December 22, 2025 -- Issue #373

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.

Exit/M&A

◾ BigLaw law firm combinations continue apace during this law firm merger (and holiday) season. Below is a link to an article from Bloomberg Law reporting on the announcement that US-based firm Winston & Strawn and the UK's Taylor Wessing plan to combine in 2026.

From the Bloomberg Law article:

"Winston & Strawn and the UK’s Taylor Wessing will merge next year to form a new transatlantic law firm under the new shared name Winston Taylor, the firms announced in a joint statement Monday.

"The merger will create a firm with 1,400 lawyers across the US, UK, and Europe with an estimated combined revenue of more than $1.75 billion, the firms said in the statement. The merger is expected to be completed in May 2026, subject to approvals and a vote of the partners in each firm." https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/winston-strawn-taylor-wessing-announce-merger-set-for-2026?source=newsletter&item=read-text®ion=featured-story&login=blaw​

​

◾ An article from Artificial Lawyer (AF) today:

"LawVu, a New Zealand-based legal ops platform for inhouse teams – but which operates globally, has bought Belgian contract AI business ClauseBase.

"The Belgian company, with a strong focus on drafting, will be rebranded as LawVu Draft, and at the same time the Kiwi business has also launched LawVu Lens, an AI-powered contract analysis engine built directly into the LawVu platform."

Echoing a comment in the AF article from its author, Richard Tromans, let me also congratulate Maarten Truyens, Senne Mennes, and the rest of the ClauseBase team!! https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/12/17/lawvu-buys-clausebase-for-contract-ai-expansion/​

​

Fundraising

◾ Legal tech funding news from Artificial Lawyer:
​
“Awesome Compliance Technology (Awesome) has raised a €1.2m pre-Seed round led by Horizon Flevoland, for a new collaborative AI platform, which handles compliance needs for GDPR, the EU AI Act, and the Data Act, among other regulations, (see AL interview with co-founder Dick Sterk, below.)
​
“The Dutch startup said that their approach is different to other companies in the market because it’s focused not just on leveraging AI, but seeks to drive collaboration – a top theme at the moment. It also provides domain-specific AI agents to ‘collect facts, structure ROPAs, draft DPIAs, assess AI Act risks, and produce contracts and policies’.
​
“And it also ‘allows firms to productize parts of their expertise into repeatable offerings’ – which sounds like a great approach.”
​
The entire Artificial Lawyer post can be found here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/12/16/awesome-raises-e1-2m-for-collaborative-compliance-ai-platform/​

​

◾ From Legaltech News - Series A funding news:

"On Tuesday, London-based patent startup Ankar announced that it raised $20 million in Series A funding led by venture capital firm Atomico and with participation from Index Ventures, Norrsken VC and Daphni.

"With the funding, the company plans to expand its engineering, product, design and go-to-market hires as well as grow its U.S. presence, according to a press release.

"Founded in 2024 by former Palantir strategy and product developer Wiem Gharbi and Palantir deployment strategist Tamar Gomez, Ankar provides a generative artificial intelligence-powered platform for drafting patent applications and detecting infringement."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/12/17/patent-startup-ankar-raises-20m-in-series-a-round-/?kw=Patent+Startup+Ankar+Raises+$20M+in+Series+A+Round&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20251218&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20251218083551​

​

Hiring/New Hires​
​

◾ Reporting from Legal IT Insider:

"In a major hire for Slaughter and May, the magic circle law firm has appointed Clifford Chance’s respected director of legal technology solutions, Anthony Vigneron, as head of innovation." https://legaltechnology.com/2025/12/17/exclusive-slaughter-and-may-hires-anthony-vigneron-as-head-of-innovation/

​

◾ A look from Legal IT Insider at law firm roll-ups in the UK:

“Lawfront in November announced the appointment of Tony McKenna as its chief information officer – a high-level hire for a now circa £130m revenue UK firm that is already disrupting the law firm model.

