November 3, 2025 -- Issue #366

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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Legal Tech StartUp Focus is genuinely thrilled to be a media partner with Cosmonauts for the Legal Innovators New York event that will be taking place in New York City on November 19-20, 2025 at the offices of Latham & Watkins. With this event, Cosmonauts is partnering with the incomparable Artificial Lawyer platform to bring anyone interested in legal tech a wide-ranging program - described best at the Cosmonauts' website:

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Exit/M&A

◾ From the Aderant press release, today, October 28, 2025:
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“Aderant, a global leader in legal business management solutions, today announced the acquisition of Virtual Pricing Director, the London-based pioneer behind the legal industry’s first intelligent, practice management-agnostic pricing platform. Founded in 2017 by Richard Burcher, widely recognized as the world’s leading authority on law firm pricing, Virtual Pricing Director leverages AI, data, and adaptive workflows to help law firms shape global best practices in legal pricing strategy and technology.”
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The entire press release can be accessed at this link: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/92861030?utm_source=manual

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◾ Reporting from Law.com:

“On Wednesday, global legal software and services provider Elevate announced its acquisition of Legadex, a Netherlands-based legal services provider.

“With the acquisition, Elevate hopes to further expand its market reach and operations in Europe beyond its existing presence in Poland. The company also operates in the U.S., the U.K., the Philippines, Australia, Japan and India.”https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/28/elevate-acquires-dutch-legal-services-provider-legadex/

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Fundraising

◾ From Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter, today October 28, 2925:
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Vesence, an SF-based legal tech reviewer and proofreader, raised $9m in seed funding, per Axios Pro. Emergence Capital led, joined by Creandum, 20VC, and YC. https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/2025/10/28/legal-tech-startup-vesence-9-million-emergence

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◾ Law.com reports:
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“On Thursday, Stockholm-based legal artificial intelligence company Legora announced the completion of a $150 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and included participation from existing investors ICONIQ, General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Benchmark and Y Combinator.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/30/legal-ai-provider-legora-announces-150m-series-c-funding-round-/

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◾ The subject of this Bloomberg Law post is legal tech scale-up, Harvey, and its eye-watering $8 billion valuation. A proverbial “deep dive” here, with enthusiasts and skeptics pitching in. Do read.
​https://news.bloomberglaw.com/in-house-counsel/harveys-8-billion-question-can-ai-startup-match-its-hype​
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Hiring/New Hires​
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◾ Reporting from Artificial Lawyer:

"Well-known legal tech expert, Ilona Logvinova, has left top tier New York firm Cleary Gottlieb to join the recently merged HSF Kramer. She will become its Chief AI Officer. The litigation specialist firm said this will ensure it ‘remains at the forefront of legal technology and AI’."https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/10/27/ilona-logvinova-leaves-cleary-for-hsf-kramer-ai-role/

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◾ From Law.com:
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“On Monday, alternative legal service provider (ALSP) Integreon announced that CEO Subroto Mukerji is retiring from the company. Bill Carter, operating partner at private equity firm EagleTree Capital and former American Lawyer Media CEO, will serve as interim CEO while Integreon’s board of directors searches for new leadership.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/27/-integreon-is-on-the-hunt-for-new-ceo-as-subroto-mukerji-prepares-to-step-down-/

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JusticeTech/A2J

◾ From Legaltech Hub:
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“On Tuesday, October 21, Paladin, the pro bono management platform, and Hotshot, the legal learning platform, announced a partnership to connect two critical aspects of lawyer professional development: training and purpose-driven work. The collaboration enables lawyers at firms and corporate legal departments using both systems to access Hotshot’s on-demand learning content alongside Paladin’s curated pro bono opportunities.”
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$$Quote: “The integration connects two sides of lawyer development that rarely talk to each other: learning and doing. It allows firms and legal departments with existing subscriptions to both platforms to pair CLE-eligible Hotshot courses with real-world pro bono work hosted through Paladin. Lawyers can build new skills through short, video-based modules across litigation, transactional, business, and technology topics, then immediately apply those skills by volunteering on matters sourced from Paladin’s network of over 350 legal services organizations nationwide.”
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​https://www.legaltechnologyhub.com/contents/paladin-and-hotshot-join-forces-to-bridge-legal-training-and-pro-bono/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--hA9h2Vl6hs5_4jqqgv00PfoQ14Q-A0b4GE27Q3m16ue6gecZ32dHYIIgsTe4ETEd4xXgeXt9v7B2vGQF05_LOI9P69iPbHyp3Fw2FUzT1bAbh-u4&_hsmi=387212788&utm_content=387212788&utm_source=hs_email

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Member Introductions/Questions

◾ Rithvik Vanga, a new community member, introduces himself: "Hi, I'm Rithvik, one of the founders of Zatanna, an AI research tool that gives law firms and lawyers a competitive advantage in the litigation process.

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"Currently, lawyers advise clients on when to settle, when to go to trial, and how to evaluate evidence relative to the case based on past experience and gut instinct.

"For lawyers who may not have this experience, or need real data to help back their decisions, with Zatanna, lawyers are able to get exact percentage outcomes, for example, how likely are you to win in a trial given your case, evidence, and the judge, jury’s witnesses, etc. Lawyers on our platform are able to perform live research on a case's details to discover any probable biases and likely outcomes based on past similar cases, how the judges have ruled in the past, and detailed juror backgrounds.

