May 12, 2025 -- Issue #340
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
◾ A most welcome report from Artificial Lawyer that:
"Legal Innovators New York Launches – November 19 + 20
"For years we have been considering a Legal Innovators New York conference and now we’re doing it! The stars have aligned, the market has moved, and the Legal Innovators conference ethos, i.e. to explore the intersection of legal tech and the business of law – with the expectation of significant change, is in synch now with what’s happening in the Big Apple after several firms, as well as major Wall Street banks, have embraced genAI.
"AL will be updating you all on speakers and more in the weeks and months ahead. For now, if you’d like to get involved then please see the New York site here and get in touch with the Cosmonauts team: anjana@cosmonauts.biz"
◾ The New York Legal Tech Meetup has a timely and informative panel discussion planned for its May 19 get together. It’s all about agentic AI in legal and that panel, wow, it’s top notch. Deets and a link to RSVP below.
"Beyond Chatbots: Understanding Agentic AI in Legal" on May 19th!_
"Beyond Chatbots: Understanding Agentic AI in Legal" Primer + Panel (5/19 at Cleary Gottlieb)
The legal profession has embraced AI chatbots and assistants, but a new frontier is emerging: agentic AI systems that can autonomously plan, execute tasks, and make decisions within defined parameters.
Please join us at Cleary Gottlieb on Monday, May 19th, as we dive into understanding the real capabilities, limitations, and opportunities of AI systems that can act independently to support legal work.
Is Agentic AI still a new concept for you? Don't worry! We’ll begin with a 10-minute primer from an AI expert to demystify agentic AI and establish a common vocabulary before hearing from our panelists.
What: "Beyond Chatbots: Understanding Agentic AI in Legal" Primer + Panel
When: 6:30 p.m., May 19th, 2025
Where: Cleary Gottlieb (1 Liberty Place New York, NY 10006)
RSVP: https://understanding-agentic-ai-in-legal.eventbrite.com/
◾ Community members, Ken Crutchfield posts: "For everyone's visibility. TLTF Summit is the premier legal tech conference, and TLTF is the leading VC fund targeted at Legal Tech. They offer a startup stage for new companies to pitch and tell their stories. The application process just opened.https://www.tltfsummit.com/startup-stages
Exit/M&A
◾ Reporting from Legaltech News:
“On Monday [May 5, 2025], outside counsel management platform Persuit announced that it acquired legal spend analytics and matter management provider Apperio. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.”
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/05/05/outside-counsel-management-platform-persuit-acquires-apperio-plans-end-to-end-solution/
◾ From Axios’ May 6, 2025 edition of its “Pro Rata” newsletter:
“[PE firm] Arcapita acquired a majority stake in Trustpoint.One, an Atlanta-based provider of tech-enabled legal services to law firms and corporations, at a valuation north of $400m.” www.trustpoint.one
Fundraising
◾ “On Monday, Maveri, a legal tech startup focused on streamlining corporate due diligence for M&A and startup lawyers, came out of stealth mode and announced $3.5 million in funding from a number of investors including Goodwin partner and co-chair of its Global M&A group Lawrence Chu.”
Learn more about the round (including the names of other investors) at this link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/05/05/due-diligence-startup-maveri-raises-35-million-with-investment-from-goodwin-partner/
◾ As reported by Bob Ambrogi at his LawSites blog:
“Legal technology company FirmPilot [an AI marketing platform for law firms] announced today that it has raised $11.7 million in total funding, with Thomson Reuters Ventures and HubSpot Ventures joining as strategic investors in its latest round.”
https://www.lawnext.com/2025/05/firmpilot-reaches-11-7m-in-funding-as-thomson-reuters-and-hubspot-ventures-join-as-investors.html
◾ And the fundraising continues apace, with Legaltech News reporting:
On Wednesday [May 7, 2025], SimpleClosure, a company dissolution service provider, announced it had raised $15 million in a series A funding round led by TTV Capital and featuring The LegalTech Fund.
"Other backers include existing investors Infinity Ventures, Anthemis and Vera Equity, alongside new investor Carta and additional angel investors."https://bit.ly/3RPiVxY
◾ From the May 8, 2025 edition of the StrictlyVC newsletter:
“Trust & Will, an eight-year-old San Diego startup that offers digital tools to help individuals create and manage legally valid estate planning documents online, raised a $4.5 million round Series C extension. Curql provided the financing.”
More at the link below.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trust--will-secures-4-5-million-investment-from-curql-to-expand-estate-planning-for-credit-union-members-bringing-series-c-funding-to-32m-302434024.html
◾ From Artificial Lawyer:
"Tomorro, a Paris-based startup focused on contract management, has bagged €25m to help it expand across Europe, along with a plan to develop their AI-driven negotiation capabilities."https://bit.ly/4deKF98
Hiring/New Hires
◾ Below is a link to a LinkedIn post from Infodash announcing that Jason Reid has joined the Infodash team as Director of Partnerships.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/getinfodash_we-are-excited-to-share-that-jason-reid-has-activity-7325540313681305600-eBmG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0
◾ “Cornelius Grossmann served as the global managing partner of the legal practice at Big Four accounting firm EY for 13 years. He's now at Dentons, the world's largest law firm, as its first-ever global head of solutions development.”
