May 11, 2026 -- Issue #393
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
◾ Our community's good friend, Russ Korin, a lawyer at NYC-based law firm, Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner, has another fireside chat tee'd up; this one with Jason McMullen, in-house legal counsel, at GitLab.
More about the upcoming chat:
" . . . Jason is here to share best practices and perspectives on building, negotiating, and managing partner relationships—appropriate for both established companies with large ecosystems like GitLab, or emerging companies lining up [their] first companies to drive rapid growth. We will also widen the lens and touch on the concept of open systems and how to maintain quality and customer loyalty.
"Here's a chance to peek inside the playbook and take away lessons applicable to tech companies of all kinds. Corporate executives, founders, advisors, investors and others are welcome to attend."
Partner Ecosystems: Keys to Driving Synergies for SuccessA Fireside Chat with Jason McMullen, In-House Legal Counsel, GitLab
Tuesday, May 19, 12:00 noon to 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time
You can register to attend here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6OrKcRRrRXKWw0mnVvzqpQ
Exit/M&A
◾ Legora M&A news from Legaltech News (LTN), with an LTN post reporting Legora acquisition of regulatory reporting monitoring company, Graceview.
From the LTN post:
“On Wednesday, Legora announced the purchase of Melbourne, Australia-based regulatory intelligence platform Graceview. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.”
Read more about the acquisition (including Legora’s rationale for doing the deal) by accessing LTN’s complete post here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/05/06/legora-acquires-regulatory-monitoring-company-graceview-/
Fundraising
◾ From Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter today, May 5, 2026:
“Legal technology startup Moritz has raised $9 million in an oversubscribed funding round following participation in Y Combinator. The round was backed by investors including 20VC, Urban Innovation Fund, and Inception, alongside a group of 20 unicorn founders.
“Founded by Pamir Ehsas and Stefan Mandaric, the company aims to address inefficiencies in legal services.”
More at the link below: https://tech.eu/2026/05/05/backed-by-y-combinator-and-20-unicorn-founders-moritz-lands-9m/
◾ From the Axios “Pro Rata” newsletter, today May 6, 2026:
“Enter, a Brazilian legal tech startup, raised $100m at a $1.2b valuation. Founders Fund led, joined by Sequoia Capital and Ribbit Capital.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-05/brazilian-ai-legal-startup-enter-valued-at-1-2-billion-in-round
◾ More from today’s (May 6, 2026) Axios “Pro Rata” newsletter:
“Jurisphere, an Indian legal AI startup, raised $2.2m from InfoEdge Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Antler, and 8i Ventures.”
https://inc42.com/buzz/jurisphere-ai-bags-2-2-mn-to-build-ai-powered-lawyer-marketplace/
◾ Paris-based LegalPlace, a company that offers tech solutions to entrepreneurs looking for company creation and management tools, has closed a €70 million raise.
From a post on the Xange website:
“Founded in 2016 by Racem Flazi, Mehdi Ouchallal, and Samuel Goldstein, LegalPlace has become the reference platform for company creation and management in France. The company announces a major fundraise of €70 million from Move Capital fund I, XAnge, and Eurazeo, to finance the strategic acquisition of its historic competitor Legalstart and continue its technological investments. In a context of market consolidation, this merger gives birth to a giant in company creation and management, now handling nearly 20% of company formations in France, with the ambition of exporting the French model of company creation to the European level.”
Read the entire post at the link below:
https://www.xange.vc/press/legalplace-70m
Hiring/New Hires
◾ Here’s a link to a LinkedIn post from Mary O’Carroll where Mary announces that she’s becoming CEO of a consulting firm to in-house teams. The company that Mary’s joining is called LegalEng Consulting Group (LEGC). Very best of great good luck to Mary O’Carroll in this new role.
From the post:
“LECG is built around a simple but powerful idea: in-house legal teams don't need more advice. They need someone who will stay to build, implement, and run the thing with them. Strategy through execution. That's the model.