“Lawfront is backed by private equity company Blixt Group, and its strategy is to buy leading regional law firms in order, in short, to free them from the constraints of the partnership model and help them run efficiently from all perspectives. What’s different to other consolidators such as Knights is that firms continue to run under their own name and brand. The firms currently under the Lawfront umbrella are Brachers, Farleys, Fisher Jones Greenwood, Nelsons, Slater Heelis and Trethowans.”https://legaltechnology.com/2025/12/19/rewriting-the-law-firm-tech-playbook-tony-mckenna-on-becoming-cio-of-lawfront/​

​

LegalEd

◾ The Blickstein Group (in collaboration with FTI Consulting) has released the 18th edition of its Annual Law Department Operations Survey. Below is a link to a post that highlights the Survey and includes a form that, when completed and submitted, provides access to the Survey itself.

From the post linked below:

"Legal operations has evolved from an emerging function to an indispensable business partner. But the job has never been more demanding.

"The 2025 Blickstein Group Law Department Operations Survey results reveal a function that is absorbing broader mandates, tighter budgets, aging technology, and rising expectations from every direction. One where AI provides enormous opportunities but also major challenges."

And here's the post's link: https://mailchi.mp/6c455d3dcb71/z8jnm270q7​

​

◾ From a post at Artificial Lawyer:

“It fills this site with Christmas joy to see that Goodwin Procter has become the first law firm to roll out PERSUIT’s Fixed-Fee Price Benchmarking tool globally – a move that well… kind of does what it says on the tin and helps with the long-term move away from the billable hour.”

“As has been explored many times: if AI makes you go faster, and you sell time for a living, then you have a problem. Hence the need for fixed fees, or at least more use of them.

“The firm said: ‘This deployment marks a major milestone in how innovative law firms are embracing the future of pricing legal services.’” https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/12/17/christmas-comes-early-as-goodwin-rolls-out-fixed-fee-tool/​

Uh, WOW!!

​

◾ With a post captioned, in part, as “It’s Real Now, Legaltech News talks about alternative fee arrangements. From the post:
​
“Some Big Law leaders are optimistic that evolving technology will make a long-promised shift away from the billable hour a reality in the coming years, but 2026 is more likely to be a year when momentum continues developing rather than a year of seismic change.”
​
​https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2025/12/18/its-real-now-with-law-firm-ai-use-on-the-rise-expect-alternative-fee-arrangements-to-pick-up-steam-in-2026/​

​

Partnerships/Business Development​
​

◾ Aderant and Harvey (you've heard of those two companies, right?) have partnered. A large business-of-law and practice-of-law teaming up. From the press release today, December 15, 2025:

"ATLANTA — December 15, 2025 — Aderant, the global leader in business-of-law solutions, today announced a strategic, market-defining partnership with Harvey, the leading generative AI platform for legal professionals. Together, the companies will deliver the industry’s first deeply connected ecosystem that unites AI-powered legal work with work-to-cash operations — bringing unprecedented transparency, accuracy, and productivity to both the front and back office.
​
"This partnership marks a milestone in how law firms operate, connecting the work fee earners deliver with the business intelligence administrators’ need to drive firm success. Through this streamlined integration, Aderant-powered business financial management and work-to-cash solutions receive enriched insights into the work performed in Harvey – from drafting and research to review and analysis, while Harvey, in turn, gains deep context back from a law firm’s Aderant solutions." https://www.aderant.com/news-pr/aderant-and-harvey-announce-market-defining-partnership/​

​

Product Development

◾ Community member, Simran Sinha, posts: "CaseFox Introduces AI-Powered Document Generation to Streamline Legal Drafting

"Legal technology provider CaseFox has enhanced its platform by adding AI-powered document generation and analysis capabilities. The new features are built to support faster legal drafting, smarter document review, and improved productivity for law firms and legal teams.https://www.casefox.com/blog/casefox-ai-legal-document-generation-analysis/ "

​

◾ From the December 18, 2025 press release from global intellectual property software company Questel:

"PARIS, FRANCE and ALEXANDRIA, VA – December 18, 2025 – Questel, a world leader in intellectual property including AI-assisted patent translation and filing, announced that it has created multiple Connectors to integrate its patent translation services with its Equinox IP Management Software and other third-party IP systems. The Connectors allow Patent professionals to initiate new cases and communicate with patent translation professionals about case progress. Also, Questel is expanding its application of AI solutions to raise global patent translation to new levels of quality and consistency, while responsibly upholding obligations for confidentiality and security."

