April 27, 2026 -- Issue #391

Hi, Charlie Uniman here, host of Legal Tech StartUp Focus ("LTSF"), the online community for everyone involved with legal tech startups. You're reading the latest digest of articles, opinion pieces, and other thoughts posted during the past week at the community.
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Exit/M&A

◾ Legal IT Insider posts about Legora's acquisition of Qura, a company with a law sources database. From the post:

​"Legora today announced the acquisition of Qura, a Stockholm-based legal database with sources including case law, legislation and regulation.

“'Legal research will be a cornerstone of the legal AI stack, and Qura has built one of the most impressive foundations in the world,' said Max Junestrand, CEO & co-founder of Legora."

​https://legaltechnology.com/2026/04/23/legora-acquires-qura-to-add-legal-research-to-its-tech-stack/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ToSziVGd9XKNXkzfXSbO7i6r3ftRDobbRt49bGy0o3K6kYe9OnN65n4VbFEdoC9fop7eJ0J7PWF4TGZI4jNUrW1YTmqEpOPMNip8m13nxSqD91YU&_hsmi=134135692&utm_content=134135692&utm_source=hs_email​

Fundraising

◾ From the StrictlyVC newsletter today, April 22, 2026:

"Openlaw, a two-year-old Munich startup that provides a platform for handling notarizations, authentications, and company formation processes online, raised a $3.3 million seed round. Investors included Y Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Zeno Ventures, Combination VC, and Orange Collective. Munich Startup has more here."

Hiring/New Hires​
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◾ Much in the way of new product/feature releases, new hires, and new business partnerships/integrations in the business week that just closed. So, to stay up to date, see the Legaltech News legal tech rundown at the link below.

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/04/24/thomson-reuters-announces-cocounsel-legal-in-beta-norm-law-hires-sidley-partner-and-more/?kw=Legaltech+Rundown:+Thomson+Reuters+announces+CoCounsel+Legal+in+Beta,+Norm+Law+Hires+Sidley+Partner,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260424&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260424172523​

LegalEd

◾ A Bloomberg Law (BL) post tackles the question of if, when, and how law firms pass AI-driven time savings on to their clients. The post pays particular attention to how Norton Rose Fulbright approaches this issue.
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From the BL post:
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“There is little debate at this point that generative AI is saving law firms time. The question now becomes: Who will save money?
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“Firms closely guard their billing formulas, which have long-been a sensitive topic for attorneys and their clients. Lawyers at firms large and small increasingly are grappling with how to factor in AI costs and savings.
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“‘In hourly matters, we bill for the hours we actually worked, not what it might have taken without AI. If AI saves time, that savings passes to the client’ Norton Rose Fulbright officials Gina Shishima and Christy Bentz said via email. ‘Clients are billed less when AI creates genuine time savings,’ said Shishima, the firm’s Austin-based US vice chair, and Bentz, its Houston-
based chief client value and innovation officer.”
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Read all the BL post at this link: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/ai-billing-emerge-as-crossroads-for-texas-law-firms-and-clients​

◾ Legaltech News (LTN) has a sit-down with two former BigLaw partners who left their firms to join alt-firm, hybrid firm, Norm Law. From the LTN post:

"Over the last few months, hybrid law firm Norm Law announced new hires from several Am Law 100 firms, including Ropes & Gray and Sidley Austin.

"In early April, Norm Law appointed former Ropes & Gray partner Bill Mone to serve as partner and head of private equity, and in January the firm appointed former Sidley Austin executive committee chair Mike Schmidtberger to be its chair and head of investment funds and regulatory.

"Mone and Schmidtberger sat down with Law.com to discuss how they plan to operate out of their new hybrid law firm, how they will interact with artificial intelligence agents and the law firm’s relationship with software company Norm AI."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/04/21/norm-laws-hires-from-ropes--gray-sidley-discuss-their-tech-driven-transition/?kw=Norm+Law%27s+Hires+From+Ropes+%26+Gray,+Sidley+Discuss+Their+Tech-Driven+Transition&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20260422&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260422084412​

◾ From Alex Herrity and Tom Rice's Law://What's Next blog, a valuable article by Andrew Cooke (CLO at Perk) about "lawyer ego," change management, and what lawyering can and should mean as AI takes on an ever greater role in legal services delivery. I have to confess that I too often exhibited this lawyer-ego during my decades practicing law (less so than some, I hope; and less so as I got older — but I'm not the one to judge). But the stakes are higher today, now that AI is "on the scene."

