Legal Tech Trends Newsletter: #43
Mega AI investments, rapid workflow rollouts, and the data race accelerates
Happy Friday, and welcome to the 43rd edition of Legal Tech Trends!👋
It's been a busy and enjoyable few weeks, including a few hops to London to meet clients, presenting at Factor’s Sensemaker Academy live briefing, and LegalTechTalk. Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, we hosted the Legal Hops Summer Boat Party, which was an incredible success on the hottest day of the year.
Client work continues to be majorly exciting, including rapidly scaling Sensemaker Academy, and guiding major firms through critical GenAI decisions.
📊 Curious Data
I regularly beat the drum on the challenges of tech adoption, and whilst the appetite for AI remains huge, it’s clear that adoption isn’t without challenges. This report from BCG, surveying over 3,500 participants, calls out three major challenges for attention:
🎓 A shortage of relevant training.
⚒️ Limited access to suitable tools.
⚡ Insufficient leadership support.
Strikingly, only one-third of respondents feel adequately trained for AI transformation, while more than half admit they'd consider using unauthorised AI tools. Clearly, there's still work to do. LINK
AI
🚀 Harvey Raises $300M, Hits $5B Valuation, and Partners with LexisNexis
Harvey made several significant announcements spanning product launches, fundraising, and strategic partnerships. They launched a new workflow builder, developed in collaboration with Paul Weiss as the core design partner, enabling firms to create repeatable legal workflows and automate routine tasks easily. LINK
Additionally, they raised $300M in funding, bringing their valuation to an impressive $5 billion. Harvey also formed a strategic alliance with LexisNexis and will integrate LexisNexis’s Protégé, primary law content, and Shepard’s citations directly into their platform. Big moves indeed! LINK
Sidenote: The Lexis announcement sparked plenty of market chatter. A promising move - here are three areas I'm tracking::
🌍 Coverage: Seems US-only, limiting its relevance for other jurisdictions.
💵 Licensing: As flagged on a recent LawNext podcast, accessing the data in Harvey may also require a LexisNexis Protégé licence.
🎨 Product UX: With LexisNexis Protégé apparently set to be embedded within Harvey, it'll be interesting to see how seamless the user experience is.
⚒️ Legora Releases Workflows and Partners with Axiom, Dentons, and DWF
The breakneck speed of feature releases in the race between Legora and Harvey is awesome to see! Legora has also unveiled new workflow capabilities, enabling customers to build and refine tailored legal workflows.
They also announced significant partnerships, including a rollout across Dentons’ European offices, a collaboration with DWF, and integration into Axiom’s Tech+Talent offering to accelerate large-scale document reviews. LINK
📚 BRYTER’s BEAMON AI Adds Legal Research Capabilities
BEAMON AI has expanded its capabilities with the addition of a legal research module, providing a library of cases and regulations from 20 jurisdictions, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, and Canada. They have also partnered with German legal publisher Dr. Otto Schmidt Verlag. LINK
⚖️ Council of Europe Selects Jylo for Major Platform Rollout
The Council of Europe, which includes the European Court of Human Rights, has chosen Jylo for a significant rollout across more than 3,000 users. LINK
🔎 Thomson Reuters Launches CoCounsel Knowledge Search Powered by GPT-4o
Thomson Reuters has introduced CoCounsel Knowledge Search, a new feature enabling users to search and integrate content from various knowledge repositories directly into their CoCounsel workflows. Users can access data from HighQ, iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, OneDrive, Westlaw, Practical Law, and additional third-party sources. LINK
Briefings from the Bankers
📊 Harris Williams - Legal Technology Sector Brief LINK
📈 Raymond James - European Legal Tech & Services Insight LINK
Acquisitions
🤑 Clio Buys Legal Data Platform vLex for $1B
Clio, the Canadian law firm practice management software provider, has acquired the 26-year-old legal data intelligence platform vLex for $1 billion. This acquisition comes just one year after Clio raised $900M in funding. vLex, previously targeted by Harvey, brings Clio a rare, comprehensive global database of legal data. LINK
🤝 Eudia Acquires Irish ALSP Johnson Hanna in €42M Deal
Eudia, a technology provider, has acquired Johnson Hanna, an Irish Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP) with over 300 legal professionals. Backed by a $105M Series A raised in February, with $75M explicitly dedicated to acquisitions, Eudia is already serving notable Fortune 500 clients like DHL and Duracell. It will be curious to see if many other LegalTech providers follow suit by integrating managed services. LINK
💸 Hebbia Acquires FlashDocs to Enhance AI-Powered Slide Deck Automation
Hebbia has acquired FlashDocs, a GenAI company specialising in slide deck creation. FlashDocs transforms prompts containing structured and unstructured data into enterprise-quality presentations, allowing users to generate full slide text directly in PowerPoint and Google Slides. This acquisition will enhance Hebbia's capabilities in automating high-impact document creation, including investment memos, board decks, and diligence summaries. LINK
Sidenote: After more than a decade of tech consulting and countless polished PowerPoint presentations, it brings me joy to see companies automating some of these tedious manual tasks! 🙏
Raises
💸 Laurel Raises $100M Series C to Fuel Expansion
Laurel has announced a $100 million Series C funding round to accelerate growth and expand its footprint among professional services firms. Laurel serves over 100 leading legal, accounting, and consulting organisations globally, including EY, Grant Thornton, and law firm Reed Smith, with clients across the US, UK, EU, Australia, and Canada. LINK
💰 Crosby Raises $5.8M to Expand AI-Assisted Contract Review for Startups
Crosby, an AI-powered law firm recently backed by a $5.8 million investment from Sequoia, is offering AI contract review services and counts many high-growth startups among its clients. They have developed their tech in-house, with human review oversight to efficiently handle routine legal documents, such as MSAs, data processing agreements, and NDAs. LINK
💷 Casecraft Raises €644,000 to Streamline UK Small Claims Process
The funding will fuel the expansion of its platform, which focuses on simplifying small claims disputes across the UK. The company supports individuals and businesses in filing and defending claims within the Small Claims Track, which covers civil disputes valued up to £10,000, including unpaid invoices, faulty goods, and tenancy deposit issues. LINK
Sidenote: This is the topical area we previously explored in Edition 41 with Garfield AI making headlines as an “AI-first” law firm taregting similar needs.
Additional Highlights
🚀 The LegalTech Fund Launches LegalTech Lab to Fund and Scale Law Firm 2.0
The LegalTech Fund has introduced the LegalTech Lab, designed to fund, support, and scale startups that transform the delivery of legal services. With a focus on entirely new tech-enabled legal delivery models, including those reimagining the traditional law firm, selected startups can receive funding up to $250,000. LINK
Adjacent Interests
🎨 Exploring how User Experience will evolve with the growth of AI LINK
🗣️ Voice AI is Working. Here’s Where It Wins First LINK
🏗️ The Builder’s Playbook LINK
That’s a wrap! Enjoyed this edition? Forward it to a colleague or join the conversation on LinkedIn.
Have a great Friday!
About me
I’m the founder of TITANS, a LegalTech and AI consultancy for leading law firms and new law companies. We help some of the largest legal service providers shape their AI strategies, expedite vendor evaluation, and accelerate user adoption.Legal Tech Trends is my fun outlet to share my hype-free positive take on LegalTech and AI market developments, informed by my 10+ years technology consulting with leading corporate clients and legal service providers.
Connect with me on LinkedIn for more LegalTech insights Here 👋