LI UK Next Week! Disco, SmartEsq, AI Leadership, LawVu +

It’s Halloween today and the battle of good vs evil continues, so too the battle of legal innovation against the status quo zombies (as illustrated). Here’s a ton of news and some excellent videos. See you all at Legal Innovators next week in London – starts Tues, 4^th Nov.

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Disco and Ari Kaplan surveyed a group of law firms and inhouse teams about AI, especially in relation to litigation and eDiscovery, and found 35% had already onboarded the latest generation of AI tools, 13% expected to finish the integration in six months, and 24% ‘believed it will happen’ within a year.

Which just goes to show, we have plenty of work to do still just getting this technology into people’s hands, let alone them using it regularly, and even that is just first base. It’s not until organisations have really integrated AI into their workflows at depth and at scale, (and thought through how this changes the entire business), plus have got the vast majority of staff engaging with the tech on an hourly basis – not just daily….or even weekly…..that we will be anywhere close to a point where we can take a breather.

So, lots and lots more work to do. And that will be a key theme of Legal Innovators UK next week and in New York on November 19 and 20. More info here.

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SmartEsq, an AI platform designed to accelerate private equity transactions, has launched its ‘LPA Review Memo Generation Tool’, which speeds up and standardizes how Limited Partners, fund counsel, and financial institutions review and benchmark fund documentation.

Esther Chiang, CEO of SmartEsq, and former Big Law partner, commented: ‘Fund managers and lenders are at an inflection point. As private markets grow more complex, the next generation of legal work will hinge on how effectively teams turn knowledge into action. Our LPA Review Memo Generator is helping redefine how insight and value are created across the legal and investment lifecycle.’

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Operations-focused Tessaract has raised £4.6m in funding led by Mercia Ventures. It helps with case management, billing, finance, and collaboration.

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Happy Halloween from Legal Innovators UK – November 4, 5 and 6 – London.

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iPNOTE, a legal tech platform for IP management, has raised $1m in a Seed funding round led by AltaIR Capital, with participation from Hi2 Venture Fund and several angel investors, including partners at Erdem Kaya Patent one of the leading Turkish patent law firms.

The company helps enterprises manage multiple trademark and patent filings across dozens of jurisdictions in a single platform.

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Agentic compliance pioneer Norm Ai, has appointed Dr. Brian Scholl, founding Chief Economist of the SEC’s Office of Investor Research, as a Staff Regulatory Researcher, spearheading Norm Ai’s work on estimating risks and designing ‘holistic compliance programs’ for financial institutions.

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Global legal tech directory GOLT has launched its 2.0 version. Founder Tom Pfennig said that this will provide an updated, free-of charge portal.

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Would you like to run ALSP Integreon? Now is your chance. Former ALM CEO, Bill Carter, has been named as interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor after Subroto Mukerji said he will retire in December.

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OK, phew, that’s a lot of news spilling out this Friday morning. And AL hasn’t even included everything that happened this week, but you have to draw a line at some point….Any road, here’s some videos.

LawVu Matter Management

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Law Punx – Legal AI and the need for leadership with Tara Waters

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And as mentioned….just a few days to go before Legal Innovators UK – The Minster Building, London, starts on Tuesday 4th for Law Firm Day, then Inhouse Day, and on the 6th we have Litigation Day.

More info here.

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And then we are all off to the US for Legal Innovators New York on Nov 19 and 20. We have created a special registration form, for a super-fast sign up. It’s also free to attend for those working at law firms and in inhouse legal roles.

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Have a nice weekend folks, enjoy Halloween, and keep fighting the good fight!