(Sep 2) What happened in LegalTech last week?
New legal specific LLM Lexlegis.AI unveiled L-SLM for legal tasks. Supio raised $25M for AI in personal injury law. Other key stories focused on AI integration, contract management, and leadership changes.
Welcome to your Law Tech weekly briefing covering what happened in legal tech last week.
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Key Stories
Law firms and legal professionals globally are witnessing a dynamic evolution attributed to recent technological and strategic advancements shaking up the status quo. Lexlegis.AI's introduction of a legal-specific small language model in India is a notable milestone. Their innovative AI-driven approach bolsters case search, document analysis, and drafting. While the debate continues on whether specialized models or more advanced general models like the eventual GPT-5 will ultimately best serve the legal field, Lexlegis.AI’s initiative marks a significant step toward alleviating India's judicial backlog via technology (India Joins Legal-Specific LLM Movement With Lexlegis.AI - Artificial Lawyer).
The discussion around the true value and implications of "equity" partnerships within law firms is also picking up steam. Presenting a critical view, recent analysis suggests that the perceived benefits and market value of being an equity partner might be more myth than reality. Various financial liabilities and compensation frameworks reliant on individual contributions lead experts to advise pragmatism in partnership negotiations (The Myth of the “Equity” Partner - Adam Smith Esq.).
In contract lifecycle management (CLM), strategic alliances are becoming quintessential. Icertis's integration with Harvey and continued collaboration with Evisort underscores a transformative shift towards AI-assisted contract analysis within legal tech. By leveraging generative AI, these partnerships not only increase competitive dynamics but also emphasize the mounting impact of AI solutions on legal processes (CLM à Trois: Icertis, Harvey….and Evisort Too - Artificial Lawyer).
All Other Stories
Beyond the marquee stories, several notable advancements in legal tech reflect a broader trend toward AI adoption and strategic technology integrations. Supio’s recent $25 million Series A funding, primarily aimed at advancing generative AI for personal injury and mass tort plaintiff firms, is a case in point. This venture, praised for its role in litigations like TorHoerman Law’s case against Abbott Labs, highlights the growing reliance on AI to streamline complex legal processes (Personal injury and mass tort gen AI startup Supio raises $25m Series A - Legal IT Insider).
On another front, Evisort solidifies its stance in AI by upgrading its contract intelligence mechanisms, making them user-friendly for non-technical legal users. This new advancement, known as Document X-Ray, facilitates the extraction, summarization, and tracking of contract specifics, marking a leap in speed, security, and flexibility for both legal and business teams (Evisort Extends Its AI Leadership with Advanced AI Orchestration for Contract Intelligence - Legal Technology News).
More companies are joining the AI revolution, with Office & Dragons utilizing genAI to automate repetitive legal tasks and Morae Global Corporation partnering with ContractPodAi to enhance AI-driven contract services, which may set new benchmarks in legal service efficiency (GenAI Is Helping Office & Dragons to Democratise Automation - Artificial Lawyer; Morae partners with ContractPodAi for Gen AI contract drafting - Legal IT Insider).
Lastly, the persistent buzz on the potential of AI in legal adjudications surfaces critical discussions on the role of AI versus human judgment in legal decisions. The insights from various technological integrations and AI advancements offer an optimistic future and accentuate the need for balanced and critical adoption strategies (Convicted by a Computer? AI in the Legal Sector - The Legal Technologist).
Links and summaries
Want to explore a story more deeply? Here are the original links to the stories, with summaries to aid review.
Key stories
India Joins Legal-Specific LLM Movement With Lexlegis.AI (Artificial Lawyer)
Lexlegis.AI's launch of a legal-specific Large Language Model (LLM) underscores the growing specialization and innovative potential in the legal tech industry. Trained on over 10 million Indian legal documents, this generative AI aims to streamline case searches and document analysis, contributing potentially to alleviating India's judicial backlog. However, its relatively modest training base of 20 billion tokens raises questions about its competitive edge compared to larger models like GPT-4, trained on 13 trillion tokens. The debate continues over the effectiveness of domain-specific LLMs versus expansive general models. Lexlegis.AI's venture into international markets could provide crucial insights into the efficacy of specialized LLMs, highlighting that immediate operational gains might offset the wait for more generalized, perfected models.
The Myth of the “Equity” Partner (Adam Smith, Esq.)
Janet Stanton's column, "The Myth of the 'Equity' Partner," dismantles the perceived value of equity partnerships in law firms, asserting that it lacks the tangible benefits usually associated with ownership. Unlike traditional equity, law firm equity cannot be sold or leveraged and has no market value. Equity partners are primarily compensated based on personal contributions rather than firm profits, challenging the notion of passive ownership. Additionally, the tax implications of K-1 income, capital contributions, and potential liabilities make equity partnerships financially onerous. Stanton argues that moving away from this entrenched myth could benefit both firms and lawyers by fostering clearer, more beneficial agreements.
CLM à Trois: Icertis, Harvey….and Evisort Too (Artificial Lawyer)
The new partnership involving Icertis, Harvey, and Evisort is a strategic move in the burgeoning legal tech arena, demonstrating the flexibility and scalability of Icertis' ExploreAI service. By integrating AI capabilities from both Harvey and Evisort, Icertis aims to offer its clients enhanced contract analysis through cutting-edge large language models (LLMs). This dual collaboration is intended to maximize the AI-driven insights available to users, theoretically benefiting all parties involved. However, this arrangement brings pressure on Evisort to maintain its competitive edge amid Harvey's entrance. The partnership underscores the rapid evolution and competitive nature of the CLM and legal AI sectors, prompting potential strategic shifts among competitors.