Good read; don't miss it. Here's the link to the article: https://lawwhatsnext.substack.com/p/the-legal-ego-must-die-for-law-to?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3391122&post_id=195219271&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dm1ui&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email​

◾ Did you know that there's a directory of AI-native law firms? I didn't either. But there is such a directory, as reported in a post by Legal IT Insider, and it's compiled by Matt Pollins of Lupl. That directory has, by the way, recently logged its 40th such law firm.

From the Legal IT Insider post:

"A directory dedicated to ‘AI native’ law firms launched in March by Lupl’s co-founder Matt Pollins has hit a 40-firm milestone, reflecting what many see as a fundamental shift in how certain legal services are being designed, priced, and delivered.

"The AI Firm Index aims to capture an emerging category of legal providers that have been built from the ground up around AI-enabled workflows, with pricing, intake, delivery, and team structure all built with AI execution as the foundation. The firms listed include Eudia, Alaro, AgileCounsel, Crosby, ElevateNext, which is part of Elevate, and Farringdon, which has just been launched by property and legal tech company Oribital."

Read Legal IT Insider's entire post at this link (in order to, among other things, find out what Matt's criteria are for including a law firm in the directory - hint: a firm doesn't have to have been recently establihsed in order to make the cut): https://legaltechnology.com/2026/04/24/ai-native-law-firm-index-hits-40-listings/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8u_b_x57nS4B6j26PQK26GQyBC_jbDTZD2oK19ksAjONIQr92yxTn_2OwCn7kRNs2EjW3NgSCGfkTGhQ8879z1k06x0eJ4bdfO_ZPPoXabD7wWqTQ&_hsmi=134240111&utm_content=134240111&utm_source=hs_email​

◾ From the highly informative Best Practice newsletter by George Hannah, a post about a legal tech alliance formed among top law firms, the Global Legal Tech Alliance. The alliance's tag line: "Connecting Law Firms on Legal Tech."

From the post:

"Hogan Lovells, Cadwalader and a dozen or so others, announced the launch of the Global Legal Tech Alliance. The stated aim is to give law firms a more active role in shaping AI-enabled legal services through shared standards, joint development of solutions and a training arm called the GLTA Academy. The pitch — that firms hold the data, the workflow expertise and the professional standards to lead on this — is a thinly veiled response to the foundation labs and legal AI vendors moving aggressively onto firm turf."

Read the entire April 26, 2026 edition of the newsletter (where the above post can be found) at this link: https://www.bestpractice.media/p/freshfields-goes-all-in-on-anthropic?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4942770&post_id=195466352&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dm1ui&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email​

Partnerships/Business Development

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◾ Artificial Lawyer (AL) posts about a business partnership between Epiq and DeepJudge.
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Here's an excerpt from the AL post:
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“AI-driven KM startup DeepJudge is partnering with Epiq Advisory for Law Firms, the consulting group attached to the multi-capability legal tech conglomerate, Epiq.
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“The partnership will ‘provide structured AI implementation and governed adoption of workflows’ related to KM, they said.
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$$Quote:
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“In short, this is one of many ‘legal tech plus consultancy’ moves that we regularly see in the market, with the consultants providing the ‘elbow grease’ needed to get the software into a firm, or inhouse team, and then (hopefully) widely adopted.”
​https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/21/deepjudge-epiq-advisory-partner-for-km-implementation/​

◾ Second bit of business partnership news today, April 21, 2026, as Legal IT Insider posts about UK-based AI-contract company, Luminance, teaming up with LexisNexis.
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From the Legal IT Insider post:
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“LexisNexis and contract AI provider Luminance today (21 April) announced a strategic alliance aimed at bringing citation-backed legal insight directly into contract negotiation and review workflows for in-house legal teams.”
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“Legal IT Insider speakers with Luminance’s CEO Eleanor Lightbody about the new partnership, which she says will help drive the trend towards in‑house teams deciding what to do internally and what to outsource.”
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Read the complete Legal IT Insider post here: https://legaltechnology.com/2026/04/21/lexisnexis-and-luminance-form-alliance-to-embed-citation-backed-legal-ai-into-contract-workflows/​

