March 2, 2026 -- Issue #383

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

◾ We previously reported on a fireside chat that Russ Korins, of the Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner law firm based in NYC, is hosting to discuss how tech platforms that are built on or infused with GenAI require special considerations in technology service agreements.

As noted in that previous post: "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."

The date for the fireside chat has changed. The chat was originally scheduled for March 5, 2026. The chat, as rescheduled, will not take plance on March Tuesday March 17 from 12-12:30 ET. Anyone who goes to the registration link will see the new date.

◾ Christy Burke is a good friend of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus community and the founder and CEO of Burke & Company, a media company that specializes in public relations for legal tech organizations. Christy will be moderating an excellent panel discussion this coming Monday, March 2, covering IP protections in our new "world of AI." The event will take place at the NYC offices of Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller.

From the event's online announcement:

"How is AI impacting intellectual property (IP) in today's business world?

"Lawyers, legal technologists and NYC area professionals, join us for an educational thought-provoking panel discussion/CLE entitled 'Protecting IP in an AI World.'

Speakers will cover diverse perspectives and recent case law re: AI in IP including:
-AI implications for copyrights, trademarks and patents
-Guarding against liability exposures resulting from AI
-Patent litigation issues and framework for using AI inventions
-IP ownership issues raised by AI discussing human vs. AI contributions
-Ethical, data privacy and compliance rules to be examined when IP is used
-Discussion of AI solutions trained for IP lawyers including Qthena from Questel

"Attorney speakers include:
Olivera Medenica, Partner at Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP
Padmaja Chinta, Partner at Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP
Thomas Colson, Partner at Colson Law Group and US country director at Questel
Kevin Bronson, Senior Associate at Simpson & Simpson PLLC"

Visit the following link for more details about the event and to get tickets: https://luma.com/9xzamwin​

Exit/M&A

◾ From Axios’ Pro Rata newsletter:
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“Angeion Group, backed by Renovus Capital Partners, acquired MedQuest, a personal injury and medical malpractice litigation legal firm. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/angeion-group-acquires-medquest-ltd-expanding-capabilities-in-the-single-event-personal-injury-market-302693011.html​

◾ Legaltech News (LTN) posts about a legal tech acquisition. From the LTN post:
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“E-discovery provider HaystackID announced Thursday that it acquired data intelligence startup eDiscovery AI.
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“The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, is part of an effort from HaystackID to expand its generative artificial intelligence capabilities across its offerings.”
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​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/26/haystackid-acquires-data-intelligence-startup-ediscovery-ai/​
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Fundraising

◾ Fundraising/investing News from the LawSites blog:
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“Sirion, an AI-native contract lifecycle management platform, has completed a majority investment from Austin-based private equity firm Haveli Investments, the companies announced today.
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“With Haveli’s partnership, Sirion said, it will aim to accelerate product innovation, expand its global go-to-market presence, and enable organizations to move from static contract repositories to intelligent, workflow-driven contracting.”
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​https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/sirion-completes-majority-investment-from-haveli-aiming-to-accelerate-ai-push-in-clm-market.html​

◾ Seed round fundraising is the subject of this post from Legaltech News:
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“Los Angeles-based legal tech startup Inhouse announced Wednesday that it completed a $5 million seed round led by Run Ventures and Royal Street Ventures and joined by other investors including Switch and LegalZoom co-founder and former CEO Brian Liu.
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“The company, which offers an artificial intelligence platform that performs legal work for small and midsize businesses, intends to use the funding to bolster its agentic AI capabilities.”
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​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/25/direct-to-business-legal-ai-startup-inhouse-announces-5m-in-seed-funding/​

◾ From the LawSites blog:
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“Confido Legal, an embedded payments platform built specifically for law firms and the legal technology companies that serve them, has raised $9 million in financing across two rounds, the company told LawNext in an exclusive advance interview.”
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Read the entire LawSites post at this link (with the post including a list of the investors who participated in the round):
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​https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/exclusive-confido-legal-raises-9-million-to-expand-embedded-payments-and-disbursements-for-law-firms.html​

Hiring/New Hires​
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◾ Legaltech News (LTN) posts about Mary O'Carroll's new role at legal tech startup Sandstone. From the LTN post:

"Legal operations veteran Mary O'Carroll has joined legal tech startup Sandstone as a product expert adviser, a part-time role, following her departure from Goodwin Procter, where she served as the firm’s chief operating officer.