“What excites me most: we're not just helping teams transform. We're building the blueprint for what a truly modern in-house legal team looks like. I’m incredibly excited to partner with our clients and this exceptional team to do just that.
“p.s. We're hiring!”
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maryshenocarroll_im-joining-legaleng-consulting-group-as-share-7457211132408352768-Hapf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0
◾ Legal IT Insider has given us a rundown of “. . . a raft of North American law firm and vendor senior appointments over the past couple of weeks . . .”, including appointments and hires Harvey, K&L Gates, Eversheds, and more.
Read the entire Legal IT Insider post here: https://legaltechnology.com/2026/05/06/movers-and-shakers-k-morgan-lewis-axinn-eversheds-harvey-legaleng-litera/
◾ Ever more product launches, new hires (including Norm Law's "get" of a Sidley Austin partner), and business partnerships this now ending business week. So catch up on these and other noteworthy legal tech events by reading Legaltech News' legal tech rundown. Available at this link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/05/08/legaltech-rundown-norm-law-hires-partner-from-sidley-kl-gates-appoints-global-ai-and-innovation-partner-and-more-/?kw=Legaltech+Rundown:+Norm+Law+Hires+Partner+from+Sidley,+K%26L+Gates+Appoints+Global+AI+and+Innovation+Partner,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260508&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260508153152
LegalEd
◾ LTSF'er, Zoran Gajic, posts about how AI isn't where the "real competitive edge" is in legal practice. Visit this link to read what Zoran posts about: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/101792599?utm_source=manual
Marketing Legal Tech
◾ Artificial Lawyer (AL) has a most informative and most enjoyable end-of-the-business-week Wrap for us today that includes how Legora's spokesperson, Jude Law, faces competition from Jude.Law. From AL's post:
"Wow, another incredible week in legal AI – which has now gone very agentic! We start this week’s Wrap with news that Jude Law has some legal tech competition, from….Jude.Law.
"Yes indeed, there is a Kiwi legal AI company called Jude, with the web address: www.Jude.Law – their founder, Simon Vollmer, told AL that they pre-date Legora’s recent movie star ad campaign."
Get all the news from this week's AL Wrap here, at this link: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/08/jude-law-litera-altaclaro-legal-innovators-california-speakers/
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ A post from the LawSites blog reports that Everlaw and Legora have formed a business partnership. From the LawSites post:
"Everlaw and Legora have announced a technology partnership that will allow litigation teams to access documents stored in Everlaw directly within Legora’s drafting and collaboration environment.
"The integration is designed to close the gap between the discovery and drafting phases of litigation. Under the arrangement, attorneys working in Legora — whether on witness statements, deposition questions or trial briefs — will be able to surface relevant documents from Everlaw without leaving the Legora platform."
You can access the full LawSites post here: https://www.lawnext.com/2026/05/everlaw-and-legora-announce-integration-to-connect-discovery-and-drafting.html
◾ More press release news today, May 6, 2026, this time from Clarra, the case management company for litigators and legal ops folks, that announces a "partnership and product integration" with NetDocs. From the Clarra press release:
SAN FRANCISCO (May 5, 2026) — Clarra, a cloud-based case management platform optimized for litigation and legal operations, today announced a partnership and product integration with NetDocuments, the #1 trusted intelligent document management system (DMS) for legal professionals. The integration allows legal teams to access and manage NetDocuments workspaces and files directly from within the Clarra platform, reducing the inefficiencies and risks of working across disconnected systems.
“We built Clarra to simplify litigation work without locking firms into rigid all-in-one tools,” said Keao Caindec, CEO and co-founder of Clarra. “By connecting NetDocuments with Clarra, we’ve created a seamless, familiar way for legal teams to manage documents alongside matters and obligations and meet firms where they are in their existing workflows. Throughout the process, NetDocuments has proven to be an outstanding partner, one that is collaborative and easy to work with, and fully aligned with our commitment to making legal work simpler.”
