March 16, 2026 -- Issue #385

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

◾ Richard Tromans at Artificial Lawyer (AL) has posted five of his "takeaways" on the NYC Legalweek conference that took place last week. Here's a taste of some of Richard's thoughts.

From the AL post:

"AL was hearing from the top team of LexisNexis, including CEO Sean Fitzpatrick, about their plans for the provision of 10,000 workflows – mostly short, specific, and accurate actions – that are pre-built for nearly every possible legal need, when it struck this site that law firms can now do much more than they really want to with legal AI.

"AL mused that as these workflows are broken into controllable segments that lawyers could trust, you could then chain them into a much longer series of actions, which in turn you could also rely upon. That would avoid the risks involved in the most full-on agentic approaches, where you let the agent figure everything out on its own. And that would be really powerful."

The entire post merits a close reading and that post can be found here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/03/16/5-key-takeaways-from-legal-week/​

Exit/M&A

◾ From the Legora press release today, March 11, 2026:
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“Legora, the collaborative AI platform for lawyers, today announced its acquisition of Walter AI, an agent-native legal AI company trusted by top Canadian law firms, including Fasken Martineau and McCarthy Tétrault.””
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“The acquisition builds on Legora’s investment in agentic capabilities and deepens its commitment to delivering a fully integrated AI experience for legal teams.”
​https://legora.com/newsroom/legora-acquires-walter-ai-to-expand-its-agentic-platform-for-legal-teams​

Fundraising

◾ From Axios' "Pro Rata" newsletter today, March 10, 2026: "Legora, a collaborative AI platform for lawyers, raised $550m in Series D funding at a $5.55b post-money valuation. Accel led, joined by Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Iconiq, Redpoint Ventures, YC, Alkeon Capital, Bain Capital, Firstmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Sands Capital, and Starwood Capital. axios.link/4rjug8z"​

◾ From the StrictlyVC newsletter:

"Avvoka, a 10-year-old London company whose AI-powered drafting infrastructure converts legal documents into structured templates for law firms, raised an $18.7 million round led by Valhalla Ventures. Tech.eu has more here."

◾ More funding news from the StrictlyVC newsletter:

"Intelligent Legal Solutions, a four-year-old London startup that automates side letter management, MFN elections, and other post-close workflows for private investment funds lawyers, raised a $3 million seed round led by Chicago Ventures."

​https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/ils-intelligent-legal-solutions-raises-110000522.html?utm_source=newsletter.strictlyvc.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=svc-beehiiv&_bhlid=17db534ab4b892495fad56ebf4c8bc88626b941c​

◾ Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter posts today, March 11. 2026:
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“Rasa Legal, a Salt Lake City-based criminal record clearance startup, raised $5m in seed funding. Rethink Education led, joined by Social Finance, Halogen Ventures, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation." https://app.kit.com/campaigns/23299391/draft​

◾ Big news on the legal tech investing front with Legal IT Insider posting that The Legal Tech Fund and Harvey are partnering on investing in legal tech startups.
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From the Legal IT Insider post:
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“Harvey and The LegalTech Fund (TLTF) announced today (11 March) that their organizations will partner to invest in legal technology startups across the ecosystem.
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“The companies started talking at the TLTF Summit last year. TLTF managing partner and co-founder Zach Posner said: ‘We are fortunate to have a front-row seat to almost all of the companies coming up in legaltech and we’re lucky enough to back many of them. Bringing Harvey alongside us in some of those investments says a lot about where this ecosystem is right now. The market is maturing, the opportunity is growing, and the best is still ahead.’”
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The entire Legal IT Insider post is here: https://legaltechnology.com/2026/03/11/harvey-and-the-legaltech-fund-to-invest-in-startups-across-the-ecosystem/​

Honors and Awards

◾ Legaltech News (LTN) announces the 2026 Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards Winners. Congratulations to all!

Here's a link to the LTN post with the winners' names: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/03/09/announcing-the-2026-legalweek-leaders-in-tech-law-awards-winners/?kw=Announcing+the+2026+Legalweek+Leaders+in+Tech+Law+Awards+Winners&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20260310&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260310081424​

LegalEd

◾ Legaltech News (LTN) has done us all the service of posting a survey of recent developments in legal tech that occurred prior to the launch today (March 9, 2026) of NYC Legalweek. Why we've even reported on some of these events ourselves to the LTSF community. But if you need a refresher before girding your loins for Legalweek, you can find it at the link below.

