Ropes & Gray and Akerman make AI experimentation creditable work

On October 8, Reuters reported that Ropes & Gray will let more than 1,000 associates and counsel credit up to 100 hours of approved AI projects toward annual billable targets, while Akerman is also giving lawyers credit for work on internal AI projects. Ropes said associates had invested more than 35,000 hours in AI initiatives during 2026, with first-year associates spending nearly 400 hours—about 20% of their recorded time—on training and testing. For mid-sized firms, the operating lesson is that adoption requires a capacity budget and defined intake process, not only software licenses; otherwise experimentation competes invisibly with billable work. Leaders should tie credited time to named workflows, review criteria and reusable outputs so the investment produces measurable delivery improvements rather than diffuse tool familiarity.