February 23, 2026 -- Issue #382
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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Conferences and Other Events
◾ Russ Korins, from the Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner law firm based in NYC, writes about one of his very excellent fireside chats that's coming up early next month - sure to be of interest to legal tech vendors and purchasers:
"My next fireside chat will discuss how tech platforms that are built on or infused with GenAI require special considerations in technology service agreements. My guest Samantha Schonfeld is a longtime friend, so it should be a fun discussion great for both sellers and purchasers of these tech services. Feel free to share this with anyone who may be interested:
"GenAI-Powered Tech: Special Considerations
in Technology Service Agreements
"A Fireside Chat Featuring Attorney Samantha Schonfeld,
Head of the AI Practice, Bortstein Legal Group
"Thursday, March 5, 2026, 12:00 – 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time
"The addition of Generative AI to technology services calls for new ways to think about important provisions in service agreements. Founders and executives of the tech companies selling these platforms would benefit from being aware of the AI-specific concerns potential customers have, and knowing the roadmap of negotiation to arriving at an agreement acceptable to both parties and allows for the sale.
"To discuss this brave new world of enterprise technology services and contracts, we have Samantha Schonfeld, partner at Bortstein Legal Group and head of its AI practice. In a conversation with CTSW attorney Russ Korins, Samantha will walk us through a sample of key provisions such as data use, licensing, and indemnification, and show how GenAI adds a layer of new questions and responsibilities to be allocated.
"Founders and executives of tech companies, as well as those buying technology services, as well as advisors and any other stakeholders are all welcome to attend. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VeSdEDW9RXCB3Eq_sG-j7g"
Exit/M&A
◾ MSO (or managed services organization) developments reported by Legaltech News (LTN), as LTN reports on the debut of MSO Opensity Solutions. From the LTN post:
"In November 2025 K2 Services announced that it acquired Epiq Global Business Transformation Solutions (Epiq GBTS) and Forrest Solutions. Now, the combined entity is launching under a new name.
"Opensity Solutions officially debuted in the market Tuesday, operating a managed services provider for legal, financial and professional service firms.
"The new organization merges complementary offerings from its founding three companies."
And, yes, there is a private equity firm element in all this - also from the LTN post:
"K2’s acquisition of Epiq GBTS and Forrest Solutions and the launch of a combined organization was supported by private equity firm Renovus Capital Partners, which acquired HRB Consulting’s advisory business in 2022, spinning it off from the company’s IT, managed services, and Keno Kozie business, which relaunched as K2 Services in 2023."
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/17/opensity-solutions-officially-launches-integrating-k2-services-epiq-gbts-and-forrest-solutions/?kw=Opensity+Solutions+Officially+Launches,+Integrating+K2+Services,+Epiq+GBTS+and+Forrest+Solutions&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260217&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260217173414
Hiring/New Hires
◾ The Legaltech News legal tech rundown for the business week ending today, February 20, 2026, has hiring news, business partnership news, product/feature launch news, and marketing news - a lot of news!! Have a delightful weekend, everyone.
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/20/legaltech-rundown-reveal-announces-expanded-capabilities-for-logikull-haystackid-announces-launch-of-ai-governance-services-and-more-/?kw=Legaltech+Rundown:+Reveal+Announces+Expanded+Capabilities+for+Logikull,+HaystackID+Announces+Launch+of+AI+Governance+Services,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260220&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260220154430
Honors and Awards
◾ The LawSites blog posts that the ballots have been counted and we now have the names of the 15 startup finalists for the Startup Alley competition at the 2026 ABA TECHSHOW next month. From the post:
“The results are in! Voting has now closed and your votes have been tallied to pick the 15 legal tech startups that will get to participate as finalists in the 10th-annual Startup Alley at ABA TECHSHOW, March 25-28, 2026, in Chicago.”
https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/the-votes-are-in-here-are-the-15-legal-tech-startups-selected-for-the-2026-startup-alley-at-aba-techshow.html
Incubators/Accelerators
◾ The Legal Tech Fund (TLTF) is now accepting applications for its Legal Labs' second cohort. From TLTF's email announcement:
"In our next cohort, we bring together capital, community, and expertise to accelerate the next generation of legaltech companies.
"The legal industry is being redefined and we are looking for visionary founders to join us in building businesses that deliver legal services in ways the world has never seen before.