The entire press release is below and can also be found online here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251217721972/en/Questel-Seamlessly-Integrates-AI-Assisted-Patent-Translation-with-Equinox-IP-Management-Software​

​

◾ Catch up on legal tech developments this past work week by reading this week’s edition of the legal tech rundown from Legaltech News:
​
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/12/19/legaltech-rundown-claimscore-rebrands-as-covalynt-clearbrief-launches-cite-check-report-and-more-/​

​

Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ Legaltech News captions this article:

​
How One Midsize Law Firm Found Its Footing Building Proprietary Gen AI Tools"

"As law firms explore how to go about building or adopting generative artificial intelligence tools, Buffalo, New York-based firm Rupp Pfalzgraf has gone all-in on building its own proprietary gen AI tools this year.

"Already an early adopter of gen AI tools like Lexis+ AI for tasks like legal research since the technology emerged in 2023, the midsize firm with roughly 80 attorneys wanted to go further. In 2025, about a year after the firm created an internal task force to address AI adoption and innovation, Rupp Pfalzgraf began developing its own gen AI tools."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/12/15/how-one-mid-size-law-firm-found-its-footing-building-proprietary-gen-ai-tools-/?kw=How+One+Midsize+Law+Firm+Found+Its+Footing+Building+Proprietary+Gen+AI+Tools&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20251216&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A​

​

◾ Yes, I know that most US law firms (and probably most law firms worldwide) are wedded to the Microsoft operating system "ecology." Nevertheless, I found it interesting that, as reported by Legal IT Insider in the post that's linked below, Google is:

". . . funding a number of law firm ChromeOS pilots via reseller Appurity – a long-term Google partner that is taking part in Google’s Jump Start partner funding program. The program gives resellers the opportunity to claim funding for helping professional services organisations to deploy ChromeOS across part of or their entire organisation.

"While law firms are almost invariably Microsoft Windows customers, Appurity is helping around 15 law firms with funded proof of values looking at ChromeOS and their desktop infrastructure and strategy. Appurity says that by combining ChromeOS devices with Microsoft E1 licensing, organisations can dramatically reduce their endpoint costs."https://legaltechnology.com/2025/12/16/google-funds-law-firm-povs-to-deploy-chromeos-devices-in-wider-tech-stack/​

​

◾ Reporting the LawSites blog from Bob Ambrogi:

"Artificial intelligence is no longer an abstract or experimental technology for lawyers – it is rapidly becoming core infrastructure for law practice, courts, legal education and access-to-justice efforts, and the legal profession must now shift its focus from whether to use AI to how to govern, supervise and integrate it responsibly.

"That is the central conclusion of a report released yesterday from the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence, a 56-page assessment that takes stock of how AI is already reshaping the profession and discusses the risks, opportunities and unresolved challenges that lie ahead."https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/aba-task-force-ai-has-moved-from-experiment-to-infrastructure-for-the-legal-profession.html​

​

◾ Another post today (December 16, 2025) from Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites blog. This post is about Clearbrief’s continuing effort to filter “hallucinated cases” from documents.
​
From the LawSites post:
​
“With more than 650 documented cases of AI hallucinations appearing in court filings, and courts imposing sanctions ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to removal from client representations, law firm partners face an uncomfortable quandary: How can they confidently sign pleadings when they cannot be certain whether someone on their team used AI tools that might have introduced fabricated citations?
​
“Aiming to give partners the documented assurance they need before they sign their names to a brief, Clearbrief this week launched Cite Check Report, a new feature that provides an audit trail showing that every citation in a document has been systematically verified – including both legal and factual citations.”
​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/clearbrief-launches-cite-check-report-to-give-law-firm-partners-an-audit-trail-against-ai-hallucinations.html​