"In the product expert adviser role, O'Carroll will work with Sandstone’s leadership to direct the evolution of the startup’s platform, according to a press release."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/24/former-goodwin-coo-mary-ocarroll-joins-legal-tech-startup-sandstone-as-product-adviser-/?kw=Former+Goodwin+COO+Mary+O%27Carroll+Joins+Legal+Tech+Startup+Sandstone+as+Product+Adviser&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=newsroomupdate&utm_content=20260224&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b​

◾ As reported in a post by Bloomberg Law:
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“KPMG just named a new US division leader tasked with integrating the firm’s growing legal services offerings with its corporate advisory work, Justin Henry and Emily Siegel report.
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“Christian Athanasoulas, a Boston-based leader of the KPMG M&A tax practice who has been with the company for more than 25 years, takes over as head of KPMG US Legal Services. The firm a year ago gained approval to offer legal services in Arizona, making it the first Big Four accounting, tax, and consulting company to operate a US law firm.”
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More from the Bloomberg Law post here:
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​https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/kpmg-taps-new-us-law-chief-to-grow-services-as-pushback-mounts​

Partnerships/Business Development​
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◾ Wordsmith and Cognia have "partnered up," as reported in this post from Artificial Lawyer (AL). From AL's post on the business partnership between these two companies:

"Wordsmith and ALSP Cognia Law are to work together on legal operations and managed services. The move makes sense, as ALSPs are custom-made for the use of advanced AI skills, given their focus on volume and narrow workflows.

"This will enable the two organisations to jointly offer a combination of ‘technology, implementation, and operational delivery to solve complex legal process challenges for clients’, they said."

​https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/25/wordsmith-cognia-partner-for-ai-powered-managed-services/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​

◾ News from Aderant on worldwide anti-money laundering/due diligence efforts. From the Aderant press release today, February 26, 2026:

"ATLANTA & AUCKLAND — February 26, 2026 — Aderant, a global leader in business-of-law solutions, today announced a partnership with Auckland-based First AML, a leading provider of anti-money laundering (AML) and client due diligence solutions. The partnership expands access to modern, automated compliance technology for law firms seeking to streamline regulatory workflows, reduce risk, and improve operational efficiency."

The entire press release can be accessed at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/98548174?utm_source=manual​

◾ There is a hint of spring in the air here in the too recently frigid Northeast US. So what can be better right now than dreaming of spring and at the same time perusing Legaltech News’ weekly legal tech rundown.
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Here’s the rundown’s link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/27/legaltech-rundown-confido-announces-9m-funding-disco-launches-all-in-one-platform-and-more-/​
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Product Development

◾ More looks at Thomson Reuters' forthcoming next-gen CoCounsel Legal, which is going into beta in 2026. From the Legaltech News (LTN) post that reports on TR's plans for CoCounsel Legal:

"Thomson Reuters announced Tuesday that it is developing its next generation of CoCounsel Legal, which is set to enter beta this year.

"The company plans to enhance CoCounsel Legal’s agentic artificial intelligence capabilities that it launched in June 2025. The update builds on agentic AI features announced in November that focus on document review and data sorting for uploaded media related to litigation discovery, mergers and acquisitions, compliance and contract analysis."

Of course, there's the de rigeur mention of agentic AI, but this mention, because it includes TR's leveraging of Claude CoWork, does sound interesting. More from the LTN post:

"Thomson Reuters is also working more closely with Anthropic and plans to leverage Anthropic’s technology like Claude Cowork, which provides customizable coding, and will allow CoCounsel Legal’s AI agent to create code independently and execute tasks."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/02/24/-thomson-reuters-announces-next-generation-of-cocounsel-legal-/?kw=Thomson+Reuters+Announces+Next+Generation+of+CoCounsel+Legal&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=newsroomupdate&utm_content=20260224&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b​

◾ One of the true OG's (and innovators) in no-code for legal, Bryter announces that it's bringing vibecoding tools to its platform. From Bryter's announcement:

"We’ve released a new way to build on BRYTER: you can now create applications simply by chatting.

"As a leader in legal workflow automation, we are proud to have helped make No Code a standard in the legal industry. Today, we are taking it one step further. We are making No Code even more powerful by adding a new conversational layer on top.

"Learning from our users: make it faster, easier, better

"Instead of modeling logic step by step, users can now describe what they need — and BRYTER generates the module. Intake forms, document automation, approval workflows, regulatory decision tools, and processing flows can be explained in a prompt. The platform translates that input into a structured, enterprise-ready application with rules, data models, and integrations."