The entire press release appears at this link: https://clarra.com/press-release/clarra-partners-with-netdocuments-integrating-case-and-document-management-workflows/?utm_campaign=43892487-Press%20Release%20Campaign&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_sEfHNVKvydibQE3CR5qTqTLPZnWeMBagrjvCU_UUAjX2INSiDdBM5UduQFixe5hxKbKTaTW1K1qicJd0oQUvf66VQZDrb5fa9S8lHXbD8Dzm2T78&_hsmi=417636804&utm_content=417636804&utm_source=hs_email
Product Development
◾ Legaltech News (LTN) posts about a major agentic AI release by Harvey today, May 5, 2026. From the LTN post:
"On Tuesday, Harvey announced the release of more than 500-use, [sic] case-specific legal artificial intelligence agents, alongside an Agent Builder tool designed to allow customers to customize the pre-built agents to meet their needs.
"The new offerings are currently available in early access to select customers and will be rolled out to additional customers over the next few months."
To find out about the practice areas and workflows covered, read the entire post from LTN by going to this link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2026/05/05/harvey-launches-pre-built-ai-agents-self-service-customization-tool/?kw=Harvey+Launches+Pre-Built+AI+Agents,+Self-Service+Customization+Tool&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20260505&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&user_id=5a62392218ff43ec508b502b&slreturn=20260505162013
◾ Not to be left out of the "agentic-AI-in-legal" festivities, Legora offers its own agent-driven features. From the Artificial Lawyer (AL) post on this news from Legora:
"Legora has launched what it’s calling aOS, an agentic operating system, which they say marks the ‘dawn of Agentic Law’. Sounds great. What is it?
"They explained that it’s ‘a purpose-built agentic operating system that enables legal teams to execute complex work end-to-end, from matter intake through to client delivery’.
"The ‘Legora Agent’ – which is the active bit in the aOS – ‘drives autonomous legal execution, handling research, drafting, and busy work continuously so lawyers can review it at scale and focus on the decisions that matter’.
"In short, as with several other companies, they are going all in on agents."
Read all of this AL post here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/07/legora-launches-aos-agentic-operating-system/
Purchasing/Using Legal Tech
◾ You may have already heard about "Mike" (yes, it's a legal tech application called Mike). What makes it so special is that it purports to be a competitor to Harvey, Legora (Hargora?), and is open source and free to use under an AGPL v3 copyleft license. So, reading all that, I'm sure you want to learn more about Mike, and its sole developer (and former Latham & Watkins associate), Will Chen.
Well, Artificial Lawyer (AL) has you covered, with a post where AL interviews Will Chen and offers a walk-through demo video of Mike. From the AL post:
"First, the question everyone wants to know the answer to: Is Mike ‘as good as’ Hargora in your view? (At least in terms of what’s been built so far?)
"It has the core functions of Hargora’s web application: an assistant that can help lawyers review, create and edit documents, projects (or the Vault as Harvey calls it), tabular review, and workflows. You can also chat with tabular review results like in Hargora and spin up assistants within projects.
"Mike is functional, usable end-to-end for key legal workflows and I welcome everyone to test it out. It can also do some things better, such as properly rendering documents like CP checklists in landscape, and making precise edits to existing documents in tracked changes while versioning it up. While both companies’ word add-ins are able to do so, their in-browser assistants struggle a little. The assistant is also able to replicate documents and make tracked changes edits in multiple documents all at once within a project."
Read the entire AL post at this link: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/04/mike-the-open-source-legal-ai-platform-will-chen-interview/
◾ Community member, Yash Giri, posts:
"500+ lawyers.
95% positive feedback.
And that was just Beta 1.
"We didn’t celebrate it we rebuilt it.
"Pactora Beta 2 is now live.
"What’s changed?
"Sharper, more reliable AI models
Significantly improved response accuracy
"Higher-quality, structured outputs you can actually trust in real workflows
Faster, cleaner contract analysis experience
"Beta 1 proved something important: lawyers want deterministic, playbook-driven AI not vague suggestions.