◾ Emma Legal, one of the leaders in AI-first due diligence for corporate transactions, announces a business partnership with Ideals, a top vendor in the virutual data room space. From the Emma Legal April 22, 2026 press release:

"Antwerp, Belgium & Lucerne, Switzerland – April 22nd 2026 – Emma Legal, the AI-powered legal due diligence workspace for M&A transactions, today announced a strategic partnership with Ideals, a global provider of secure Virtual Data Rooms. The collaboration introduces a fully integrated approach to vendor legal due diligence (VDD), enabling corporate finance advisors, law firms and entrepreneurs to save time and reduce the risk of deal failure by surfacing legal issues early in the transaction process.

"Vendor legal due diligence is widely acknowledged as valuable, yet remains inconsistently applied in practice. High upfront legal costs, long timelines, and uncertainty around buyer interest often delay legal analysis until the buy-side process begins, frequently too late to prevent friction, re-trading, or deal failure."

"By connecting the Ideals Virtual Data Room directly with Emma Legal’s AI-powered due diligence workspace, vendor-side legal insights can now be generated early, efficiently, and with clear cost predictability. Corporate finance boutiques, investment banks, law firms and their clients gain visibility into legal risks, documentation gaps, and overall deal readiness in days rather than weeks, before buyers enter the process."

Read the entire press release at this link: https://www.emma.legal/blog/emma-legal-and-ideals-launch-integrated-ai-vendor-due-diligence?utm_campaign=391095537-26Q2_VDR_Ideals&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_aKEWZDnWkxwO8hWozhmTL5eE65rSwzQxX2aXCarVebzih23AXVsDU-XW14czaJBOktYNN2txu31NXx5jO3uThsmr5MibU3S-3C8z3a0j_K1p-pZ0&_hsmi=133995817&utm_content=133995817&utm_source=hs_email​

Product Development

◾ Bold claims by Thomson Reuters about the next generation of its CoCounsel Legal product, as noted in a post by Artificial Lawyer (AL).

From the AL post:

"Thomson Reuters’ Ragunath Ramanathan, President – Legal Professionals, has announced that the ‘next generation’ of CoCounsel Legal, now available in Beta, will provide ‘fiduciary-grade AI’ and work just as well as a senior associate.

"‘The next generation of CoCounsel Legal is a unified agentic platform that plans, selects tools, retrieves authoritative content, and adapts mid-workflow just as a senior associate would, not a first-year waiting for the next instruction,’ he said."

Read AL's post in its entirety here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/23/next-gen-cocounsel-to-offer-fiduciary-grade-legal-ai/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​

◾ It's already the beginning of the weekend in the UK and that means Artificial Lawyer (AL) has posted its "Wrap" for the business week just ended. Here's an excerpt from that Wrap and a link to AL's post below:

"What an incredible week for legal AI – so much is happening now! We start the Wrap with Harvey’s analysis of OpenAI’s new GPT-5.5 frontier model.

"Harvey used its own BigLaw Bench evaluation suite to stress test the model and found that it has ‘built on the strengths of GPT-5.4 with improved substantive accuracy, stronger organizational structure, and more consistent formatting across legal practice areas’." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/24/harvey-on-gpt-5-5-clio-vs-the-status-quo-legal-innovators/​

◾ Questel, a global provider of "all-in-one-place" IP data, AI workflows and human expertise, has issued a product launch press release today, April 27, 2026. From the Questel release:

"Questel AI Lab Launches Breakthrough AI Model, Enhancing Semantic Patent Search
​Questel AI Lab Scientists Create Groundbreaking Proprietary AI Model for Patent Search to Benchmark and Enhance Semantic Retrieval Capability

"PARIS, FRANCE and ALEXANDRIA, VA – April 27, 2026 – Questel, a world leader in intellectual property solutions—including AI-assisted patent search, translation and filing—announced the release of QaECTER, a new AI model for patent search developed and optimized by Questel’s AI Lab scientists reaching state-of-the-art capabilities in semantic patent retrieval. Questel customers using Orbit Intelligence, its AI agent Sophia, and other products including the semantic search feature will substantially benefit from the new QaECTER technology."

