stages, practice environments, and institutions.

They will also be invited to provide feedback and help shape the future of ABA + TEDLaw programming and lawyer development.

Because professional development shouldn't end when the conference does.

The year will culminate in a service-focused capstone, giving participants an opportunity to put their learning into practice by applying it to a meaningful challenge.

Experience alone doesn't necessarily create learning. Reflection helps turn experience into insight.

Throughout the year, cohort members will have access to the TEDLaw Insight Tool, developed with Let's Think, providing guided written and audio prompts designed to help participants reflect on experiences, recognize patterns, challenge assumptions, connect decisions to values, and strengthen judgment.

As AI accelerates the pace of legal work, the ability to think critically and learn deliberately may become one of a lawyer's most valuable professional capabilities.

Law students need to be in the room.

So do new lawyers, experienced practitioners, managing partners, government and public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, educators, professional development leaders, innovators, and others helping shape what comes next.

The future of the profession shouldn't be shaped from one point of view.

Neither should the way we prepare lawyers for it.

Whether you're beginning your legal career, leading an organization, developing other lawyers, teaching the next generation, serving clients or communities, or exploring how technology will change legal work, your perspective adds something to the conversation that no one else can.

For individuals, the Founding Cohort offers a rare opportunity to step outside the immediate demands of legal work and think more deeply about the lawyer you want to become and the profession you want to help create.

Participants will gain practical experience with AI, new ways of thinking about judgment and professional growth, opportunities for continued reflection, and relationships with people across the profession navigating many of the same changes from very different vantage points.

For law firms, law schools, legal departments, government agencies, and other organizations, participation is an investment in people who can think critically, exercise judgment, collaborate, lead, and adapt in an AI-enabled profession.

And because this is the Founding Cohort, participants aren't simply joining a program that has already been defined.

They're helping us build it.

Building Future Ready Lawyers: an ABA + TEDLaw Immersive Professional Development Experience

Jenner & Block