Kennedys has put a stake in the ground on what the next generation of lawyers should look like. The firm formed a partnership with Spellbook to support legal AI training for junior lawyers, and it is reshaping its in-house innovation group at the same time. The new program will use simulated scenarios and AI-assisted drafting exercises driven by Spellbook. John Bruce, Kennedys’ senior partner, framed the aim plainly: “As AI accelerates change across the legal sector, we have a responsibility to ensure junior lawyers aren’t left behind. This programme is about creating AI-fluent lawyers: professionals who can combine deep legal reasoning with the ability to work seamlessly alongside AI tools.”
The impetus is not abstract. Kennedys said that work such as first-draft contract preparation and document review, which has traditionally been critical to training new lawyers, will reduce as AI becomes more widely used. That is an uncomfortable reality for firms that long relied on repetitive first-pass tasks to teach issue spotting, drafting discipline, and the rhythm of client service. Kennedys is trying to rebuild that pipeline with intention. The firm says the training will “replicate learning opportunities that may start to disappear in the workplace,” and participants will receive “structured feedback on their work, mirroring the coaching traditionally gained from senior colleagues.” Bruce called the collaboration “a forward-looking investment in the profession’s future, putting our people first whilst addressing head-on the efficiency opportunities and gaps that AI and automation are creating.”
Spellbook’s role is not merely tooling but curriculum. By embedding the product into a structured learning environment, Kennedys is signaling that fluency is learned in context and under supervision, not tacked on after hours. Scott Stevenson, Spellbook’s CEO and co-founder, said, “Kennedys is taking a bold and necessary step in preparing lawyers, and their clients, for an AI-powered future. By embedding Spellbook into a structured learning environment, they’re ensuring the next generation doesn’t just survive technological change, but leads it.” The message is that capability will come from pairing deep legal reasoning with competence in AI-assisted drafting and review, taught deliberately rather than absorbed through osmosis.
The firm’s innovation platform is evolving in parallel. Kennedys IQ was launched in 2020. The firm now says that since then, both the industry and clients’ needs have changed dramatically. Kennedys IQ is now focused on innovation in client service delivery for Kennedys, in line with a new vision and strategy to create differentiation in delivering an efficient and high-quality service to clients globally. The group remains embedded within the firm, utilizing the tools developed to prioritize innovation in every aspect of business and client operations. Kennedys will continue to run the core Kennedys IQ products and will honor the contracts in place with all existing clients. The restructuring has also come with leadership change, and key staff, including partner Richard West, have left the firm.
Taken together, the partnership with Spellbook and the refocus of Kennedys IQ read as a clear operating thesis. The hours that once formed the bedrock of early training are shrinking, so the firm will construct a repeatable training environment that gives juniors practice with AI and the feedback loops that shape judgment. At the same time, it will redirect its innovation capacity toward how services are delivered to clients, not standalone products for their own sake. The explicit aim is to produce AI-fluent lawyers who can pair technology with legal reasoning, while embedding those tools in the processes that clients experience.
There is also a cultural point in the way the firm describes its priorities. The decision to “address head-on the efficiency opportunities and gaps that AI and automation are creating” acknowledges both sides of the curve. Efficiency will remove certain tasks from the training stack, and it will open new gaps that have to be filled with intentional coaching and productized workflows. Kennedys is not leaving either to chance. By committing to keep core Kennedys IQ products running and to honor existing client contracts, the firm is signaling continuity even as it shifts emphasis. By standing up a Spellbook-driven training program with structured feedback, it is betting that the human value in legal service will come from judgment, synthesis, and the ability to work seamlessly alongside AI tools.
Conclusion: Kennedys is mapping a path for junior lawyers that does not depend on work that technology is already absorbing. If the firm’s training delivers on its promise, new lawyers will learn by collaborating with AI and by being coached on the higher-order skills that technology cannot replace, while clients see the gains in service delivery that Kennedys IQ is now designed to drive.