​

◾ Scott Stevenson, co-founder and CEO of Spellbook, posts to LinkedIn about his company's newly-released State of Contracts report:

"Announcing Spellbook's first annual State of Contracts report: a 297 page market analysis of 13 agreement types.

"This is designed to help you win better deals in 2026:

"📈 270+ contract term benchmarks

"🔍 Insights on how AI adoption and tariffs are reshaping contracts

"⚾ The Moneyball Moment for Contracts essay

"The same tech behind these insights will power Compare to Market, a new feature coming to Spellbook in January.

Here's a link to Scott's post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottas_announcing-spellbooks-first-annual-state-share-7406699155005259778-X3ts?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0​

​

◾ From the Aderant press release today, December 17, 2025, security and privacy-related news:
​
“ATLANTA – [Dec. 17, 2025] — https://www.aderant.com, a global leader in business management solutions for law firms, today announced the successful completion of its SOC 2 Type 2 examination for the Expert Sierra, Vi by Aderant, and iTimekeep. https://www.schellman.com evaluated controls relevant to the Security, Availability, and Confidentiality Trust Services Criteria and covered the review period Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.
​
“A SOC 2 examination provides objective assurance regarding an organization’s internal controls for its systems and data. Established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the SOC 2 framework is recognized across industries as a benchmark for evaluating the suitability and effectiveness of security and privacy-related controls.”
​
Get access to the entire Aderant press release at this link: https://www.aderant.com/news-pr/aderant-announces-successful-completion-of-soc-2-type-2-for-expert-sierra-vi-by-aderant-itimekeep/​

​

◾ Legaltech News writes about ADR and GenAI:
​
“The American Arbitration Association (AAA) has built major momentum in developing generative artificial intelligence tools for alternative dispute resolution over the last three years. This was its busiest year yet.
​
“Earlier this month, the AAA launched its AI Chatbook, which provides users with real-time answers to frequently asked questions about arbitration procedures, rules and case management. In November, the association launched a gen AI-powered arbitrator, which handles document-only construction cases as well as further case types, subject matters and higher-value claims. And in January, the organization announced a partnership with legal writing startup Clearbrief.”
​
Read the entire Legaltech News report (which includes an interview with with AAA president and CEO Bridget M. McCormack “. . . to reflect on the organization’s gen AI developments this past year as well as gen AI predictions for arbitration in the year ahead.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/12/18/the-future-of-alternative-dispute-resolution-is-ai-assisted-/​
​

Teaching/Learning Legal Tech

◾ A post from Legaltech News:

"A new American Bar Association report on artificial intelligence and the legal profession released Monday highlighted the work many law schools have done to integrate AI into curricula, singling out efforts at Stanford, Penn Carey Law and Georgetown, among other schools.

"The report highlights law schools including Stanford Law School, whose Center for Legal Informatics developed an M&A Negotiation Simulator, that uses generative AI’s capabilities of mimicking characters to help law students refine the interpersonal skills needed for merger and acquisition negotiations; University of Pennsylvania Penn Carey Law School, which is offering an Executive Education Certification Program focused on AI, Industry and the Law; and Georgetown University Law Center, which is providing eight AI-related courses to students.

"Case Western Reserve University School of Law became the first law school in the nation to require law students to complete an artificial intelligence certification in February."

The entire Legaltech News post can be read here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/12/15/aba-highlights-ai-legal-ed-efforts-at-penn-stanford-georgetown/?kw=ABA+Highlights+AI+Legal+Ed+Efforts+at+Penn,+Stanford,+Georgetown&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20251217&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20251217084336​