September 29, 2025 -- Issue #361

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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If you enjoy reading this digest, please forward it to others with an interest in legal tech startups. Readers who aren't already members of the LTSF community and who wish to join can do so here. Please do send me feedback here with any questions, comments or other ideas for this digest. If you're not already a subscriber to this newsletter and would like to subscribe, please email me here to join the subscriber list.
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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.

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Exit/M&A

◾ Legal Tech News' legal tech rundown:

"The fast-paced legal tech world is constantly evolving. At Legaltech News, we always try to bring you the latest news on hirings, product and feature releases, new integrations, legal tech mergers and acquisitions and more. The Legaltech Rundown is a weekly update of legal tech happenings that might have gone under the radar."

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/26/thomson-reuters-announces-cocounsel-updates-law-school-offerings-american-arbitration-association-announces-partnership-with-integra-ledger-and-more/?kw=Legaltech+Rundown:+Thomson+Reuters+Announces+CoCounsel+Updates,+Law+School+Offerings,+American+Arbitration+Association+Partners+With+Integra+Ledger,+and+More&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=afternoonupdate&utm_content=20250926&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A​

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Fundraising

◾ From Law.com’s Legal Tech News:
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“On Tuesday, case management and contract life cycle management (CLM) provider Filevine announced that it raised $400 million in equity financing from two funding rounds over the course of about a year.
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“The first of the two rounds closed in June 2024 after raising roughly $150 million and was led by Insight Partners. The second round closed in August 2025 and was led by Insight Partners, Accel and Halo Fund, raising an estimated $250 million. Other investors include Meritech, Stepstone, Run Ventures and Album Ventures.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/23/filevine-raises-400m-in-equity-funding-climbing-to-an-estimated-3b-valuation/​

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◾ From Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter:
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“Wexler.ai, a London-based platform for fact-checking complex litigation, raised $5.3m in seed funding. Pear VC led, joined by Seedcamp, LegalTech Fund, and Myriad Venture Partners. axios." https://tech.eu/2025/09/23/wexlerai-secures-53m-to-bring-real-time-fact-checking-to-litigation/​

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◾ Law.com’s Legal Tech News reports:
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“Superpanel, a generative artificial intelligence plaintiff intake assistant, on Tuesday announced its launch and its raising of $5.3 million in an equity financing round led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures. Other participants include LOI Venture, 8-Bit Capital, Zenda Capital and Behind Genius Ventures.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/23/-legal-tech-startup-superpanel-launches-agentic-ai-intake-assistant-raises-53m-in-equity-financing-/​

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◾ Reporting from Legal Tech News:
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“On Tuesday, London-based legal intelligence platform Wexler.ai announced that it completed a seed funding round of $5.3 million, led by Pear VC. Additional participants included existing investor Myriad Venture Partners, Seedcamp and The LegalTech Fund. The new investment follows a December 2024 pre-seed round of $1.4 million, led by Myriad.
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“Wexler.ai builds generative AI-powered workflows for litigators, such as document drafting, chronology generation and inconsistency detection. The company was founded in early 2023 and publicly debuted its platform in April 2024.” https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/23/ai-powered-litigation-startup-wexlerai-announces-53m-seed-funding-round-live-fact-checking-feature/​

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◾ From Axios’ “Pro Rata” newsletter on September 25, 2025:
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“Enter, a Brazilian legal AI startup, raised $35m in Series A funding led by Founders Fund and Sequoia Capital at a $350m valuation." https://www.wsj.com/articles/founders-fund-makes-its-only-bet-in-legal-ai-its-in-brazil-f76792f6?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAjJQp8bpBGAJOR8NFeJTFq-22shNa3P-PWwVM76inKbjGti93VcOfXXb629Vx4%3D&gaa_ts=68d4290d&gaa_sig=LRoBJ7vcyEAvPChNe4YyoCo2EXOPrsavjG9TzUtuCozn9lGU5TMd_J5LVlQHZEOm6-AoBvEX6lUilkbFf1wxew%3D%3D​

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JusticeTech/A2J

◾ Another post from the LawSites blog featured on LTSF today:

"A study examining artificial intelligence adoption in legal aid organizations has revealed that these resource-constrained nonprofits are embracing AI technology at nearly double the rate of the broader legal profession, driven by the urgent need to serve millions of underserved Americans.

"The survey, The AI Advantage: How Technology Can Help Bridge the Justice Gap, was conducted by Everlaw in partnership with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association(NLADA), Paladin, and LawSites."

$$Quote: "For these legal aid organizations struggling with overwhelming caseloads, perhaps one of the survey’s most compelling findings is that 90% of respondents said using AI to its full potential would enable them to serve more clients."

