April 28, 2025 -- Issue #338

​

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.
​

If you enjoy reading this digest, please forward it to others with an interest in legal tech startups. Readers who aren't already members of the LTSF community and who wish to join can do so here. Please do send me feedback here with any questions, comments or other ideas for this digest . If you're not already a subscriber to this newsletter and would like to subscribe, please email me here to join the subscriber list.
​

Oh, and if you want to unsubscribe to this digest, you can do so by using the link in this email's footer.

ABOUT TWO WEEKS TO GO

🍹🍻 NEW YORK CITY HAPPY HOUR EVENT 🍻🍹

To all our community's legal tech startup founders and their colleagues:​
​
​You're invited to a very special Legal Tech StartUp Focus "Startup Leaders Happy Hour" from 6:00 pm to 8 pm on Thursday, May 8, at Jack Doyle's in New York City (located at 240 West 35th Street, at the upstairs bar).​
​
​Joining us at the Happy Hour will be SF-based venture investor Yousuf Khan, a partner at Ridge Ventures, our sponsor for this event. Thank you, Yousuf and Ridge Ventures!!​
​
​So, if you're in NYC on May 8, come by to hoist a drink (or two or three), meet your fellow legal tech startup leaders, and, most importantly, get to know Yousuf and his thoughts on legal tech investing.​
​
​RSVP at the Eventbrite link here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/legal-tech-startup-focus-startup-leaders-happy-hour-tickets-1308517433869?aff=oddtdtcreator​

See you at the Happy Hour!!

Charlie

Fundraising

◾ "On Friday, Phaselaw, an e-discovery startup, announced that it has raised $2.8 million in funding led by Pear, Defined, BoxGroup and Twelve Below. The funding round also received participation from founders of Security Scorecard, Rock Health and Cloudera as well as partners from Gunderson Dettmer."

​

◾ A post from community member, and CEO and co-founder of Phaselaw (an eDiscovery software provider), Josh Schwartz: "Excited to announce that my company Phaselaw (phase.law) has raised $2.8M to rethink eDiscovery for the AI era. We were covered by ALM and by Law360 today and our announcement post is https://www.phase.law/blog/phaselaw-fundraising-announcement."

​

◾ From Europe’s Sifted startup-driven newsletter:
​
“Rotterdam, the Netherlands-based Zeno, a legal AI platform, raised €2m in funding from Chris Oomen, founder of Optiver.” https://zeno.law/​

​

◾ From Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter:

“Noxtua (fka Xayn), a German legal AI platform, raised $92.2m in Series B funding led by German legal publisher C.H. Beck. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/22/noxtua-raises-92m-for-its-sovereign-ai-tuned-for-the-german-legal-system/”

​

◾ From Fortune magazine’s website today, April 25, 2025:
​
“Exclusive: Reducto, AI document parsing startup, raises $24.5 million Series A led by Benchmark.”
​
“Liz Wessel, partner at First Round [a VC firm that also participated in the Series A round], said that the market for Reducto is broad and growing fast: “Industries like finance, healthcare, tech, and legal consistently face challenges converting complex documents into accurate inputs for LLMs,” she said via email.”
​
From what I can tell, what Reducto does is act as a kind of pre-processor that structures the data comprising complex documents before those documents are fed into an LLM - thereby enabling the LLM to do a better job of carrying out whatever inference tasks it’s asked to perform on those documents.
​https://fortune.com/2025/04/25/exclusive-reducto-ai-document-parsing-startup-raises-24-5-million-series-a-led-by-benchmark/​

​

Hiring/New Hires​
​

◾ Below is a link to a LinkedIn post from Legaltech Hub that announces that legal tech and innovation mastermind, Sam Moore, has joined the Legaltech Hub team. Congrats to both Sam and Legaltech Hub on this great team addition.https://www.linkedin.com/posts/legal-tech-hub_we-are-absolutely-delighted-to-welcome-sam-activity-7320479384581144576-ZHSB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0​

​

Investing

◾ From the Axios “Pro Rata” newsletter: “Bpifrance acquired a minority stake in Septeo, a French legal tech company owned by Hg. https://www.pehub.com/bpifrance-picks-up-minority-stake-in-hg-backed-septeo/ ”

​

LegalEd

◾ Joel Bijlmer of The LegalWire posts: "We keep worrying about what AI might do. But maybe the better question is: what are we doing with AI?