All the rest
Personal injury and mass tort gen AI startup Supio raises $25m Series A (Legal IT Insider)
Supio, a generative AI platform for personal injury and mass tort plaintiff law firms, raised $25 million in Series A funding from Sapphire Ventures. Founded by ex-Microsoft employees, Supio automates data collection and case summarization without errors. TorHoerman Law praised Supio for its crucial role in their $495 million case against Abbott Labs.
Harvey unveils new integration with Icertis in CLM first (Legal IT Insider)
Harvey has integrated its AI models with Icertis' contract management platform. This partnership enables Icertis users to extract and analyze key contract terms using Harvey's technology. Initially for select customers, the integration aims for wider availability by year-end.
Exclusive: Allens set to roll out iManage Co-authoring (Legal IT Insider)
Allens, a top Australian law firm, is implementing iManage Co-authoring to boost efficiency and data security by allowing multiple lawyers to edit documents simultaneously. This tool, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 for streamlined document management. The firm-wide rollout is underway, with iOS compatibility expected by year-end.
Harvey and Icertis Partner for CLM (Artificial Lawyer)
Harvey and Icertis have teamed up to integrate AI into Icertis' Contract Lifecycle Management platform. This partnership aims to boost contract management efficiency and precision. The feature will first be available to select customers, with wider availability planned by year-end.
GenAI Is Helping Office & Dragons to Democratise Automation (Artificial Lawyer)
Office & Dragons, a legal tech startup, leverages generative AI to automate repetitive legal tasks, enhancing its document platform for bulk edits. CEO Sam Smolkin highlights that genAI's plain language commands democratize automation and improve user accessibility. The company plans to integrate with other firms and focus on various legal sectors, with genAI as a core component of its strategy.
MacroAgility will host a webinar on September 5 to showcase their iReports tool for iManage Cloud. iReports improves document management, data analysis, and security in iManage systems. The webinar will highlight SQL scripting for cloud environments.
Evisort has upgraded its AI engine to enhance contract intelligence, making it user-friendly for non-technical users. The new Document X-Ray feature allows efficient extraction, summarization, and tracking of contract details. This advancement sets a new standard in contract lifecycle management (CLM) with improved speed, security, and flexibility for legal and business teams.
Bundledocs has promoted Co-Founder Lisa Walsh to Chief Operating Officer. Walsh has driven significant growth since 2019, expanding the company's reach to over 1,600 customers in 35 countries. The company now serves more than half of the UK's Top 200 Law Firms.
Guest post: The Post Office Horizon Inquiry – A Digital Forensics Masterclass (Legal IT Insider)
The Post Office Horizon Inquiry employs digital forensics and eDiscovery to investigate when senior officials became aware of flaws in the Horizon IT system. Techniques like communication mapping and email recovery trace information flow and recover deleted data. Despite challenges, these tools are vital for understanding information dissemination and ensuring justice.
Assembly Software introduced NeosAI, an AI tool within the Neos case management platform, to enhance legal professionals' efficiency. NeosAI automates tasks like document summarization, data extraction, and dynamic form creation. Bryan Billig demonstrates these features in the "How It Works" video series.
FL #91: ILTACON 2024 Recap - Practical Innovation Takes Center Stage (Fringe Legal)
ILTACON 2024 highlighted a shift from AI hype to practical implementation in the legal tech industry. Key trends include pragmatic AI adoption, cloud migration, and data-driven decision-making. The rise of AI-focused startups and lessons from Lucara's diamond discovery underscore the importance of strategic technology investments for efficiency and value maximization.
Harvey and Icertis have teamed up to integrate AI-powered contract intelligence into Icertis's Contract Lifecycle Management platform. This partnership aims to improve contract analysis and risk assessment for enterprise users. The integration will initially be available to select customers, with a wider release planned by year-end.
Aderant's leaders highlighted their new cloud platform, Stridyn, on a TalkingTech podcast. Stridyn aims to seamlessly integrate software and improve data analysis. Aderant is also focusing on upskilling talent and ensuring smooth cloud transitions without disrupting custom workflows.
Morae partners with ContractPodAi for Gen AI contract drafting (Legal IT Insider)
Morae Global Corporation has teamed up with ContractPodAi to provide AI-driven contract drafting services. This partnership merges Morae's 'MorAI' solutions with ContractPodAi's AI legal assistant, Leah. The collaboration aims to boost efficiency, productivity, and innovation in legal services.
Peppermint Technology has named Lauren Colbeck as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Lauren's background includes roles at Experian, Access Legal, and Odro Ltd., with a focus on product management and legal technology. CEO Gary Young is confident that her expertise will boost Peppermint's growth in the legal tech sector.
Convicted by a Computer? AI in the Legal Sector (The Legal Technologist)
The article examines the possibility of computers making legal decisions. It questions if machines can replace human judges in delivering justice. The debate focuses on whether law is solely rule-based or needs human judgment.
Adapting Standardised Risk and Method Statement Templates to Your Industry (WardblawG)
Standardised risk and method statement templates ensure consistency and save time while meeting legal requirements. They should be customised for specific industry hazards and regulatory needs. Flexibility and customisation enhance their effectiveness in managing risks and improving project safety.
Blank Page Law (The Time Blawg)
The article examines the evolution of legal practice over 30 years, noting that lawyers have long used templates and precedents. It highlights how technology has improved efficiency but questions the use of AI like ChatGPT for drafting documents. Experts stress the importance of traditional methods and caution against over-reliance on new technologies without critical thinking.
