KM pioneer DeepJudge has launched an ‘Agent Handoff Protocol’ or AHP, which is an open system that ‘enables users to move between AI platforms without starting fresh, carrying the context needed to continue their work’ – which is handy. Thomson Reuters and Harvey have both decided to get involved.
Siva Gurumurthy, Chief Technology Officer at Harvey, commented: ‘The most capable legal workflows will draw on more than one specialized system. Agent Handoff Protocol lets a user move from Harvey into a partner’s product and back without losing the thread of their work, while leveraging both products to their full potential. We’re glad to be among the first to implement it.’
While Yannic Kilcher, CTO and Co-Founder of DeepJudge, added: ‘People should be able to use the AI tool that’s best for what they need to do and take their context with them. That is the experience we built Agent Handoff Protocol to enable.’
And Joel Hron, Chief Technology Officer at TR, concluded: ‘Professionals will increasingly work across specialized AI experiences, and those systems need to work together without sacrificing the context, trust, and expertise required for high-stakes work. Open standards like Agent Handoff Protocol can help enable that interoperability, which is why Thomson Reuters is excited to support this effort and help shape what comes next.’
All well and good, but why do this?
DeepJudge explained that as more lawyers move ‘between different AI products and experiences to complete their work’ that although we have MCP (the Model Context Protocol) that allows systems to exchange information and perform specific actions, that it’s not sufficiently flexible to meet today’s needs.
They underlined that in a lawyer’s work ‘a broader context [is] required to continue a task—including objectives, supporting materials, conversation history, and prior work’.
The AHP addresses this challenge by ‘enabling AI platforms to transfer the user and the context needed to continue work from one system to another. Rather than rebuilding context each time they switch products, users can move between AI experiences while preserving the information and progress that led to the current point’.
For example, they noted that a lawyer researching a precedent question in DeepJudge can now move into Harvey with the relevant context already in place, allowing the work to continue without re-uploading materials, recreating prompts, or rebuilding prior analysis.
In terms of their legal tech peers, Harvey has announced it will roll out AHP in beta this month. While Thomson Reuters is also supporting AHP, with additional details on their implementation and timing to follow in future announcements.
Overall, a nice move, and one that makes a lot of sense. In particular this is quite a coup for DeepJudge, given that they appear to be leading on this.
The Agent Handoff Protocol specification and implementation resources are here.
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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.
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