"If you are interested, have any words of wisdom for me or our mission, feel free to reach out at rithvik@zatanna.ai or visit our website at https://zatanna.ai"

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Partnerships/Business Development​
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◾ This week’s legal tech rundown from Law.com includes news about business partnerships, hirings, product launches and the nonprofit Practising Law Institute’s launch of “. . . an Innovation Council to drive tech innovation in the legal industry and identify collaboration opportunities” (together with a list of the council’s initial members):https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/31/legaltech-rundown-nyu-scientists-develop-an-ai-contract-tool-practising-law-institute-launches-innovation-council-and-more-/

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Product Development

◾ From Artificial Lawyer:

"Tangible Intelligence has launched what it’s branding as its CoIntelligent Platform, an agentic orchestration layer that works alongside human reviewers for high-volume, recurring transactions.

"The ALSP, which launched back in 2015 and works with corporates and law firms, said that its holistic approach meant that if a company is onboarding a vendor, ‘CoIntelligent agents automatically gather requirements, review documents, flag compliance issues, route approvals, and escalate only non-standard terms to experts’."https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/10/30/alsp-tangible-launches-agentic-orchestration-layer/

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◾ Reporting from Legal IT Insider:

"The latest salvo on agentic AI in the legal technology world comes from Litera, the US$300 million/year workflow company. Today (27 October) it formally launches Lito, an AI agent that is free to customers of Litera’s core products, Litera Draft Base, Pro, Advanced and Kira. It helps lawyers through their workflows, from opening up Word, sending an email to drafting a contract and accessing their CRM systems."https://legaltechnology.com/2025/10/27/litera-gets-into-the-agentic-ai-game-with-formal-lito-launch/

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Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ From Law.com:
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“Despite their resources, Big Law firms are not typically the ones leading the legal industry in technological experimentation. Rather, experts say, it’s plaintiffs firms that tend to be the fastest adopters of emerging legal tech.
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“Because of differences in their financial structures and client relationships, plaintiffs firms have greater incentive and freedom to try new tools compared to firms that represent large corporations. And as new generative artificial intelligence-powered tools introduce greater efficiencies into the business and practice of law, plaintiffs firms’ faster tech adoption may change certain dynamics of how litigation plays out.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/29/in-race-to-innovate-plaintiffs-firms-are-leading-the-charge-/

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Startup Management

◾ A good read from Artificial Lawyer about a recent RobinAI layoff (and the factors likely behind the reduction in force).

"Robin AI, the pioneering legal tech business, which was quick to combine genAI and human experts for contract review, is laying off staff after disappointing growth. Its recently hired new CTO has also left the company, although for other reasons, AL can confirm."

Entire Artificial Lawyer piece here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/10/27/robin-ai-lays-off-staff-as-growth-disappoints/

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◾ Legal IT Insider weights in on the Robin AI saga:
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“Robin AI has been listed for a distressed sale just nine months after it achieved 10th place in The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2025 list. The sale was first reported by financial publication City AM, and its listing on an insolvency marketplace has been seen first hand by Legal IT Insider. The company, which provides a proprietary legal AI platform and managed legal services, says in the listing that it has strong growth with $10m ARR and a $16m pipeline, however the financial highlights suggest that the company has made significant losses over the past three years.”
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$$Quote: “While some in the legal tech market are forecasting that this latest development is a sign that the ‘AI bubble is bursting’, it is likely to be much more complex than that. Robin AI attempted to grow in order to compete with the likes of Harvey and Legora and it’s losses indicated that it has scaled too quickly. There has also been instability in the senior ranks, with Clough departing at the start of this year for startup Encord, and a significant amount of restructuring. The market, as competitive as it currently is, is unforgiving.”
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​https://legaltechnology.com/2025/10/28/robin-ai-listed-for-distressed-sale-nine-months-after-making-the-sunday-times-100-tech-list/

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Teaching/Learning Legal Tech

◾ Reporting from Law.com:
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“Three of Florida’s top law schools are embracing the use of artificial intelligence in their curriculum rather than shying away from it.
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“While other law schools may still be wary, or taking a niche approach to AI integration, The University of Florida, The University of Miami and Florida International University are encouraging students to understand the tool and use it ethically and effectively.”
​https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2025/10/27/heres-how-three-florida-law-schools-are-embracing-ai-in-the-classroom/

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◾ From Law.com:
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“Many law firms are increasingly focusing on training attorneys to use generative artificial intelligence, but some of their efforts may leave out a vital group. While senior attorneys often assume junior associates are better equipped to leverage new technology, some law schools are failing to provide gen AI training. That gap led Ogletree Deakins to launch an “AI Bootcamp” for first-year associates.
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“The firm, which previously conducted its first-ever hackathon for summer associates this year, decided to expand its gen AI training to first years after learning how little exposure incoming associates had to gen AI-powered tools.”
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$$Quote: “The absence of effective AI training in many law schools represents the latest evolution of a long-running divide between the legal education students receive and the realities of practicing law. While Rochford and Fox said they think firm programs can help fill the gap left when students leave law school without a background in AI, they added that they hope schools will do a better job of incorporating AI education, noting that it doesn’t need to represent a huge part of the curriculum.”
​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/10/30/theyre-not-doing-anything-or-theyre-not-doing-much-how-ogletree-deakins-is-filling-an-ai-education-gap/​
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