From the LTN post:

"With so much going on in the legal tech market, it's hard to keep up with everything you need to know as Legalweek 2026 kicks off. Thankfully, Legaltech News has got you covered.

"From product releases to new hires, and M&As to funding rounds, here's a look at all the announcements we've received over the past week and from the first day of Legalweek 2026 in New York."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/03/09/legalweek-2026-pre-show-news-rundown-relativity-announces-brand-refresh-epiq-expands-agentic-ai-suite-and-more-/?kw=Legalweek+2026+Pre-Show+News+Rundown:+Relativity+Announces+Brand+Refresh,+Epiq+Expands+Agentic+AI+Suite,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260309&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b​

Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ Legal IT Insider has a post today, March 13, 2026, that identifies the legal tech vendors most highly recommended by a community of legal tech deep thinkers (i.e., those who attended the Strategic Knowledge and Innovation Legal Leaders Summit (SKILLS)). From the Legal IT Insider post:

"The [SKILLS] community has voted on their most recommended legal tech vendors, with DeepJudge once again coming out on top and Centari in second place.

"SKILLS attendees from 106 large law firms rated how likely they were to recommend the legal tech vendors they interact with. SimplyAgree is up two places from last year to third. Legora is up from tenth place to fourth. And Harvey enters the table in fifth place. The other highest rated vendors are DraftWise, Syntheia, Definely, Legatics and Clio."

See the top 10 recommendees ranked in the Legal IT Insider's complete post here: https://legaltechnology.com/2026/03/12/skills-2026-unveils-top-10-recommended-legal-tech-vendors/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Mk7HCnJJGUufi6ggyozNqCGnyi8y6AfRMqukQA_YDRNzMcS-b1zhi0u7VKcjxkb4CaA-JrVwGtMj60_UtjdefA_hq8D-JZfntbtO3U8HSUC7mLwE&_hsmi=130896259&utm_content=130896259&utm_source=hs_email​

Startup Management

◾ Kyle Poe, Vice President of Innovation at Legora has posted to LinkedIn about Legora’s opening a Houston office and expanding its presence in Chicago. And, according to Kyle’s post, Legora is hiring in both cities.
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Here’s a link to Kyle’s post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jkylepoe_today-im-proud-to-officially-announce-that-share-7433176159644725248-48wR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0​

◾ Although the article linked below from the a16z crypto newsletter focuses, unsurprisingly, on startups in the crypto space, what it says applies to enterprise tech-buying generally (including, of course, law firm and legal department tech purchasing). It's worth a read, even if only as a reminder, that having the "best" technology from a "desired output" standpoint is only a part of what it takes to sell successfully to enterprise tech buyers.

From the a16z article:

"An uncomfortable but clarifying lesson founders are learning in the current cycle of blockchain adoption is that enterprises do not buy the “best” technology. They buy the least disruptive path to progress.

"For decades, new enterprise technologies — especially in banking and financial services in the past 10 years — have promised order-of-magnitude improvements over legacy infrastructure: faster settlement, lower costs, cleaner architectures. Yet adoption rarely follows technical merit.

"Here’s what this means: If your “better” product isn’t winning, the gap isn’t performance. It’s fit."

The entire article is well worth reading, and it can be found here: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/p/why-the-best-tech-dont-always-win?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=811657&post_id=190644632&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1cv2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email​

◾ It's often spoken of in whispers, "consolidation in legal tech." But as described in this post from Legaltech News (LTN), it's being spoken aloud frequently at this year's NYC Legalweek. From the LTN post:

"Consolidation has been a common topic at Legalweek 2026, as huge funding rounds at the top of the industry and declining valuations among smaller companies spur predictions of a shakeout."

"Contract drafting and negotiation platform Spellbook recently announced $40 million in debt financing bookmarked for acquisitions. CEO and co-founder Scott Stevenson told Legaltech News that the company is approached every two or three weeks by the founders of smaller legal tech companies that are struggling to scale up their businesses and hoping for an exit, presenting more attractive opportunities than have been available in recent years."

You can read the entire LTN post here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/03/11/legalweek-day-3-will-legal-tech-companies-prove-better-together-/?kw=Legalweek+2026+Day+3:+Will+Legal+Tech+Companies+Prove+Better+Together?&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20260312&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260312073219​