Harvey Forum + Shared Spaces, Clio, Spellbook, Legal Innovators

Wow, what a week for legal tech! AL published 13 articles on just Tues and Wed, covering some major developments as the news cadence accentuates as we approach Legal Week – moving from a staccato beat to a wild drum roll. Although, if we boil it down, one theme dominated: legal tech working with Anthropic’s new capabilities, rather than being scared of them: see the AL stories on TR and Lexis, for example.

So, what do we have for you today? First is a quick insight into the Harvey Forum, then some news headlines, then a walk through, and more on Legal Week, and of course Legal Innovators as well.

The Harvey Forum in London was the first time the pioneering company has held a major event of its own. AL’s founder, Richard Tromans,…er…me…., was on stage moderating a panel with Hilary Goodier of Ashurst and Chris Tart-Roberts at Addleshaw Goddard (see pic) to explore AI’s impact on the law firm business model. We hadn’t done a practice call and who knew where things would go….?

But, I needn’t have worried. Both had tons to say and were very clear on one key point: AI is genuinely starting to have an impact on how firms are doing business. Perhaps at the fringes for now, but nevertheless, it’s starting…..!

And how AI would affect the business of law is the primary reason Artificial Lawyer launched in 2016. Why? Because of one fundamental fact: for a long time lawyers have entirely been ‘the means of production’, they are – in themselves – the factory, the engine, the workforce, that gets everything done. With AI, that changes, they now share the workload, not with another person, but with software. And how do you charge out for software? Or charge for the expertise needed to deploy software in a value-added way? Thanks to both for a great discussion.

Plus, here’s a video with Harvey CEO, Winston Weinberg, on why London matters, how they in effect started here, and some new feature info. Plus, below is a form you can fill in to watch the recent webinar AL did with the AI company’s Ryan Samii and A&O Shearman’s Karen Contoudis Buzard, all about Shared Spaces, collaboration, and how AI is going to change the law firm / client relationship.

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Harvey Video On-Demand:

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OK, some news. And there was a splurge of news in the last 36 hours, so I’ll keep this really, really brief.

• Confido, the embedded financial infrastructure platform purpose-built for law firms and legal technology, has announced it has raised $9m in financing over two rounds, the latest of which was led by Aquiline Capital Partners. 
• Elevate has acquired Mestel & Co, a recruitment firm. Liam Brown, Chairman and CEO, Elevate, said ‘This acquisition reflects our belief that exceptional talent remains vital to the future of legal services, supported by modern, efficient software and services. We are pleased to welcome the Mestel team and to build on their legacy.’
• HaystackID has acquired eDiscovery AI.
• Inhouse has raised $5m in seed funding from Run Ventures, Royal Street Ventures, Switch, and Brian Liu, cofounder and former CEO of LegalZoom. It focuses on contract needs of smaller businesses and ‘maintains the largest network of AI-enabled lawyers – over 8,000 in all’. ‘LLMs are unreliable at legal work because non-lawyers regularly omit critical context or ask for the wrong documents,’ said Ryan Wenger, cofounder and CEO of Inhouse. ‘We were able to build AI that challenges and corrects like a real lawyer through our unique dataset of expert feedback on real-world fact patterns.’
• And that’s all, there’s probably some more, but AL will keep the focus on what matters most.

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Events and Videos

First, I’ll be on stage at Legal Week with Spellbook, along with CEO, Scott Stevenson, exploring their Moneyball for contracts capability. That will be one not to miss, for sure, and will take place at around 3PM on Tuesday, 10 March, as part of the Emerging Tech stream. More details on that soon.

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Legal Week Breakfast In New York – Meet AL and Cosmonauts

If you’re coming to Legal Week in New York, or are in the Big Apple already, and would like to meet up with Artificial Lawyer and the Cosmonauts team, then breakfast at the very cool Altair restaurant is on us!

If you’d like to learn more about the upcoming Legal Innovators conferences in London, New York, Paris and California, (see below) and meet with Artificial Lawyer’s founder, Richard Tromans, then RSVP here to join the waiting list. (Spaces are limited.)

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Clio – Innovate Legal Summit – London – April 14

‘Clio’s Innovate Legal Summit takes place on Tuesday, April 14th at The Chancery Rosewood, London. The summit brings together the sharpest minds in legal innovation to explore how AI is reshaping the profession. Don’t miss Artificial Lawyer’s Richard Tromans, who will share his expert perspectives on what comes next for large law firms. Register today.‘

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Our AL TV Walk Through this week is Ayora, which works on the basis that if you’re using AI for billable work then you really need data on how to price it. This one will grow and grow.

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Er…what else? Yes, Legal Innovators.

Here’s some more about our two great upcoming June conferences: California and Paris

A Legal Tech Conference For ALL of Europe

Legal Innovators Europe – Paris – June 24 and 25 – tickets now available.

If you would like to be a speaker, especially if you are at a law firm or inhouse legal team in Europe – from Alicante to Amsterdam and beyond…..then please contact Phoebe at Cosmonauts:  phoebe@cosmonauts.biz

Note: if you are a legal tech company, please contact Robins: robins@cosmonauts.biz or Anjana anjana@cosmonauts.biz

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Legal Innovators California, the landmark West Coast legal tech event, will take place on June 10 and 11, in the heart of the Bay Area, the home to many of the world’s leading AI businesses – and plenty of legal tech pioneers as well! More information and tickets here.

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OK, that’s all for now folks. Have a nice weekend. ( Although, a couple of news items may slip out this Friday afternoon as well…that said, I probably won’t cover them as I will be wandering around on Hampstead Heath, so….hmm. Guys….pls don’t do announcements on Friday afternoons if you want AL to cover them, pls talk to your PR people about optimum timing 🙂

Richard Tromans, Founder, Artificial Lawyer and conference Chair.  

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