"Not long ago, a friend of mine, an associate at a small but busy law firm confided in me over a catch-up call. “I’ve been using ChatGPT to draft early versions of contracts and emails,” she said, tensely awaiting my response. “Just to get started faster. I haven’t told anyone at the firm. I don’t even know if I’m supposed to tell anyone.”
​

"Read the full article here: https://thelegalwire.ai/regulation-begins-at-the-briefcase/​

​

◾ Scott Leigh, LTSF'er and co-founder and CEO fo AltFee, posts: "🚀 Launching: The Pricing Playbook for Modern Law Firms

"I’m really proud of what we’ve built at AltFee (www.altfeeco.com) — helping law firms at all stages of their pricing journey, from early education to deep optimization.

"With our most recent thought leadership piece, we have brought together a lot of the learnings we have developed over the last 5 years - and in doing so we have created The Pricing Playbook for Modern Law Firms.

"Download the Playbook here 👉 : https://www.altfeeco.com/get-your-free-pricing-playbook​
​
"If you're interested in an approach that acknowledges that time is still a significant factor for most law firms, but recognizes it's essential in the AI world we are living in to integrate non-time based considerations into our pricing - this Playbook is for you.

"Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!"

​

Member Introductions/Questions

◾ New community member, Kirti Sharma, introduces herself: "Delighted to be part of this!
​
"I'm Kirti Sharma, a Legal Knowledge Engineer based in Gurgaon, India. Currently, I work at Jaggaer Inc., where I specialize in contract lifecycle management, legal AI implementation, and process automation.
​
"My experience includes:
-Reviewing and negotiating cross-border contracts. (US, UK, EU) -Developing legal prompts for AI tools.
-Leading initiatives that significantly reduced contract review errors.
​
"Previous Experience:
At UnitedLex, I focused on: Contract Abstraction, Utilizing AI tools like DocuSign CLM to enhance data extraction processes.
​
"I'm passionate about leveraging AI to transform legal processes and am committed to continuous learning and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in legal tech.
​
"I'm excited to be part of this community and look forward to engaging in insightful discussions, sharing experiences, and exploring opportunities for collaboration.
​
"If anyone is working on innovative projects or has insights into the evolving landscape of legal tech, I’d love to connect and learn more. kirtisharma04999@gmail.com "

​

Partnerships/Business Development​
​

◾ “Following its February acquisition of UK-based Peppermint Technology, Litera today announced an expanded partnership with Harbor, a provider of expert services to the legal industry, to provide law firms with implementation and support services for Peppermint’s CX365 platform, which combines CRM, ERM, matter management, and case management within a single solution integrated with Microsoft 365.”
​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/04/litera-sweetens-peppermint-acquisition-through-strategic-support-partnership-with-harbor.html​

​

◾ Legaltech News’ legal tech rundown on this glorious spring late afternoon in the greater New York City area:
​
“The fast-paced legal tech world is constantly evolving. At Legaltech News, we always try to bring you the latest news on hirings, product and feature releases, new integrations, legal tech mergers and acquisitions, and more. The Legaltech Rundown is a weekly update of legal tech happenings that might have gone under the radar.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/04/25/legaltech-rundown-litera-partners-with-harbor-smartesq-officially-launches-fund-formation-platform-and-more/​

​

Product Development

◾ “In March, intellectual property firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox announced the launch of Patent Assist AI, a proprietary generative artificial intelligence tool designed to generate the description section of patent applications.”
​
Read the entire Legaltech News article for insight into why the firm built the tool “in-house” and how the firm built it. https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/04/22/inside-ip-firm-sterne-kesslers-development-of-its-ai-patent-drafting-tool/​

​

◾ “Eve, an AI platform for plaintiffs’ law firms, is today introducing an AI Reasoning Mode that it says can perform complex legal analysis through sophisticated step-by-step reasoning capabilities, on a par with a senior-level lawyer.”
​
Read the entire article (at link below) for Q&A from Bob Ambrogi and Eve’s CEO and founder, Jay Madheswaran.
​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/04/eve-says-its-new-ai-reasoning-mode-can-perform-senior-level-work-for-plaintiffs-lawyers.html​

​

Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ The term "deep dive" is likely overused when it comes to describing the depth that an article brings to a particular subject. (I'm no doubt guilty of this overuse myself.)
​
But this piece from LawSites about Agiloft's recently acquired Screens contract-analysis application (including comments from Agiloft's Otto Hanson who built Screens while at TermScout) really does merit the term. Solid, very solid, read.
​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/04/three-months-after-its-acquisition-of-playbook-builder-screens-agiloft-completes-its-initial-integration.html​