"The LegalTech Lab funds, supports, and scales the startups that will build the next generation of legal services."
Applications can be submitted at this link: https://i744eskc22s.typeform.com/to/H4ql4d8J?utm_source=xxxxx#email=xxxxx&company_domain=xxxxx
LegalEd
◾ I love the idea of having AI-run simulators that help train junior lawyers (or help more senior lawyers polish and maintain their skills) in areas such as negotiating, client interviewing, carrying out courtroom work, hiring, to name a few examples. What informs this idea ? At this stage, mostly my (somewhat decently well-developed) intuitions about AI and, of course, my decades of law practice.
That's all background for explaining why I'm delighted to read a piece from Legaltech Hub (LTH) about how Alta Claro and Verbit are collaborating on an AI-driven simulator for deposition-taking. From the LTH piece:
"As generative AI has cemented its role in legal work, the conversation has shifted to the need for training. More often than not, though, the discussion of hands-on training has focused on teaching people how to properly use AI. Less emphasis is placed on using AI to facilitate legal training in all new ways.
"In litigation training, that has officially changed. Experiential learning provider AltaClaro has teamed up with AI-powered deposition technology provider Verbit to create DepoSim, an AI-driven platform that gives lawyers an immersive deposition simulator for hands-on, in-depth training. The platform mimics the live deposition environment, allowing trainees to simulate conducting a full deposition, from swearing in the witness to asking questions to marking exhibits. At the end, users receive actionable feedback for improving their deposition skills."
This Alta Claro/Verbit partnership is one that I'm keeping on my radar.
https://www.legaltechnologyhub.com/contents/altaclaro-and-verbit-partner-to-launch-deposim-an-immersive-ai-deposition-simulator/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8jfy2z33V7UV9gaFffgDKIOdVA_Pcvc-gAViHkINaLnGpJJSjKZoH-PW11GadKeQIP-h3UDboUnaCN5POrvLSwL2vCE5bUrR5KC_Vm-v5wG-pkw8w&_hsmi=404304805&utm_content=404304805&utm_source=hs_email
Marketing Legal Tech
◾ Harvey partners with "Harvey!" That's the way Artificial Lawyer (AL) puts it in a post about Harvey's brand partnership with Gabriel Macht, the actor who played the character "Harvey" in the "Suits" network TV series. From the AL post:
Legora did a deal with a famous Swedish golfer, now arch-rival Harvey has formed a brand partnership with none other than Harvey himself, or rather Gabriel Macht, the ‘Suits’ actor who played the role.
"It’s the first time Harvey has done this kind of sponsorship deal, but one has to admire their directness! Cutting a deal with the person, or rather persona, who your company is named after is quite a move." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/17/harvey-partners-with-harvey/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ Let's slow down our contract processes - said no one ever? An apropos opener to an Artificial Lawyer (AL) post about a partnership between standard contracts company, Bonterms, and Docusign.
From the AL post:
"Bonterms, the San Francisco-based standard contracts pioneer, has launched an extension app that allows you to not just sign via Docusign, but also to tap its workflows and contract management capabilities.
"Now, Bonterms customers and the counter-party can ‘launch new deals from a Webform, negotiate in Bonterms, sign in Docusign, while agreements and data sync to Navigator automatically’."
Congratulations to Todd Smithline and his Bonterms team for lining of this partnership with Docusign.
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/19/bonterms-launches-docusign-iam-extension-app/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ A report on business partnership news with this post about Harvey and Intapp from Artificial Lawyer (AL). From the AL post:
"Harvey has teamed up with listed legal tech company Intapp to bring its ethical wall enforcement capabilities directly into the pioneering legal AI platform. This will cover areas such as conflicts and controlling confidential information." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/23/38408/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popu
Product Development
◾ News for in-house contract teams from Artificial Lawyer:
"SimpleDocs has launched a ‘Contract Intelligence Layer’, a benchmarking tool for inhouse teams that connects to ‘internal policies, historical precedent, and verified market standards, directly inside Microsoft Word’ – see AL interview below with CEO, Preston Clark."
