September 22, 2025 -- Issue #360
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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Exit/M&A
◾ Legal Tech News reports:
"U.K.-based legal tech startup Lawhive announced its acquisition of Woodstock Legal Services, a U.K. law firm with less than 100 attorneys, on Wednesday.
"With the acquisition, Lawhive aims to expand its staff of lawyers and leverage Woodstock’s lawyers to further the development of the platform with additional legal expertise."
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/12/uk-legal-tech-startup-lawhive-acquires-law-firm-woodstock-legal-services/?kw=UK+Legal+Tech+Startup+Lawhive+Acquires+Law+Firm+Woodstock+Legal+Services&utm_position=2&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250915&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20250915092654
Fundraising
◾ Law.com's Legal Tech News reports on law firm investment in legal tech startups.
"For years legal tech companies have set out to provide law firms with tools and solutions that have the potential to drive innovation. Law firms that believe in this potential are investing in these legal tech companies for different reasons—whether they have reaped the benefits of a startup’s product or just believe in a company’s mission."
"Law.com spoke with several law firms that have invested in legal technology companies over the past few years to discuss their motivation for taking the leap of faith. Here we provide a typology of four models that guide these investments."
With additional comments from Zach Abramowitz of Killer Whale Strategies and Zach Posner of The Legal Tech Fund.
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/16/more-law-firms-are-investing-in-legal-tech-startupsbut-not-all-do-it-the-same-way/?kw=More+Law+Firms+Are+Investing+in+Legal+Tech+Startups%26mdash;But+Not+All+Do+It+the+Same+Way&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250917&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20250917085759
◾ From Legal IT Insider, a post about Centauri’s fundraise and the company’s “deal intelligence” product for high-stakes corporate deals.
“Centari, an AI-powered deal insights platform, today (18 September) announced that it has raised $14m in funding, including an oversubscribed Series A of $8.4m. The round was led by Sentinel Global with participation from GTMfund, South Park Commons, Alt Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Recall Capital, and strategic partners in the fintech and legal industries.”
Good Q&A about the Centauri product offering with Kevin Walker, CEO and founder of Centari and a former Paul Hastings M&A lawyer.
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/09/18/centari-raises-14m-to-pioneer-deal-intelligence-in-the-enterprise-ai-market/
Hiring/New Hires
◾ From Law.com’s Legal Tech News:
“Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has added Sean Sullivan as its new chief information officer, the firm said Wednesday, the latest in a string of C-suite hires at major firms where information and technology leads have taken center stage.
“Sullivan joined Fried Frank from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he was director of information technology for over 16 years.”
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2025/09/17/wachtell-it-director-becomes-fried-frank-cio-amid-big-law-demand-for-tech-leaders/
Honors and Awards
◾ From the LawSites blog:
“Finalists have been named for the 2025 American Legal Technology Awards, which honor exceptional achievement in various aspects of legal technology
“The awards will be presented on Oct. 15 at a gala dinner on the eve of the Clio Cloud Conference in Boston, Mass. The dinner will be held at Suffolk Law School.”
Access the blog post (and learn the finalists’ names) here: https://www.lawnext.com/2025/09/finalists-named-for-2025-american-legal-technology-awards.html
◾ ALM, the folks behind the Legalweek conference, notes:
"Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards 2026Nominations Deadline: November 24, 2025
"The Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards are back after a record-breaking year of submissions! These awards honor the visionaries and trailblazers who are redefining the legal profession through technology.
"From groundbreaking projects to transformative initiatives, we spotlight the individuals and teams driving meaningful change in the legal industry. Join us as we celebrate the lawyers, innovators, and leaders whose work is shaping the future of law and setting new standards for excellence."
https://www.event.law.com/legalweek-leaders-tech/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=nominations&utm_id=mkt
LegalEd
◾ Joel Bijlmer of The Legal Wire posts: "Clients are asking the question every firm needs to answer:
If AI speeds up drafting and review, how does that change your fees?
"In her guest piece for The Legal Wire, Dorna Moini (CEO of Gavel) lays out a playbook for transactional practices: a one-page disclosure template, four pricing models that share AI’s efficiency dividend, and a 30-day roadmap to put it into practice.
"The firms that get pricing right won’t just avoid friction. They’ll win work.
"Full article here: https://thelegalwire.ai/share-the-dividend-pricing-models-for-ai%e2%80%91enabled-legal-work/"
◾ More today from Law.com's Legal Tech News:
"On Monday, Stanford University Law School announced the launch of its Legal Innovation Through Frontier Technology Lab, also known as liftlab.