"Beta 2 is where that vision starts becoming real.
"But here’s the part you shouldn’t ignore:
"Beta 2 will not stay open for long.
"We are closing access soon to refine, scale, and push toward a production-grade system.
If you're not testing it now, you’re missing the phase where your feedback can shape the product and where early users get the edge.
"AI in legal isn’t coming. It’s already separating those who adapt early from those who react late.
"Try Pactora(pactora.in) before Beta 2 closes.
"Or watch others build the advantage first.
◾ Harvey posted on LinkedIn today, May 6, 2026, to announce that it is (as stated in the Harvey post):
". . . launching Legal Agent Benchmark (LAB), an open-source benchmark for long-horizon legal agents.
"Unlike prior benchmarks that measure short-horizon reasoning, LAB is a client matter-centric benchmark built to mirror how legal work is actually delivered at a law firm. Each task gives an agent a partner-level request for work product, a synthetic client matter, and is graded against an expert rubric. In total, LAB spans over 1,200 tasks across 24 legal practice areas, graded by over 75,000 expert rubric criteria.
"We are working closely with the foundation model labs, inference providers, Neo labs, and AI companies to evaluate the best open and closed source legal agents. Soon, we’ll be releasing a leaderboard covering major closed- and open-source models."
Read Harvey's entire LinkedIn post here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/harvey-ai_today-we-are-launching-legal-agent-benchmark-activity-7457814955451396097-HygW?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0
◾ A story with a happy "technology adoption" ending on the part of ELG Injury Lawyers, a Florida-based law firm. The story is told in a press release today, May 7, 2026, from EvenUp, the legal tech company that, as its website puts it, offers "Proactive AI for Personal Injury Firms." From the EvenUp press release:
"ELG founderDavid Eltringham, Esq. built the practice around speed, consistency, and client service, becoming a trailblazer in applying AI to benefit both his law practice and its clients. The firm rigorously maintains a standard of assembling medical records and issuing comprehensive demands within 10 months or less. As the business expanded, manual processes and operational bottlenecks began to limit growth and delay case progress.
"To address this, ELG discovered and adoptedEvenUp, an AI platform designed specifically for personal injury firms. As one of EvenUp’s earliest customers, ELG integrated the platform to streamline record review, accelerate demand generation, and improve overall case efficiency."
Read the entire press release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507756390/en/ELG-Injury-Lawyers-Achieves-400-Revenue-Growth-Using-AI-Tech-Built-for-Personal-Injury-Firms
◾ "Mak[ing] vibe coding accessible to domain experts," that the aim of Mathias Strasser, founder and CEO of Scissero with the release of "Suzie Law," as reported in a post from Artificial Lawyer (AL). From the AL post:
"Scissero has launched ‘Suzie Law’, an open-source (emphasis added) AI assistant to help lawyers with needs such as drafting and knowledge search, with the ability to ‘adapt the system to their own practice areas’. The move comes shortly after Will Chen launched an open-source legal AI platform called Mike.
"CEO Mathias Strasser told Artificial Lawyer: ‘Suzie Law is intended to be cloned, modified, and adapted by the legal community."
As AL notes, this is, in many ways, right out of the classic open-source business playbook: "In short: you get the ‘legal AI starter pack’ and then can go to the main business for more complex needs."
And that's just fine by me.
The entire AL post is well worth the read (it includes an interview with Mathias Strasser) and it can be accessed here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/07/scissero-launches-suzie-law-open-source-ai-assistant/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
Regulation
◾ A post on the LawSites blog alerts us to proposed California bar association rulemaking on lawyers' use of AI. From the LawSites post:
"When using any technology — including AI — a lawyer 'must independently review, verify, and exercise professional judgment regarding any output generated by the technology that is used in connection with representing a client.'
"That language appears in a new comment to Rule 1.1 on competence proposed by the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC) as part of a package of AI-related amendments to six of the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct.