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/18/simpledocs-launches-contract-intelligence-layer/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ Medical records review company Parambil launches agentic AI features, as reported in a Legaltech News (LTN) post. From the LTN post:
"Artificial intelligence-powered medical record review software developer Parambil announced the launch of its new agentic AI platform Wednesday. The new offering contains several released agents, and one upcoming one, that look to automate different workflows of personal injury law firms.
"The launch comes around a month after the startup announced a $6 million seed funding round led by Bling Capital with participation from NVP Capital and various angel investors. The company also announced that it closed a $2 millionpreseed funding in January 2025.
"What It Is: Parambil’s agentic AI solution is a series of AI agents that look to automate different aspects of personal injury law firm workflows. Three agents are already available via the platform, while one is set to launch in the coming months."
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/18/parambil-launches-new-agentic-ai-platform-for-personal-injury-firms-/?kw=Parambil+Launches+New+Agentic+AI+Platform+for+Personal+Injury+Firms&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20260219&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260219093939
Regulatory Reform
◾ Well, this is troubling - to say the least: A post at the LawSites blog about a newspaper reporter's investigative report on alleged abuses by non-lawyer-owned law firms permitted to operate under Arizona's alternative business structure arrangements. From the LawSites post:
"An in-depth investigation by The Arizona Republic has found that Arizona’s pioneering program allowing nonlawyers to own law firms — a reform long championed by access-to-justice advocates — has become riddled with consumer complaints, legal loopholes, financial conflicts of interest and inadequate oversight.
"In a series of investigative articles, Republic journalist Laura Gersony paints a troubling picture of the state’s Alternative Business Structures program, which the Arizona Supreme Court approved in 2021 to allow nonlawyers to own law firms. The program was intended to make legal services cheaper and more accessible for Arizona residents. Instead, the Republicfound, it has in many cases attracted profit-focused investors whose firms have generated a trail of consumer complaints across the country."
https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/arizona-republic-investigation-finds-consumer-harm-loopholes-and-conflicts-of-interest-in-arizonas-legal-regulatory-reform.html
Startup Life
◾ Rob Saccone of Nexlaw Partners has written a very insightful (and quite heartfelt) piece on Medium about one aspect of startup life (really, knowledge-work life) in our age of an accelerating agentic AI revolution - the high cost of "cognitive debt" that software engineers and other knowledge workers incur almost minute-by-minute.
From Rob's piece:
"I'm feeling this every day. As an engineer, AI has profoundly changed how I work and think. And it doesn't stop there, expanding the scope of all that I do in a given day: writing, ideation, research, design, even brainstorming. I'm wearing more hats simultaneously than at any point in my career, because AI makes it possible to multitask and scale exponentially. We can now achieve hyper-scaling: I've produced more in the last 30 days than in the previous 30 months. As an entrepreneur and a creative it's exhilarating, but the cognitive cost is real."
"For individual contributors and employees, the dynamic is more concerning. When your manager sees AI-assisted output at 3x the previous pace, expectations recalibrate. A 2024 Upwork study found that 77% of employees using AI said it had actually increased their workload, and nearly half didn't know how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expected. AI has improved exponentially since then, but the gap between capability and expectation is still where burnout lives."
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cognitive-debt-cost-ai-productivity-rob-saccone-wzose?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via
Startup Management
◾ An Artificial Lawyer (AL) post asks: "Are the foundation model LLMs eating the vertical software providers' lunch?" Of course, for our purposes, AL cites Claude Cowork's recently released plugin-for-legal as the knife and fork that Claude might use to eat lunches meant for legal tech vendors. (Pardon the tortured metaphors here, I didn't sleep well last night.)
From the (AL) post (which also includes an enlightening video of an interview that AL conducts with Yannic Kilcher of Deep Judge):
"Will general LLMs and their associated tools, in particular Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, as well as its new Plugins, end up eating into legal tech? Or do these new AI developments create an incredible ally for our sector? AL explores these questions with DeepJudge’s CTO, Yannic Kilcher.
"In a nutshell the argument is this: ‘Should you buy a legal tech solution off the shelf to solve X need, or use a general LLM directly, perhaps with some DIY / vibe-coded aspects via Cowork and Plugins?’ The counter argument is then in two parts: ‘First, general LLMs are not specialist software, and second, their new capabilities, such as Cowork, can be fused with legal tech tools to provide a net gain.’" https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/17/claude-cowork-legal-tech-ally/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
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