"Led by Stanford CodeX research fellow Megan Ma, who will serve as liftlab’s executive director, alongside professor of law Julian Nyarko, the research lab will develop and evaluate various artificial intelligence processes in legal work and explore use cases for AI with the help of Stanford students, computer scientists, linguists, researchers and scholars."
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/16/stanford-law-school-launches-legal-tech-innovation-lab/?kw=Stanford+Law+School+Launches+Legal+Tech+Innovation+Lab&utm_position=2&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250917&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A
Full article here (where readers can learn what are some of the research projects that are already in liftlab's pipeline): https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/16/stanford-law-school-launches-legal-tech-innovation-lab/?kw=Stanford+Law+School+Launches+Legal+Tech+Innovation+Lab&utm_position=2&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250917&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A
◾ From Law.com's Legal Tech News:
"As Big Law firms adopt more AI technology tools, liability and data security risks associated with AI are growing, according to industry observers, who say these concerns are beginning to enter discussions with legal malpractice insurers."'
Law firm leaders and legal tech vendors would be well advised to get familiar with the malpractice and errors/omissions insurance aspects of AI use by legal. The linked article is a start.
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/18/ai-legal-malpractice-law-firms-and-insurers-are-playing-catch-up/?kw=AI+Legal+Malpractice?+Law+Firms+and+Insurers+Are+Playing+Catch-Up&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250919&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20250919081203
Partnerships/Business Development
◾ From the September 15, 2025, press release issued by legal tech companies Smokeball and Querious:
"September 15, 2025 – Raleigh, North Carolina — Querious, the first Legal Conversational Intelligence™ platform purpose-built for the demands of modern legal practice, today announced a new integration with Smokeball, the industry-leading legal practice management platform. With this launch, Querious is now officially listed in the Smokeball Marketplace."
"With its new Smokeball integration, Querious now syncs time entries and billing narratives directly into Smokeball, eliminating manual entry and driving higher realization rates.
Read the entire press release here: https://www.querious.ai/post/querious-joins-smokeball-sept-2025
Product Development
◾ From Legal Tech News:
“On Wednesday, the American Arbitration Association-International Center for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) announced plans to release a generative artificial intelligence-powered arbitrator in November.
“The arbitrator is designed to initially handle document-only construction cases, with further case types, subject matters and higher-value claims expected to follow in 2026.”
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/17/aaa-icdr-announces-plan-to-release-gen-ai-powered-arbitrator/
◾ Here’s this Friday’s legal tech rundown from Legal Tech News:
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/19/legaltech-rundown-supio-expands-ai-offerings-intellistack-releases-clm-platform-and-more/
Purchasing/Using Legal Tech
◾ The Legal Tech News headline for this post gives the reader a good idea of what's in store here: "What Does GPT-5 Mean for Legal Tech? It's a Mixed Bag."
A very good read, especially given the comments fromJeff Reihl, executive VP and CTO at LexisNexis, and from Joel Hron, CTO at Thomson Reuters.
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/12/what-does-gpt-5-mean-for-legal-tech-its-a-mixed-bag/?kw=What+Does+GPT-5+Mean+for+Legal+Tech?+It%27s+a+Mixed+Bag&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250915&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A
◾ Legal Tech News reports on what it found interesting in the International Legal Technology Association's 2025 Legal Technology survey.
“ILTA surveyed 580 law firms from over 12 different countries and found that Microsoft is a significant software provider to firms, organizations are following the media staying informed on agentic AI and law firms are continuing to move data to the cloud.
“Legaltech News identified six interesting takeaways from this year's ILTA survey.”
Those “six interesting takeaways” can be found at this link: https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/15/6-things-we-found-interesting-from-the-2025-ilta-tech-survey/
◾ State court judge, Hon. Scott Schlegel, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, posts in his Substack:
“Today I am releasing AI in Chambers: A Framework for Judicial AI Use, a practical guide for judges and their staff who are considering or already using AI tools in their chambers.
“This is not a technical manual or a recommendation that every judge begin using AI. It is simply a structured approach for those who have decided to explore these tools. The decision depends on your comfort level, your court’s policies, and available resources. For many, waiting may be the right choice.
“But for those ready to proceed, this framework offers a disciplined methodology and rests on a principle I’ve found useful:
“AI is a tool that belongs in the workflow, but not on the bench.”
Access Judge Schlegel’s entire post, and also access his framework as a download, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/judgeschlegel/p/ai-in-chambers-a-framework-for-judicial?r=dm1ui&utm_medium=ios
◾ From Legal Tech News:
" ’Although the generation of fake legal authority by AI sources has been widely commented on by federal and out-of-state courts and reported by many media sources, no California court has addressed this issue,’ Presiding Justice Lee Smalley Edmon of Division Three wrote.
" ‘We therefore publish this opinion as a warning,’ Smalley continued. ‘Simply stated, no brief, pleading, motion, or any other paper filed in any court should contain any citations— whether provided by generative AI or any other source—that the attorney responsible for submitting the pleading has not personally read and verified.’"
“In an interview Monday, [Amir] Mostafavi [of Mostafavi Law Group] acknowledged his briefs contained fabrication but insisted he did not know generative AI platforms can hallucinate at times, creating inaccurate and fictitious content.
"’I didn't mean it. I didn't have any intent to do it,’ Mostafavi said, adding that he thought the court's sanction was too severe.
" ‘They made an example out of me,’ he said.”
Full Legal Tech News post here: https://www.law.com/therecorder/2025/09/15/a-warning-state-court-fines-lawyer-10000-for-ai-generated-fake-quotes-in-briefs/
◾ Below is a link to a guest post from Legal IT Insider by Benoit Chevalier, has been patents products strategy director at IP IT services and consulting company Questel. Benoit’s post is a very thoughtful and comprehensive discussion of how legal IP professionals are reacting to the availability of legal tech for their practices. Form the post:
“Aiming to discover more about AI's impact on the intellectual property (IP) field, Questel recently released the findings of its 2025 IP Outlook Research Report entitled "Pathways to Productivity: AI in IP", the much-awaited follow-up to its inaugural 2024 study "Beyond the Hype: How Technology is Transforming IP." The 2025 Report ("[the Report](https://www.questel.com/questel-officially-releases-2025-ip-outlook-research-report-showing-substantial-ai-traction-in-ip-law/)") polled over 500 patent and trademark professionals from various continents and countries across the globe.”
https://legaltechnology.com/2025/09/17/guest-post-ip-professionals-are-enthusiastic-about-ai-but-should-adopt-with-caution-report-says/
◾ "Deals and Wins" and "Product News" can be found in Legal IT Insider's mid-week catch-up on developments in legal tech. https://legaltechnology.com/2025/09/17/legal-it-latest-news-from-goodwin-pinsents-lawhive-harvey-bighand-more/
◾ A post from Artificial Lawyer:
“A new benchmarking study of legal AI tools, which included August, Brackets, GC AI and SimpleDocs, has found that ‘several AI tools met or exceeded the baseline’ of expected performance for contract drafting as compared to human lawyers.
“The study ‘Benchmarking Humans & AI in Contract Drafting’ by Legalbenchmarking.ai used a comparison group of experienced lawyers. Results (see below) were evaluated by three main dimensions: usefulness, reliability, and the overall support provided by the AI platform, e.g. how well does the solution support the drafting of a contract.”
For the rest of the AL post (including summaries of the study’s key findings) go here: https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/09/17/ai-tools-sometimes-better-than-human-lawyers-study/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
◾ As described in the linked Legal Tech News post, BigLaw's Polsinelli law firm has, over the past two years, refined its committee-driven tech adoption approach with a forward-looking and proactive policy of training and tech evaluation. Moreover, the post describes how the law firm has partnered with tech vendors more closely to optimize the firm's input into product development, better assess a vendor's long-term viability, and keep an eye on vendors' often-changing comparative advantages.
Entire post here (and well worth a read in its entirety):
https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/19/how-polsinelli-revamped-its-tech-procurement-evaluation-processes-for-ai-era-/?kw=How+Polsinelli+Revamped+Its+Tech+Procurement,+Evaluation+Processes+for+the+AI+Era&utm_position=1&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250922&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A&slreturn=20250922075615
◾ From Artificial Lawyer:
"In what is a key win in the genAI productivity platform war, global law firm Linklaters has chosen Legora and will roll it out firmwide.
"This means it will be available across ‘all 30 offices [and] is the latest step in Linklaters’ strategy to support the world’s leading corporates, banks, funds and financial sponsors on their most complex, cross-border mandates,’ the firm said.
"It will also build upon Linklaters’ own suite of genAI and technology tools, including proprietary chatbot Laila, online due diligence platform ReportIQ, and CreateiQ 2.0, the firm’s contract lifecycle management platform, they added."
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/09/22/linklaters-rolls-out-legora-in-key-customer-win/
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