Along with AI's power, comes great responsibility; so, I hope that the legal tech vendors who provide training in AI's use can step up and offer that training to the already harried and hurried lawyers who work in legal aid organizations.

Access the entire LawSites post here: https://www.lawnext.com/2025/09/legal-aid-organizations-embrace-ai-at-twice-the-rate-of-other-lawyers-new-study-reveals.html​

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Member Introductions/Questions

◾ LTSF community member, Josina Rodrigues, introduces herself to our community. "I am the founder of HQX Consulting, a boutique advisory dedicated to helping businesses and legal tech startups navigate digital transformation with confidence. With international experience across 15+ countries, I bring a unique blend of expertise in blockchain, AI, compliance, and strategic growth. At HQX, we design tailored solutions that merge legal and technological innovation—empowering organizations to scale, stay compliant, and create long-term impact. My mission is to turn complex challenges into practical, high-quality exponential results."

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◾ New LTSF'er, Simon Black, also introduces himself: "Good day everyone. I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Uniman yesterday and instantly joined the network. So I wanted to post and introduce myself.

I'm Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Lexical Labs - a contract intelligence solution which aims to change the way we negotiate contracts. We use our proprietary software and AI models to deliver impactful solutions such as automated contract triage and automated responses to contracts (redlining, deviation tables, approvals).

I also had a previous career in Big Law doing things the old way.

I and the company are very passionate about moving AI contract review from an augmentation tool, essentially speeding up the current ways of contract negotiation, towards automation (taking away bottlenecks such as unnecessary legal review of simple contracts or reducing the back-and-forth on complex contracts). This is a journey and we are at the early stages.

I'm also convinced that AI can empower business teams to review, negotiate and manage contracts, supported by legal colleagues where necessary and operating within safe 'guardrails'.

We have some very interesting use cases on these themes involving our clients such as Accenture and Stantec.

I'm attaching my linked-in profile and link to a recent post on automation - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simonblack_legaltech-contractmanagement-legaloperations-activity-7344052854891917312-XoOV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAIDaUIBl7-x0ekpAVHipf71T_MqAf9IBRg​

Looking forward to engaging more with the community.

Simon

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◾ Another new member introduces himself. This time it's Adnan Yonathan: "Hi, my name is Adnan Yonathan, I’m the founder of OpsPilot Legal Solutions, a full stack AI consulting firm made for lawyers. I work on educating lawyers about AI and how they can apply it to increase efficiency, as well as create and deploy AI workflows to make life easy. I’m a 20 year old AI enthusiast, and I’ve been using consumer AI tools since their inception. Hopefully I can be of value in this community!"

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Product Development

◾ The LawSites blog discusses the American Arbitration Association’s AI-powered arbitrator for docs-only construction industry disputes, slated for a November 2025 launch. The post covers human-in-the-loop guardrails, what comes next from a subject matter standpoint, anticipated cost and time savings, and expected access-to-justice benefits.
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​https://www.lawnext.com/2025/09/aaa-readies-november-launch-of-ai-powered-arbitrator-for-construction-disputes.html​

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◾ From Robert Ambrogi's LawSites blog:

"The legal technology company Case Status today unveiled Client Intelligence, an AI-driven platform that the company says represents a significant shift from reactive client management to predictive client engagement."

So what does "predictive client engagement mean? Read the post at the link below to find outhttps://www.lawnext.com/2025/09/case-status-launches-client-intelligence-an-ai-platform-to-transform-the-client-experience.html​

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Purchasing/Using Legal Tech

◾ More from state court judge, the Hon. Scott Schlegel, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, as he adds to the discussion of his “Framework for Judicial AI Use:”
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“Last week I released AI in Chambers: A Framework for Judicial AI Use, and the early feedback has been encouraging. 👉 Download the guide here. Still, I know some of my colleagues may feel uneasy about the idea. When judges hear the phrase “AI in Chambers,” it can sound technical, futuristic and even risky.
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“But if you’ve ever worked with a law clerk, you already know how to do this.”
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Read Judge Schlegel’s latest Substack here (where you can also find a link to download the “Framework”): https://open.substack.com/pub/judgeschlegel/p/you-already-know-how-to-do-this?r=1cv2&utm_medium=ios​

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◾ From Law.com’s LegalTech News:
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“In an expanding marketplace of generative artificial intelligence-powered legal drafting platforms, tools are beginning to crop up that offer judges the ability to automate parts of their writing process.”
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Click on the linked article to read about, among other topics, how judges are using AI now, what the current crop of judicial AI tooling looks like and whether drafting opinions with AI is the “third rail” of AI use by the judiciary. https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/24/ai-opinion-drafting-tools-are-emerging-but-will-they-gain-traction-with-judges/​

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◾ Below is a link to a LinkedIn post from Max Junestrand, CEO of Legora, that in turn contains a link to an interview of Max by Sifted, the Europe-centered startup newsletter. A good read, and it's great to see legal tech get coverage in a more general interest startup publication.Here's the LinkedIn link to Max's post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maxjunestrand_i-sincerely-enjoyed-sitting-down-with-mimi-activity-7376948318515486721-piHE?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACjKkUBuYvfoBWwBGd7KKABZw3jrdiBcc0​

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◾ Below is a link to Part 3 of LegalTech Hub’s series of posts by Cheryl Wilson Griffin about the risks for lawyers (and others, of course) posed by what I’ll call here naive ChatGPT use. This Part covers: “Damage Control & Future-Proofing: What You Can Do Today”
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From the latest post in the series:
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“By now, you've heard the headlines: conversations shared through ChatGPT—some of them packed with sensitive, confidential, or downright incriminating content—have been exposed online. While OpenAI has since pulled the “Make this chat discoverable” option and cleaned up search indexing, the damage, for some, is already done. And the implications? They aren’t limited to a few careless users. This is a systemic risk that touches every individual, every organization, and every law firm using generative AI tools.”
​https://www.legaltechnologyhub.com/contents/chatgpt-damage-control-and-futureproofing-what-you-can-do-today/​

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◾ Here, from Artificial Lawyer, is a "news wrap" of legal tech news for the work week ended September 26, 2025: fundraises, product releases, interviews, and a sneak peek at the Legal Innovators New York conference, Nov 19 + 20, 2025 that Artificial Lawyer is chairing in NYChttps://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/09/26/news-wrap-hsf-kramer-gunderson-everlaw-law-punx/​

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Startup Life

◾ Legal Tech News from Law.com reports:

"Blacks United in Legal Technology (BUiLT), a New York-based organization that aims to promote diversity and education in legal and legal tech, is looking to expand its reach, starting with a rebrand. The organization announced Thursday that it has changed its name to the Network for Excellence in Tech Law (NExT)."

"BUiLT was founded in 2022 by several legal and technology professionals including [Dawsib] Horn, former associate general counsel at insurance provider American International Group [and one of the group's co-founders]. As NExT, the organization will increase its educational webinar offerings and in-person events and continue to promote and advance diversity, equity, innovation and education in the legal technology industry."

The entire post can be accessed here:

​https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2025/09/25/blacks-united-in-legal-technology-sets-sights-on-expansion-with-rebrand-as-the-network-for-excellence-in-tech-law/?kw=Blacks+United+in+Legal+Technology+Sets+Sights+on+Expansion+With+Rebrand+as+the+Network+for+Excellence+in+Tech+Law&utm_position=2&utm_source=email&utm_medium=enl&utm_campaign=morningupdate&utm_content=20250926&utm_term=ltn&oly_enc_id=6788E2252056B4A​

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Startup Management

◾ Episode 78 of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast -- An Interview with Mads Viborg Jørgensen, CEO and co-founder of PatentRenewal.com -- From Copenhagen to Global IP: One Founder's Journey to Fix Patent (and other IP) Renewals

"What if missing a payment by one cent could cost a company its billion-dollar patent? This eye-opening conversation with Mads Vibor Jørgensen, CEO and co-founder of PatentRenewal.com (https://www.patentrenewal.com), reveals the hidden complexities of global intellectual property management and how specialized technology is transforming this critical but overlooked field."

Show notes here: https://network-295075.mn.co/posts/90876433?utm_source=manual and link to the episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2454829/episodes/17855755​

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◾ Yes, I bring my strong pro-legal tech bias to my reading of this post to Artificial Lawyer (AL) by Richard Tromans, AL's founder and host. That said, I heartily endorse each and every point that Richard makes in the post that addresses the recent kerfuffle about a Reddit post from a Reddit poster whose own biases are evident in an attempted "takedown" of legal tech scaleup Harvey and legal tech generally. Read Richard's post at the link below.

From Richard's post:

"Someone going by the name of ‘Amazing-Dance9429’ set social media alight this week by posting on Reddit a series of personal attacks on the management of Harvey and making several truly misinformed statements about not just that company, but in effect most of legal tech.

"Harvey is packed with very smart people and are growing at a rapid rate globally. Their incredible success speaks for itself. They can and have already defended themselves. What does need to be addressed by AL however are some of the completely wrong assessments of what value legal tech companies bring when founded on LLMs – which, let’s face it, is a large part of the market now."https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2025/09/26/the-reddit-debacle-a-response/​

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