Read Bryter's entire announcement here: https://bryter.com/blog/no-code-goes-vibe-code-conversational-building-on-bryter/​

◾ A product launch press release today, February 25, 2026, from Draftwise. In the release:
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“Draftwise, the AI Contract Intelligence platform for global legal teams, today announced the launch of Playbook Studio, the industry's first full-cycle contract review capability that analyzes a firm's existing contracts and deal history to automatically generate a customized, deployable playbook in roughly five minutes.”
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What caught my attention was Draftwise’s winning customers for it/ playbook creation tool, with the press release citing VC firms as users.
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The full press release is here at this link: https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/computers-technology-and-internet/draftwise-launches-playbook-studio-reducing-playbook-creation-tim-1140830​

Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ From LTSF'er, Yash Giri of ContractLens: "Hi everyone — I’ve recently rolled out a new, more stable version of ContractLens(contractlens.app) with an improved interface and clearer review structure.

"The focus remains the same: generating structured, playbook-driven contract review outputs that clearly separate:

*blocking issues

*risk items

*“needs review” areas (no false certainty)

*reasoning behind each flag

"The updated version improves usability and presentation, especially around how the risk memo is structured for decision alignment.

"I’m looking for a small number of practitioners who would be open to trying the new stable version and sharing candid feedback — particularly around:

*workflow fit

*clarity of the decision memo

*usefulness before negotiation begins

*No selling, just validation.

"If you review NDAs, MSAs, or license agreements and are open to taking a look, I’d really value your perspective. Feel free to comment or message me directly.

"Thank you."

◾ AI nerds will know the term GOFAI ("good old fashioned AI"), which, in contrast to learning-driven AI (LLMs, anyone?), uses a rules-driven approach to having machines infer answers to questions posed. GOFAI approaches have, over the last decade or so, taken a back seat to LLMs for many reasons, among them is the flexibility that pattern-seeking, probabilistic LLMs bring to dealing with fuzzier questions. Put another way, GOFAI approaches can be what's called "brittle" - when it comes to edge cases, especially. GOFAI approaches can break down because the properties that describe edge cases don't neatly fit into the categories ("symbols") represented in the rules used by GOFAI artificial intelligence.
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Now here comes LawFairy, as described in an Artificial Lawyer (AL) post put up today, that bases its AI tech stack on deterministic, symbol-based, GOFAI-type software (sorry for the run-on string in this sentence). From the AL post:

"LawFairy, a ‘technology-only’ law firm that uses deterministic workflows rather than lawyers to provide help to clients, has received official approval from the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority). See AL Interview below."

From AL's interview with LawFairy's CEO, Raj Panasar:

"Can you tell us more about the approach here?

"It is deterministic (or symbolic) AI. The AI tools that have dominated public conversation in recent years are probabilistic large language models. They generate outputs by predicting statistically likely text. That makes them powerful for many tasks, but their outputs can vary and they optimise for plausibility rather than correctness.

"LawFairy uses deterministic AI – what we call Trusted Legal Intelligence – legal outcomes produced through verified, auditable rule application rather than statistical inference."
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My take (with which I've bored many people in conversation) is that perhaps one of the more promising approaches to AI (an approach NOT original to me) is a combination of symbolic AI and (machine learning-based) GenAI; an approach frequently labeled: neurosymbolic AI.
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Read the entire AL post here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/24/lawfairy-technology-only-law-firm-gets-regulatory-approval/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​

◾ Chalk up a major customer win for Legora as Legal IT Insider posts about UK law firm Pinsent Mason's rollout of Legora's software. From the Legal IT Insider post:

​"Pinsent Masons announced yesterday (23 February) that it has selected legal GenAI tool Legora across its corporate, commercial and property groups following a successful pilot programme.

"This partnership will bring the firm’s total number of Legora users to 1,000, with plans to expand this further as use cases are proven. The implementation will be supported by an expanding cohort of AI Champions – lawyers from associate through to partner, who will be trained to upskill their colleagues."

Read the entire Legal IT Insider post at the link below:
​https://legaltechnology.com/2026/02/24/pinsent-masons-selects-legora-for-corporate-commercial-and-property-groups-interview/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--QKM-zyjn-DWDezmreGHH5wLH9-_Y_f9rJ-arP3jRL6ooeuBaWuDRUQo_YHWeBdhhKaWH_gzMaHZSsSTh4XJ2AEfvSLw1G-DgZQ15Er-kWjewsSrs&_hsmi=129538382&utm_content=129538382&utm_source=hs_email​

◾ More, this time from Artificial Lawyer (AL), on the plugin that shook the world (I'm speaking, of course, of Anthropic's recent release of the Claude Cowork plugin for legal). Here, in AL's post, we read of Lexis Nexis getting onto the plugin's bandwagon by integrating with the plugin: From AL's post:

"It was the plugin that triggered a thousand LinkedIn posts, and now – along with many others who are doing something similar – LexisNexis has announced the integration of Anthropic’s legal plugin into its Protégé genAI suite. This will enhance ‘hundreds of existing AI and agentic AI legal workflow capabilities’ that are already available.

