February 9, 2026 -- Issue #380
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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Sponsorships:
The Legal Tech StartUp Focus (LTSF) community's platform (this newsletter, the podcast, and the community's website and LinkedIn following) is now accepting sponsors for the fall. If you are interested in reaching LTSF's audience of startup leaders and other legal innovators, send me an email at charlie@legaltechstartupfocus.com.
Conferences and Other Events
◾ Masters AI Legal (f/k/a the Masters Conference) announces a tie-up with Cat Casey (a/k/a the Technocat):
“MASTERS AI LEGAL: LEAD THE REVOLUTION, DON'T JUST WATCH IT
“Masters is back—completely re-imagined for the AI revolution. Masters AI Legal is the legal industry's first purpose-built, human-centered AI learning ecosystem that combines conferences, content, community, and hands-on experiences designed to make legal professionals fluent enough to lead, not just keep up. The Masters AI x TechnoCat collaboration is here to reimagine what it means to learn in the age of AI.
“Cat Casey, aka TechnoCat, anchors Legal AI at Masters, reimagining legal education through this groundbreaking collaboration. She brings vibrant content and expertise, translating what AI means for lawyers' work, judgment, and future.”
https://www.mastersconference.ai/
◾ LTSF'er, Isabella Hughes, posts: "I’m hosting an upcoming CLE for a Bar Association on AI & legal tech.
"I’d love input from other legal tech founders:
What are the most common FAQs, objections, or misconceptions you hear from lawyers about legal tech / AI?
"I’m shaping the session around real questions lawyers actually ask
"Drop them in the comments or DM me.
"— Isabella Hughes | Founder, EstateMin"
Reach out to Isabella with comments to her post by going here: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/97630772?utm_source=manual
Fundraising
◾ A post today at Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter:
“Lawhive, a U.K. consumer legal-tech that's expanding to the U.S., raised $60m in Series B funding. Mitch Rales (Danaher) led, joined by TQ Ventures, GV, Balderton Capital, and Jigsaw. axios.link/4ccVTMF”
Hiring/New Hires
◾ Pat Utz is a co-founder and CEO of Abstract, a company that describes its mission as follows: "We're building an AI platform that helps businesses and individuals make sense of messy government & court data. Executive orders, news shifts, regulations, legislation, cases — we're making sense of it all."
Pat recently posted on LinkedIn about Abstract's search for a Senior Account Executive. As Pat's LinkedIn post puts it:
"Officially ready to hire a Senior Account Executive at Abstract.
"Looking for a full-cycle owner who wants to help Fortune 500s and AmLaw 200 firms navigate the world of legislative & regulatory chaos using AI. Our mission remains the same: Make government more accessible to connect and empower. We're building an AI platform that helps businesses and individuals make sense of messy government & court data. Executive orders, news shifts, regulations, legislation, cases...we're making sense of it all.
"The Highlights:
→ Location: Hybrid (NYC or DC)
→ Compensation: $200k - $400k OTE (Uncapped + Accelerators)
→ Focus: Selling AI to Fortune 500s & AmLaw 200s
→ Leadership: Reporting to our Co-Founder/COO
→ If you’re a self-starter who knows how to navigate complex sales cycles in regulated markets, we want to hear from you.
"Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gHT73dqQ "
I've had the pleasure of meeting Pat several times and had the further pleasure of hosting his guest appearance on the Legal Tech StartUp Focus podcast. I can say with great confidence that Pat's a certified "Good Guy" and that Abstract offers a marvelous opportunity for folks who can meet the company's needs for a Senior Account Executive.
Incubators/Accelerators
◾ Artificial Lawyer (AL) reports:
“Legendary investor and incubator, Y Combinator, has picked three AI-first, NewMod startups for its Winter 2026 batch. They are: General Legal, co-founded by the former CTO of Casetext, Ryan Walker; Arcline, which handles startup legal work; and LegalOS for immigration needs.”
Read about each startup that gained entry into YC’s program in the full AL post at the link below:
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/04/y-combinator-picks-3-newmods-general-legal-arcline-legalos/
LegalEd
◾ Abstract, the policy intelligence platform for legislation and regulation, recently released its 2025 Regulatory Report, captioned "The Great Dismantling." The Report analyzes the human impact of deregulation in 2025 across seven industries. As Abstract puts it on the Report's website:
"In 2025, the United States entered a new era of governance — not through expansion, but through retreat. Under President Trump’s second administration, the federal government began the most extensive rollback of regulatory authority in modern history. The goal was not merely to reduce bureaucracy, but to permanently reshape the role of Washington itself.
"The Great Dismantling examines the human consequences of sweeping deregulation in 2025 across seven critical sectors: Healthcare, International Development, Energy, Housing & Insurance, Chemicals, Industrials & Manufacturing, Labor & Workplace Safety, and Finance. With millions of Americans affected, this report traces how those risks were redistributed, who absorbed the impact, and what comes next."
You can get access to a download link to acquire the Report here: https://www.abstract.us/annual-report
Marketing Legal Tech
◾ Legora's legal tech marketing team was just "puttering" around when it came up with this idea, as reported in a post from Artificial Lawyer:
"After two serious AL stories, here’s something more light-hearted. In what must be a world-first, Legora has announced a long-term sponsorship deal with Swedish professional golfer, Ludvig Åberg.
"‘The partnership marks Legora’s first major athlete collaboration – born out of unique parallels between Ludvig Åberg and Legora’s shared beliefs that excellence at the highest level depends on preparation, data-driven insight, and human judgement, whether in elite sports or complex legal work,’ they explained." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/02/legora-to-sponsor-swedish-golfer-yep-really/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ From our good friends at Legalverse Media:
“Your Expertise Belongs on a Bigger Stage
"Have a perspective the legal tech world should hear? Legalverse Media is now welcoming contributors from the LTSF community. Turn your insights, lessons learned, or big ideas into published thought leadership and reach a global audience.
Share your voice. Become a Legalverse Media author."
Please contact: publications@legalversemedia.com
Legalverse Media offers an opportunity to publish to a platform that legal professionals really read. Don't miss the opportunity!!
◾ Two more posts from Legalverse Media:
(1) Sharing another post from Legalverse Media, the publishing platform where legal tech thought leaders can find an engaged and targeted readership:
“Your Insights Deserve the Spotlight”
"LTSF members are building the future of legal tech every day—now you can publish about it. Legalverse Media invites our community to contribute articles, stories, and expertise across AI, Legal Ops, product innovation, strategy, and more.
Step up. Stand out. Write with Legalverse Media.
"Please contact: publications@legalversemedia.com;" and
Legalverse Media, a super online publishing platform for all things legal, posts:
“Your Story Could Inspire the Industry
"Legalverse Media is partnering with Legal Tech StartUp Focus to spotlight fresh voices from the startup community. If you’ve got experience to share, or an opinion that deserves attention - Legalverse Media wants you as an author.
"Tell your story. Shape the conversation. Join Legalverse Media.
"Please contact: publications@legalversemedia.com "
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ The consultant-tech implementation expert and the legal tech vendor - a symbiotic relationship that works to get that vendor’s tech put into use by the vendor’s customer the “right way.” An example, involving Stella Legal and Sirion, can be found in an Artificial Lawyer post. Form the post:
“Stella Legal, a contract operations transformation group, is to partner with AI-driven CLM business Sirion, which recently saw Haveli Investments take majority ownership. Some years ago Sirion bought contract AI company Eigen.”
$$Quite: “I.e. it’s the type of deal we have seen before with the Big Four and other CLM players, as well as with other types of consultancy group. In short, it’s that complex human bit in the middle between the software and the customer’s contracts.”
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/03/stella-sirion-partner-for-clm-needs/
Product Development
◾ Midpage, a legal research provider, launches an MCP connection with Claude, as reported in this post by Artificial Lawyer (AL). From the AL post:
"Midpage, the startup focused on legal research, has launched an MCP connection with Claude, to fuse a general LLM with a legal-specific product. (See AL interview with CEO Otto von Zastrow below.) The news comes as Anthropic has just announced it’s moving into offering distinct legal tech skills via plugins – the first major LLM company to do so – see AL article here.
"Midpage, which is based in New York told Artificial Lawyer, that by connecting the two they were ‘unlocking seamless, powerful legal research and drafting workflows right inside Claude desktop or web. In short, this means you can give Claude access to a dataset of case law and a citator." https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/02/midpage-links-with-claude-for-seamless-workflows/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ Read a post in Legaltech News (LTN) about SurePoint's launch today, February 2, 2026, of new tools for law firm practice/financial management. From the LTN post:
"On Monday, Austin, Texas-based legal software provider SurePoint Technologies announced the launch of SurePoint Pro, a unified platform for practice and financial management. As part of the launch, the company also introduced SurePoint Finance Pro, a new financial management offering.
"What It Is: SurePoint Pro is an overarching platform built to unify SurePoint’s practice management, financial management and artificial intelligence-powered market intelligence offerings for midsize law firms. The platform provides a single interface for attorneys and other employees to handle work including matter management, time-keeping, accounting and comparison with other firms."
Here's access to the entire LTN post: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/02/surepoint-launches-unified-platform-including-new-financial-management-offering-/?kw=SurePoint+Launches+Unified+Platform,+Including+New+Financial+Management+Offering&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260202&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b
◾ And here's Legaltech News' legal tech rundown for the business week ending today, February 6, 2026, with a lot of product release news. Enjoy the weekend!!
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/06/legaltech-rundown-pramata-releases-extension-for-anthropics-legal-plugin-lexisnexis-announces-tolley-with-protg-and-more-/?kw=Legaltech+Rundown:+Pramata+Releases+Extension+for+Anthropic%27s+Legal+Plugin,+LexisNexis+Announces+Tolley%2B+With+Prot%26eacute;g%26eacute;,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260206&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260206172933
Purchasing/Using Legal Tech
◾ A Harvey customer win makes the news, as reported by Artificial Lawyer:
“Eversheds Sutherland (International) has chosen Harvey for its legal AI platform, as the battle continues with Legora to take market share among the leading law firms across the planet.”
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/03/eversheds-sutherland-int-picks-harvey-as-platform-war-continues/
◾ Community member, Yash giri, posts a "thank you" to those fellow member who offered feedback in response to his previous post (found here: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/97155337?utm_source=manual) about ContractLens. From Yash:
"Hi everyone quick follow-up to my earlier post.
"I’ve received some private feedback on the contract review report I shared, including a helpful suggestion to introduce a table-first summary so reviewers can scan issues and priorities more quickly before diving into detail.
"This kind of input is exactly what I’m trying to validate: whether a structured, playbook-driven report actually fits real review workflows and saves time without replacing legal judgment.
"If anyone here reviews NDAs, MSAs, or license agreements and is open to sharing private, candid feedback on the output format (not the tool), I’d really appreciate the perspective. Happy to share the report directly.
"Thanks again to those who’ve already weighed in." You can repond to this post from Yash by going to this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/97509643?utm_source=manual
◾ Artificial Lawyer (AL), being based in London, is getting ready to wrap up its business week (even though it's early morning for me right now in the NYC area - funny how that works). With work nearing completion in the UK, here's an early-morning look for US Northeast types of AL's "Wrap" for this week. From the AL post:
"Morning all, here’s this week’s AL Wrap, and for a change let’s start with the upcoming Litera webinar on ‘The Memory Layer’, which is all about capturing, and then leveraging, transaction data within your law firm."
Get the full Wrap here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/06/wrap-anthropic-litera-legalos-again-job-loss-fears-more/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ We learn from a Legaltech News (LTN) post that Clearnote, a contract-drafting legal tech startup, came out of beta last Thursday, February 5, 2026: From the LTN post:
"On Thursday, Los Angeles-based contract drafting platform Clearnote publicly debuted, following a private beta testing period that began in late 2025. The company’s offering is targeted at independent contractors and small businesses.
"Clearnote was founded by Cameron Siasi, who is also vice president of operations at Los Angeles-based record label Good Boy Records. The idea for the company emerged from Siasi’s work in the music industry, where parties were struggling with the increasing volume and complexity of contracting between artists and their representatives, record labels, recording studios and other parties."
The complete post from LTN can be accessed here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/05/clearnote-an-entertainment-industry-focused-contract-drafting-platform-launches-publicly-/?kw=Clearnote,+an+Entertainment-Industry+Focused+Contract+Drafting+Platform,+Launches+Publicly&utm_position=3&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20260209&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260209084043
Startup Management
◾ Legal IT Insider weighs in on the market impact of the release by foundation GenAI lab Anthropic of a plugin for legal” for Claude Cowork. From the Legal IT Insider post:
0Generative AI vendor Anthropic has unveiled a legal plugin that helps customise its large language model Claude for legal tasks such as document review, sending public legal software stocks into an ensuing spin today (3 February).”
“The announcement is hitting public publishing and legal software companies hard. Mainstream publications including Bloomberg and The Guardian are reporting significant drops in the share prices of Pearson, Relx (owner of LexisNexis), Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer and Sage.” https://legaltechnology.com/2026/02/03/anthropic-unveils-claude-legal-plugin-and-causes-market-meltdown/
◾ Legaltech News (LTN) posts a very wide-ranging interview with David Perla, Vice Chair at litigation finance company Burford Capital. From the LTN post:
“Last year, topics like heightening valuations and agentic artificial intelligence were at the forefront of legal technology industry conversation. In 2026, the sustainability of those valuations and the return on investment for this technology are likely to come into question, according to Legalweek speaker and Burford Capital vice chair David Perla.
“Legaltech News spoke with Perla about the longevity of legal tech startups, law firms expecting return on investment from AI and how law firms train new associates.”
The rest of the post, including the interview, can be found here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/04/-legal-tech-consolidation-law-firm-training-and-roi-a-chat-with-legalweek-speaker-david-perla-/
◾ LawSites hosts a post from Ken Crutchfield that argues the market overreacted to Anthropic’s recent release of a plugin for legal:
“When Anthropic announced legal skills inside its Cowork environment this week, shares of Thomson Reuters, Reed Elsevier, and Wolters Kluwer tanked. Investors appeared to price in a new competitive threat from Claude.
“But Ken Crutchfield believes the market got it wrong.”
Access Ken’s entire article here: https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/guest-post-ken-crutchfield-on-10-reasons-the-market-overreacted-to-claudes-legal-skills-announcement.html
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