Read the entire press release from Questel at this link: https://www.questel.com/questel-ai-lab-launches-breakthrough-ai-model-enhancing-semantic-patent-search/​

Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ A post from Legaltech News (LTN) about today’s so-called “hybrid” law firms. These are law firms that (like the late, lamented Atrium that shuttered year ago after $75 million of losses) pair with managed services orgs (MSOs), drive AI hard in delivering legal services, and often leverage the MSO relationship in order to take on institutional investor money.
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From the LTN post:
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“A growing number of law firms are launching under a hybrid model designed to put artificial intelligence-powered legal services at the forefront of their business.
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“This type of law firm, typically made up of a law firm and a separate, affiliated service or legal tech provider, is becoming more common in the legal market. Hybrid law firms in the U.S. must establish a separate company apart from the law firm to receive outside funding from investors.”
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Access the entire LTN post (especially for thoughts on why these hybrids may be positioned to avoid Atrium’s fate) at this link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/04/17/legal-tech-owned-hybrid-law-firms-are-growing-why-now/​

◾ Never thought that I'd see what I'll call a "general interest" business magazine, in this case "Fast Company," reflect on whether failing to use AI (as and when appropriate and with competence) could be grounds for malpractice claims. But, indeed, here's a link (below) to a Fast Company article that engages in just such reflection (citing recent pronouncements by the ABA to boot).

From the Fast Company article:

"Again, lawyers are often reluctant to embrace new tech. Faced with the risk of made-up cases and big fines, many lawyers have simply chosen to opt out of testing or using AI altogether.

"A formal opinion from the American Bar Association (ABA), though, makes clear that it may soon cease to be an option.

“'With the ability to quickly create new, seemingly human-crafted content in response to user prompts, generative AI (GAI) tools offer lawyers the potential to increase the efficiency and quality of their legal services to clients,' the ABA says.

"Yes, these tools can make errors, the ABA acknowledges, and 'lawyers may not abdicate their responsibilities by relying solely on a GAI tool.'

"Still, the ABA cautions its members not to be too cautious about AI use.

“'Emerging technologies may provide an output that is of distinctively higher quality than current GAI tools produce, or may enable lawyers to perform work markedly faster and more economically,' the opinion says."

Here's the link to Fast Company's article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91527510/lawyers-may-soon-have-to-adopt-ai-or-face-malpractice?mkt_tok=NjEwLUxFRS04NzIAAAGhTpEr-zmAXPCEL4WcRNdX-oYxzCAoLo97tPorjuySw-pUniiyzgW2v3can6avtE96f5BL_VTWqyeAw2JqaqCZa4PCwicjCmhXQcKHk6ZYWJ0​

◾ As reported in this post from Artificial Lawyer (AL), Freshfields is undertaking a rollout of Anthropic's Claude to its lawyers.

It's not Harvey vs Legora this time; it's Google vs Anthropic. Further, how and what can Anthropic learn from all that will come from Claude's massive use by the thousands of lawyers at this Magic Circle firm?

From the AL post:

"After announcing its undying love for all things Google, Freshfields has now decided to move into something of a ménage à trois by forming a very close partnership with Anthropic. Claude will be used daily on client matters by up to 5,700 staff and lawyers, they added, among other initiatives.

"Whether Google has called a divorce lawyer, or whether they are rather laissez faire about it all, we don’t know." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/23/freshfields-now-partners-with-anthropic/​

◾ I had the great pleasure of hosting Pat Utz, co-founder and CEO of Abstract, a startup that brings AI to tracking legislative and regulatory activity, on the LTSF podcast (link to that podcast episode below). I was deeply impressed by what Pat and his team had built.

Now, I'm pleased to say I find that Bob Ambrogi of the LawSites blog has had the chance to interact with Pat, along with his co-founder Matthew Chang, and I'm equally pleased to say that Bob came away impressed, too.

Below are excerpts from Bob's post about Abstract:

"A New York-based legal tech startup called Abstract is making a push into the market for legislative and regulatory monitoring, offering law firms and corporate legal departments what it describes as a fundamentally different approach to keeping clients and businesses informed about government activity that may affect them.

"At Legalweek in March, I had a chance to meet with Abstract cofounders Patrick Utz, CEO, and Matthew Chang, COO, and then followed up with a product demo via Zoom last week. As a frequent user of bill-tracking software in my own work as a lobbyist, I was impressed with what I saw."