"One law firm user, who they quote, said: ‘[It] will take me from prompt to finished work product much faster and better visually than I can do it. It’s like going from driving a horse and buggy to driving a Maserati. I could not have imagined it being this powerful.’"

You can read all of AL's post here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/25/lexisnexis-embraces-anthropic-claude-cowork-legal-plugin/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​

◾ A post from Legal IT Insider that discusses Ironclad’s reaching $200 million in ARR earlier this month. From the post:
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“Ironclad, the US-based CLM software provider, earlier in February announced that its annual recurring revenue has exceeded $200m – a rapid ascent from the $150m ARR figure the company achieved last year.”
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$$Quote: “In an interview with Legal IT Insider, [Ironclad CEO Daniel] Springer – who joined Ironclad in April 2025 from e-signature company Docusign – said that CLM, previously regarded as a ‘sleepy category’ by investors, had ‘started to take off”, with a growth rate of 10%-15%. ‘Companies are realising that it’s the last part of the enterprise that hasn’t had a system of record,’ he said.”
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​https://legaltechnology.com/2026/02/27/ironclad-hits-200m-arr-mark-we-interview-ceo-dan-springer/​

Startup Management

◾ Legal tech startup leaders: Here's an article from First Round Review (the publication from VC firm, First Round Capital) that tells you "everything you ever wanted to know about forward deployed engineers, but were afraid to ask."

"Now, if you browse open roles at a startup right now, chances are you’ll come across a listing for a forward deployed engineer. Monthly job listings for the role shot up by 800% from January to September of 2025.

"The FDE has taken on a new meaning for AI startups setting their sights on the enterprise (even OpenAI is building out its own fleet). Founders are turning to the FDE model to roll out highly technical AI products to red-tape-lined legacy workflows — an FDE can jump in to build around the blockers that stand in the way of adoption at these types of companies, from unruly codebases to compliance hurdles."

​https://review.firstround.com/so-you-want-to-hire-a-forward-deployed-engineer/?ref=the-review-newsletter​

◾ Artificial Lawyer (AL) has put up a post today, March 2, 2026, about a lawyer's use of Claude (and, in particular, his adept use of Claude Skills) in his practice. That lawyer's article on X about his Claude use has so far generated 7 million views, with AL commenting that "legal loses it" over the article.

From the AL post:

"A few days ago, lawyer Zack Shapiro published an article on X titled: ‘The Claude-Native Law Firm’. It has been viewed over 7 million times and primarily covers the fact that at his small US firm he used the ‘Skills’ facility in Anthropic’s Claude. The reaction was incredible. What does this tell us?"

AL's take on the kerfuffle: "Is that the end of legal tech…? As with the earlier frenzy about the legal plugin, the answer is a hard ‘no’. Why? Because the ability to customise some rules for how to handle a contract based on your past work is not the same as a broad platform packed to the rafters with carefully maintained tools and sub-tools, and agents and carefully built and maintained workflows, all with a great UI/UX designed to help you with a range of needs and that can safely live inside your law firm or legal team."

​https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/03/02/lawyer-uses-claude-skills-legal-world-loses-it/​

◾ Here's a well-reasoned, spirited defense of vertical SaaS companies operating in the face of increasingly capable GenAI foundation labs, which are seen as a threat to the business moats vertical SaaS companies now claim. The article, which appears in a16z's news blog, is written by George Sivulka, the founder and CEO of Hebbia, a major Saas player in the finance vertical. Why the article even has a few paragraphs that talk specifically about legal tech. It's an article that's truly worth reading in full.

​https://www.a16z.news/p/in-defense-of-vertical-software?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email​

Teaching/Learning Legal Tech

◾ From an Artificial Lawyer post about legal tech training (a subject near and dear to me):
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"Hotshot, the learning platform for lawyers, and Legora, have partnered together to help law firms adopt AI through practical training. The move comes as peer legal AI companies are also rolling out educational programs to drive adoption and engagement.

"As part of the collaboration, Hotshot will develop training resources with Legora, ‘focused on helping lawyers understand and use Legora in the context of their day-to-day legal work’."

Entire post from Artificial Lawyer here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/02/24/hotshot-legora-partner-for-ai-training-program/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup​