AI Realism, ILTACon, Legal Innovators New York + UK

Welcome to this week’s Wrap. We start with a selection of legal tech news, including the finding that AI realism is breaking out finally, albeit in the plaintiff world.

A survey by Supio of US plaintiff law firms shows that AI has seen a solid, but careful uptake. If you live in a no-win, no-fee world, then anything you can do to reduce costs and speed a potentially profitable case to conclusion is going to be very appealing. Without the existential burden of the billable hour, such firms are free to leverage partial automation driven by AI without facing ‘the time barrier’.

So far, 30% of such firms ‘regularly use AI’, with trust in its output – not cost or complexity – the biggest barrier to adoption. Plus, 78% have used AI to some degree overall.

Trust really is the barrier, they underlined: ‘99% of attorneys won’t use AI-generated content they cannot verify, and 96% are very or extremely concerned about AI output that can’t be traced to a source.

‘79% reject fully autonomous AI, insisting that every output needs to incorporate their judgment and review’. 

And so: ‘Authoritative legal research is a differentiator. 76% of respondents said that a direct integration with verified and authoritative legal research would increase their confidence in AI output.’

Looks like we are now very much entering a period of AI realism, i.e. firms want to use it, some can see the economic advantages from using it, but there is also a very clear understanding of the risks of using wonky data / outputs that can surface from AI tools. Moreover, the lawyers want to remain in control.

More on the report here: The AI Adoption Gap.

P.S. Of course, for Big Law, the economic advantages are still a challenge, for reasons we all know well. But, the plaintiff folks just don’t feel the same way when it comes to proving ROI. Maybe there is something to learn there….?

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Document automation company LAWLIFT is introducing a new product: ‘Functional Intelligence’. This adds an AI layer to the platform and operates directly inside Microsoft Word.

With Functional Intelligence ‘you draft, review, translate, anonymize, compare, and rewrite documents. You turn your own documents into reusable templates, standardize knowledge with a single click, ask questions about a document, apply your formatting, or simply start dictating. Every change arrives as a tracked change the lawyer accepts or rejects’, they explained. More on LAWLIFT here.

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Visual mapper, StructureFlow, has hired Neal Chatrath as its President. He will be based in New York and report into Tim Follett, Founder and CEO. Chatrath will lead StructureFlow’s global commercial function and revenue growth, with a particular focus on accelerating the company’s direct presence among private equity firms, hedge funds, and investment banks.

He joins StructureFlow from Concertiv, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer and led the company’s global go-to-market strategy across its market data and travel platform.

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GC AI, a legal AI platform for inhousers, has launched Contract Intelligence, which turns ‘unstructured contracts and legal documents into a single, structured source of truth you can query in plain English, at a scale of hundreds of thousands of documents’.

They have also launched an API that ‘puts legal answers directly into the tools a company already runs on, in-chat redlining, and agent connectors to more than twenty business apps’.

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ILTACon in Tennessee is coming up later this month. Artificial Lawyer won’t be there, although I might come along to next year’s one in Washington DC in 2027.

So, Nashville – if you’ve never been – it is certainly worth a visit, even if only once. One of the highlights is the copy of the Parthenon, with a giant gilt statue of the goddess Athena inside – see more here. It was built, and then rebuilt, between 1895 and 1931, and truly is one of the most extraordinary buildings in America. There is a small entrance fee and is definitely worth visiting.

The local history museums are also very good, with plenty of illuminating exhibits about the frontiersmen and women who arrived from across the Atlantic, especially from Belfast and Ulster. There is a preserved early fort by the Cumberland River that you can visit as well. It really gives a sense of how this part of the US was pioneered and then slowly built up over a couple of centuries.

I’ll share more pics of places to visit as we get closer to the event, but generally, Nashville has a lot to offer beyond the ineluctable Country & Western music that emanates from every bar.

And on the subject of what to do at ILTACon, the folks from Cosmonauts – the organisers of the Legal Innovators conferences – will be holding a breakfast on two of the days during the event. Go along to meet the team and meet your peers. More info below.

 ☕ Tuesday, 25 August | 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM | Old Hickory, Nashville

Register: https://luma.com/ekff3dos

☕ Wednesday, 26 August | 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM | Old Hickory, Nashville
Register: https://luma.com/y95n34e8

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And now for some videos: A great interview with LexisNexis CEO, Sean Fitzpatrick, all about the company’s legal AI strategy; and also an AL TV Product Walk Through with eBrevia.

And now eBrevia’s new DraftPro contract AI tool.

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And of course, as mentioned – Legal Innovators New York and Legal Innovators UK are coming in November this year. See more below. Plus, in April 2027 we will be in Stockholm, Sweden for Legal Innovators Nordics, and in June 2027 we return to Paris for Legal Innovators Europe. Reach out to the team for more info and watch this space for more news about the landmark events.

Two Major Legal Innovators Conferences this November:

Come and join us in New York and London this November at Legal Innovators! 

Legal Innovators UK – London, Nov 4 and 5

And, then Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18.

After another fantastic Legal Innovators California, where we had speakers from OpenAI, Y Combinator, Google, Meta, and many more pioneering organisations; and our stellar inaugural event in Paris this June, we are now looking forward to the landmark conferences in London and New York, both in November, and both across two days: Law Firm Day, and Inhouse Day. 

• Legal Innovators UK – London, Nov 4 and 5
• Legal Innovators New York – Nov 17 and 18

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Have a nice weekend folks!

Richard Tromans, Founder, Artificial Lawyer and Chair of the Legal Innovators conferences.