Here’s a link to the rest of this Legaltech News article:
https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2025/05/08/serious-about-the-adoption-of-legal-tech-former-ey-law-leader-joins-dentons/
Incubators/Accelerators
◾ From Artificial Lawyer:
"The new cohort of legal tech startups in this year’s LawTech Hub incubator, run by Australia’s Lander & Rogers, has been announced. And there’s some very interesting companies involved."
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/05/09/lawtech-hub-startup-cohort-announced/
Investing
◾ Below is a link to issue #41 of Peter Duffy’s very enjoyable and informative “Legal Tech Trends Newsletter” on Substack. After clicking that link, scroll down to the section of the newsletter that’s captioned “AI-First Law Firms - Instead of selling to dinosaurs, you could make them extinct!?” and there you’ll find thoughts on so-called “AI-fist law firms:”
As Peter writes, in part: “Y-Combinator’s latest ‘Request for Startups" lists "Full-stack AI Companies,’ explicitly naming law firms as prime targets.
“As I [Peter] mentioned in the last newsletter, LegalTech is becoming increasingly appealing to innovators from outside the industry, and this prominent call-out from Y-Combinator illustrates just how dramatically GenAI has transformed the sector's perception.”
Before Peter’s newsletter, be sure to click on the link he provides to a Y-Combinator web page where a YC investor elaborates on the kind of full-stack companies that that investor believe will”target law firms as prime targets.” The elaboration is a doozy (and not only for demonstrating how much investors have come to embrace legal tech as a very investable asset class).
https://open.substack.com/pub/legaltechtrends/p/legal-tech-trends-newsletter-41?r=1cv2&utm_medium=ios
JusticeTech/A2J
◾ “The UK Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has authorised the first law firm providing legal services purely through technology, with Garfield.Law Ltd now able to provide regulated legal services in England and Wales.”
Two thoughts:
First, if this article had appeared on April 1 I would have thought, at least initially, that it wasn’t “for real.” Second, the UK has a welcome and far more “easy going” approach to regulating the unauthorized practice of law - in the interest of serving A2J needs.
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/05/06/uk-regulator-gives-green-light-to-tech-only-law-firm-garfield-law-interview/
◾ From the LawSites blog:
“Paladin, a company whose platform connects lawyers with opportunities to provide free legal help, today launched a province-wide pro bono portal for Ontario, developed in partnership with the Ontario Bar Association.”
https://www.lawnext.com/2025/05/paladin-launches-its-first-pro-bono-portal-outside-the-u-s-in-partnership-with-ontario-bar-association.html
Marketing Legal Tech
◾ In this Substack from Zach Abramowitz, the author asks whether in-house legal’s increasing use of GenAI foretells both CLM’s decline (doom?) and the diminishing impact of legal ops.
I also took special note,however, of Zach’s coverage of Robin.ai's decision not to exhibit at CLOC’s 2025 Global Institute conference. Instead, as Zach reports, Robin has been ". . . hosting smaller, owned events -- 20 GCs in a room, bootcamp-style -- where in-house teams actively test Robin's AI in live scenarios. These sessions, [Lauren] Watson [Robin's Head of Product Marketing] says, are producing stronger ROI than big tent events."
What really caught my eye is this "smaller, owned-event" approach to legal tech marketing (INSTEAD OF - and NOT alongside of - the costly "conference-exhibitor" approach) that Robin is reported to be taking.
https://open.substack.com/pub/zachabramowitz/p/the-biggest-news-at-cloc-may-be-this?r=1cv2&utm_medium=ios
Member Introductions/Questions
◾ New community member, Aditi Mangal, introduces herself: "Hello everyone! I am Aditi from Bangalore, India and have been working in the Legal Operations space for the last 4 years- specifically in the contract review and extraction automation space.
"The introduction of LLMs has brought in a massive change in my workflows and processes and am truly excited about what AI can do for and to the legal industry.
"Happy to be a part of this shared community and looking forward to connecting with all of you!"
◾ Another new community member, this time Hayley Kay of legal tech company StillProof, introduces herself: "Hi everyone, I’m Hayley, founder of StillProof a legal tech platform built to support survivors of domestic and family violence in documenting abuse and generating court-ready evidence.
"StillProof was born out of lived experience and is now in development with an ethical engineering team. Our focus is on structured evidence, privacy, and aligning with legal standards without retraumatising the user.
"I joined this group to connect with others who care about building tech that solves real-world legal challenges. Looking forward to learning from you all and sharing more as we grow."