​

◾ “A survey by Skills.law of what legal AI tools ‘major law firms’ would most recommend has found some very interesting results, with focused solutions generally doing better than ‘genAI convergence’ ones that offer a bit of everything.”
​https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/04/22/the-top-15-most-recommended-legal-ai-vendors-are/​

​

◾ "Actionstep just released the third annual 2025 US Midsize Law Firm Priorities Report. The 2025 findings highlight the unique position of midsize law firms, the focus on client satisfaction, the importance of technology investment internally, and among clients, the challenges posed by disconnected tools, and the growing adoption of AI."

The entire press release can be accessed at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/83472309?utm_source=manual​

​

◾ As a podcast host myself (shameless plug, https://legaltechstartupfocuspodcast.buzzsprout.com), it's a pleasure to welcome a new legal tech-driven podcast, "IP Innovators," to podcast land that's being brought to listeners by DeepIP, a company that's automating patent drafting.

As IP Innovators describes itself on its website: "This podcast features in-depth conversations with leading patent practitioners about their career journeys and how technological advances — from automation to AI — are reshaping the way they practice law every day."

The first episode is now available and it features an interview with ". . . patent attorney Paul Hunter, Partner and Electronics Practice Co-Chair at Foley & Lardner, [who] shares his journey from filing patents using fax machines to leading an AI-accelerated practice. A candid look at how real careers adapt—and thrive—as technology transforms the future of IP law.'

Here's a link to that first podcast episode: https://ipinnovators.buzzsprout.com/2488870/episodes/17020404-from-paper-trails-to-patent-ai-paul-hunter-on-27-years-of-evolutions-in-ip-practice​

​

◾ From the ClauseBase April 24, 2025 press release:

"Montreal, April 24, 2025 - ClauseBase, the all-in-one legal drafting platform, is proud to announce its expansion into North America with the opening of a new office in Montreal. This strategic move is driven by the appointment of Jan Roggen as Vice President of Growth."

The entire press release can be accessed at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/83525117?utm_source=manual​

​

◾ Community member, Tara Waters, posts: "Please participate (or encourage your customers, colleagues, innovation head or legal team to participate) in the new AI Adoption Index surveys! This is an independent, global initiative hoping to dispel AI hype and uncover the truth about AI adoption in legal.
​https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tlwaters_legaltech-legalai-survey-activity-7320704303420084225-rqXy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAADV-bUBCcYdiLFjBbO1prVdyNlno_GTcS4

​

◾ Further to Tara Waters' post above: “A newly launched independent initiative aims to develop an accurate, holistic and transparent index of AI adoption among law firms, in-house legal departments, and individual legal professionals.
​
“Called the AI Adoption Index, the organization says its aim is to bring greater transparency to the current state of AI adoption in the legal industry ‘and remove hype, hyperbole and FOMO from the conversation.’”
​
​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/04/aiming-for-accuracy-group-launches-legal-ai-adoption-index-invites-law-firms-and-legal-teams-to-self-report.html​

​

◾ News from the UK per Artificial Lawyer (AL):
​
“Judicial office holders in the UK are being encouraged to make use of Microsoft’s ‘Copilot Chat’ genAI capability via their inhouse eJudiciary platform. The move comes as updated guidance for judges stressed that ‘public AI chatbots do not provide answers from authoritative databases’, among other warnings.”
​
Do read the entire article for much more on what AL describes as (and I agree with this description) “. . . overall a balanced approach, which both encourages judges and their staff to explore what AI can do, but to be careful . . .”
​https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/04/24/uk-courts-roll-out-microsoft-copilot-for-judges-update-genai-rules/​

​

Startup Management

◾ Being a customer of Superhuman’s email app myself, I’ve come to believe that no company has devoted more attention to the onboarding of a SaaS product than has Superhuman, led by a connoisseur of onboarding, its founder and CEO, Rahul Vohra. Since customer onboarding is an important part of customer retention success, great onboarding is a startup differentiator.
​
Below is a link to an article on VC firm First Round’s “Review” publication from Rahul Vohra about onboarding. The article is rather long, but it’s also rather worth reading. So, do give it a read.
​https://review.firstround.com/superhuman-onboarding-playbook/​

​