Deals and Partnerships: Which AI Companies, Law Firms, and In-House Legal Teams Are Working Together
From Baker McKenzie and Legora to Freshfields and Anthropic, a wave of legal AI partnerships is reshaping how firms build and deploy technology.
In recent weeks, legal AI companies have announced a stream of strategic partnerships with law firms and in-house departments. Here’s a sampling of the deals from company press releases and media reports.
Baker McKenzie’s Global Deal with Legora
On May 12, Baker McKenzie announced a rollout of the Legora AI platform across the 4,500-lawyer firm’s global network. According to The Global Legal Post, the firm is phasing in Legora’s software across six practice groups—transactional, banking and finance, tax, dispute resolution, employment and compensation, and commercial. The firm’s chief innovation officer told the publication that Baker is operating a “multi-vendor ecosystem” in order to ensure that, “simply put, we are building better legal services.” A LinkedIn post by Legora’s CEO said the company’s legal engineers would work closely with Baker McKenzie’s applied AI practice, a five-year-old team that designs and deploys new legal workflows.
Docusign Inks Partnership with Legora
On May 11, Docusign announced a strategic partnership with legal AI platform Legora to connect AI-powered research, review, and drafting in Legora with Docusign’s agreement workflows and agents. The deal is designed to help in-house legal teams move from first draft to completed contract “within a single, connected experience across the business,” the companies said in a joint news release. Docusign serves as “the system of action for contracts that connects” legal teams with sales, procurement, HR, and finance. Legora acts as “the collaborative AI workspace where legal teams” research, review, and draft the work that flows through Docusign.
Harvey and Docusign Are Also Teaming Up
The Legora deal wasn’t the only partnership Docusign struck with a legal AI giant in recent days. On May 8, Harvey announced that it would also partner with Docusign to connect its legal reasoning platform with Docusign’s IAM contract AI platform. The move will “enable legal teams to move from business insights to action across the full agreement lifecycle,” Harvey said.
Freshfields Developing Tools with Anthropic
In late April, 2,600-lawyer Freshfields signed an agreement with Anthropic, home of the Claude AI platform, to build new legal AI tools for the firm and its clients. (The deal came just a few weeks before Anthropic announced a major expansion of Claude’s legal capabilities.) According to Reuters, Freshfields will receive early access to future Anthropic AI models and products as part of the deal.
Harvey’s Entente Cordiale with Firms in France and the U.K.
On May 11, Harvey announced that France’s 150-attorney August Debouzy would be rolling out the AI platform across the firm following a 30-seat pilot program. According to a news release from Harvey, the firm will now have “purpose-built AI agents and tools that bring consistency, precision, and control to work where those qualities are non-negotiable.”
That follows a late April announcement that U.K. Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May would also adopt Harvey firmwide. In its announcement, Harvey said the firm would use the company’s full platform across all practice areas to support its lawyers on multi-jurisdictional matters spanning M&A, due diligence, regulatory research, and document analysis. David Johnson, Slaughter and May’s Managing Partner, said that adopting Harvey firmwide “allows us to enhance the excellent service that we provide to our clients. Critical to our adoption is the investment we make in our people, as the vital human layer that supervises AI.”