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ From the May 9, 2025 Aderant press release:
"May 9, 2025 – ATLANTA – Aderant®, the leading global business management software provider, announced today a multi-year renewal of its strategic partnership with LawPay, the leading payment management software for law firms."
"The Aderant and LawPay integration fully automates and extends payment enablement options for Expert/Sierra customers to provide a fully cloud-based payment solution. Scheduled payments, encrypted signatures, and online payments are all enabled within LawPay for Expert/Sierra clients, as well as many other features."
Access the entire press release at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/84286792?utm_source=manual
◾ Legaltech News’ legal tech rundown for the past week can be accessed here:
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/05/09/legaltech-rundown-latham--watkins-launches-crypto-policy-tracker-paladin-expands-to-canada-and-more/
Purchasing/Using Legal Tech
◾ From the LawSites blog that Bob Ambrogi publishes:
“Vals AI has put out an open call for legal technology vendors to participate in its legal AI benchmarking studies, including its upcoming evaluation of U.S. legal research tools.”
The entire article is well worth a read and at the link you’ll find a form that legal tech vendors can complete and submit to have their AI tech evaluated (as well as form for law firms to complete and submit to join Vals’ benchmarking consortium).
https://www.lawnext.com/2025/05/vals-ai-issues-open-call-for-vendors-to-participate-in-its-legal-research-and-other-legal-ai-benchmarking-studies.html
◾ “On day one of CLOC Global Institute 2025, one legal department dove into how they adopted gen AI step-by-step within their in-house legal team with help from EY.”
The remainder of this Legaltech News article can be found here: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/05/06/cloc-day-1-inside-one-legal-departments-ai-adoption-journey-/
◾ The by-now "old saw" in legal tech adoption circles is "it's not so much about the tech, it's more about the people."
As we know, that phrase is shorthand for saying that often, no matter how effective the legal tech in question is, you need people (with domain expertise and workflow experience), together with well-crafted processes, to teach other people (potential legal tech users) about the in's and out's of integrating that tech into the latter's every day practice.
At the link below is an article by Caroline Hill of Legal IT Insider that interviews legal tech leaders for answers to the important question of how law firms and legal departments actually get otherwise good legal tech over the adoption hurdle and into regular use.
$$Quote: "Speaking to me [Caroline Hill] at the end of 2024 about embedding generative AI within the [iManage Wayfinder tech adoption] platform, [iManage] CEO Neil Araujo said: ‘Wayfinder is delivered through a combination of our services team and practice leads; lawyers we've hired who are teaching other lawyers how they would change working practices. It's not about IT, AI is different. As a teacher, you have to know where to apply it; where does it have rough edges; what are the guard rails? We've built all those guard rails but we're teaching people how to change their processes so that they can benefit from the new capabilities. We're helping customers to find the right way for them.’ "
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/05/08/comment-genai-success-is-not-about-tech-its-about-partnership/
◾ Joel Bijlmer posts: "Legal departments don’t need another app. What they need, according to a growing number of in-house counsel, is a way to cut through the backlog of contract reviews without jumping between platforms or adjusting workflows that already work just fine. DraftPilot has taken this feedback and jumped into action.
"Read the full article: https://thelegalwire.ai/draftpilot-keeps-contract-review-where-it-belongs-inside-word/"
Teaching/Learning Legal Tech
◾ From the May 5, 2025 BARBRI press release:
"BARBRI Assembles Top Talent to Launch its Professional Education Advisory Board
"New Group Paves the Way for Transformative Professional Legal Education
"DALLAS — May 2, 2025 — BARBRI, a global leader in legal education, today announced the launch of its BARBRI Professional Education Advisory Board, a pioneering initiative dedicated to shaping the future of legal skills training for lawyers and legal professionals. Led by a renowned team of industry experts, this initiative will anticipate and address emerging challenges in legal education, equipping professionals and the people tasked with providing the resources to develop their careers with access to essential skills for the modern legal environment.
"The board will be chaired by Ari Kaplan of Ari Kaplan Advisors, a seasoned industry analyst and leader in the legal profession, whose vision for accessible, dynamic learning will drive the group’s mission. Board members represent a global perspective from several different types of organizations. The board also includes professionals at various stages in their careers to ensure a wide range of viewpoints."
Access the entire press release at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/84046793?utm_source=manual
◾ “While the practice of law is being fundamentally transformed by an influx of artificial intelligence-powered tools, legal education has at times struggled to keep up. J.D. curricula can neglect the topics that define day-to-day legal work, and students fear the growing use of AI will mean fewer available jobs post-graduation.”
“Legaltech News spoke with Jeanne Eicks, associate dean of graduate programs at The Colleges of Law, about why legal education has been slow to incorporate![and much more].”
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/05/05/the-colleges-of-law-dean-discusses-how-to-bring-ai-into-legal-education/
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