"The proposed changes would, for the first time, write specific AI obligations into California’s rules. The changes span the rules on competence, client communication, confidentiality, candor toward tribunals, and supervision of both lawyers and other staff."
Much more to read in the post, which can be read in full here: https://www.lawnext.com/2026/05/california-bar-proposes-rule-requiring-lawyers-to-verify-every-ai-output-and-five-other-ai-focused-ethics-changes.html
Startup Management
◾ The always "disrupted" (and always "disrupting" - from a legal tech perspective, of course), Zach Ambramowitz, has posted about an episode of the Zach Ambramowitz is Legally Disrupted podcast that he recorded recently with Richard Tromans of Artificial Lawyer. Of particular note is the discussion that Zach and Richard had about the impact that the foundation models' offering of legal tech-focused aspects of their LLM models could have on legal tech vendors.
From Zach's post:
"We [Zach and Richard] went deep on whether Claude is going to steal Harvey and Legora’s lunch. We are already seeing top-tier litigators bypass off-the-shelf products to build directly on base models. For example, Quinn Emanuel built their own proprietary system (the “Kerch Bench”) entirely on top of Claude. Instead of relying on an application-layer company, they are structuring their own case data, distilling depositions, and building custom Claude “skills” to draft briefs and conduct early case assessments. If litigators can achieve an order-of-magnitude productivity gain just by directly prompting Claude as a thought partner, what does that mean for companies like Harvey and Legora?"
"We also got [beyond the legal tech vendor vs foundation model issue] into the recent buzz about suspicious ARR numbers and bookkeeping by some startups. And finally, we discussed why lawyers are blowing AI hallucinations out of proportion."
Read Zach's entire post and get access to his podcast episode with Richard Tromans here: https://www.legallydisrupted.com/p/is-harvey-vs-legora-turning-into?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=154342&post_id=196369509&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dm1ui&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
◾ Liability insurance for companies that produce tools with AI outputs and for the organizations that use those tools? No, there's not an app for that. Better, there's an insurance company for that. See this post by Artificial Lawyer (AL) for more.
From the AL post:
"Corgi, a new insurance company backed by Y Combinator, is now offering AI liability insurance – for both the AI companies providing the outputs, and the businesses – and potentially law firms – that use those AI tools.
"AL asked CEO, Nico Laqua, about what was covered in terms of AI, especially whether it was both sides of the equation; and AL also noted that the legal world is very interested in this area."
Read all of the AL post at the following link: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/05/corgi-launches-ai-liability-insurance/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ Legal tech advisor AND legal tech investor (oh, and podcaster too), Zach Abramowitz, posts about investing in legal tech. And in this regard, Zach connects the reader to his interview with one of today's world-class tech investors, Keith Rabois, which interview comes in the latest episode of Zach Abramowitz's Legally Disputed podcast.
From Zach's post:
"To figure out where the smart money is actually going, I sat down with Keith Rabois on 🎙 episode 48 of Zach Abramowitz is Legally Disrupted. Rabois who is a Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, is one of the most successful investors of the last 25 years, and, fun fact, a former litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell who clerked on the Fifth Circuit."
Read the entirety of Zach's post and get access to the aforementioned podcast episode at this link: https://www.legallydisrupted.com/p/is-silicon-valley-actually-interested?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=154342&post_id=197079684&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dm1ui&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Teaching/Learning Legal Tech
◾ Love to see attention being paid to lawyer training for AI use, as reported in this post from Artificial Lawyer (AL), especially given the involvement with the good folks at Alta Claro.
From the AL post:
"On May 21, Thursday 11AM EST, 4PM UK, AltaClaro in partnership with Artificial Lawyer will be holding a lawyer education and training webinar on the subject of: ‘Better judgment in the AI era with simulations’. Guests include Kate Orr and Kelly Cullen from Orrick. The panel is moderated by AL’s founder.
"It’s free to attend, but please RSVP for this key webinar about legal training in the AI era."
Read all of the AL post here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/05/11/webinar-better-judgment-in-the-ai-era-may-21/
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