Read all of Bob's post here: https://www.lawnext.com/2026/04/abstract-brings-ai-powered-legislative-intelligence-to-law-firms-and-corporate-legal-teams.html​

And here's a link to the podcast episode I recorded with Pat: https://legaltechstartupfocuspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2454829/episodes/18407677-how-legal-tech-startup-abstract-turns-laws-and-regulations-into-actionable-strategy​

◾ An insider's take, this one in a post from Legaltech News (LTN) on Freshfields' engagement with Anthropic's Claude as part of the law firm's AI tool set. This take includes LTN's interview with Freshfield's "Chief Innovation Officer Gil Perez as well as partner and co-head of Freshfields’ legal tech-focused internal innovation and legal tech development lab Gerrit Beckhaus."

From the LTN post:

"Why and how will you be using Anthropic’s model?

"Beckhaus: The Claude models are part of our proprietary solutions. So we developed a number of strategic platforms for mandate types like due diligence, case management, multijurisdictional surveys, compliance assessment, restructurings and, for those platforms, we basically integrate the gen AI models on various steps of the production chain. There it gives us a lot of flexibility to choose again, the right model for the right task and then we have a more general AI platform internally with a modular approach where we continuously, based on the leads from our lawyers and our clients, build our modules and looking [at] what's the best model available. That switches a bit from model generation to model generation. ... There are certain tasks where this works really well and it's again about the flexibility of using the right model for the right task.

"Perez: I would add another element to this, which was in the press release, it's what's called the early access program. A key part of this partnership is the fact that we'll give Anthropic feedback on their future products with ensure that they meet the requirements of the legal industry, specifically around security, residency of data ... As a representative of the entire industry, the entire industry will benefit from it because then the products will be fit for purpose for the legal industry as well and will accelerate hopefully their adoption for any company across all industries, obviously legal included. That is a very important element because it will allow us also to get an understanding of those tools ahead of time, like a couple of months or sometimes it's weeks, sometimes it's longer. But then, when those products become generally available, we're able to immediately use them in full strength across all of our matters and to the benefit of our clients."

Readers can access the complete LTN post here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/04/23/inside-freshfields-partnership-with-anthropic-and-what-it-means-for-the-legal-industry-/?kw=Inside+Freshfields%27+Partnership+With+Anthropic+and+What+It+Means+for+the+Legal+Industry&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=newsroomupdate&utm_content=20260423&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b​

Startup Management

◾ Put your legal tech tool in the toolbox that's frequently opened; the one that always lies right at the feet of the working person. Litera's following that advice with its integrations with Google Workspace, per this post by Legal IT Insider. From the post:

"Litera today (20 April) announces a global integration of Litera Compare with Google Workspace, making its document comparison and redlining capabilities available to law firms and corporate legal teams using Google Drive.

"Corporate in-house counsel and law firms accessing Litera Compare through Google Workspace also have access to Lito, Litera’s legal AI agent, included as part of their Litera Compare subscription."

Read the complete Legal IT Insider post at this link: https://legaltechnology.com/2026/04/20/litera-announces-global-integration-of-compare-with-google-workspace/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--FCExdsLCHiSGadayb7Sj9YaRJk_cArjZMQ0BrxDiLa5iM-2--UCUOykFTDlXZh9VSx4rPJfdBlMXOXt0bKy29USpHR21q8xwZujTNAmkOTsZGlfw&_hsmi=133848671&utm_content=133848671&utm_source=hs_email​

◾ Following up on the discussions last week about whether or not legal tech startups have an "ARR problem," Artificial Lawyer (AL) has put up a post about Y Combinator's admonition that precision and truthfulness in startup ARR reporting must be taken seriously.

From the AL post:

"Garry Tan, the CEO of legendary investor Y Combinator, has waded into the ARR debate over how startups represent their revenues, and demanded that ‘founders be precise, and always be truthful’.

"He has published on X a paper titled ‘Being Truthful And Precise About Revenue’, where he sets out in a sort of ‘Finance for Startups 101’ several key ways that companies can report their growth accurately, (see below)."

Read all of the AL post at this link: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/27/y-combinator-tells-founders-be-truthful-on-revenue/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​