Several international law firms are seeking to build bespoke AI tools to gain an edge and protect their IP, while using off-the-shelf AI for everyday tasks
Desire for differentiation drives push to build in-house platforms — After a few short years of learning, experimenting and planning …
Context & Ripple Effects
Legal AI adoption had already moved beyond experimentation: Freshfields signed an agreement with Anthropic to develop specialised legal tools, while Kirkland & Ellis committed $500m to build its own AI platform. Meanwhile, Harvey, Legora and Anthropic were challenging established legal-information providers, pushing incumbents to upgrade their products.
The emerging dividing line is not whether firms use AI, but which capabilities they treat as common infrastructure and which they build around proprietary legal workflows and data.
First-order effects
- International firms pursuing in-house tools bring differentiated legal workflows and IP protection under their own technology programmes, while continuing to use standard AI products for routine work.
- Off-the-shelf legal AI suppliers remain embedded in everyday firm operations, but bespoke platforms take a larger role in work firms regard as competitively distinctive.
Second-order effects
- Harvey, Legora, Anthropic, Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis face a more segmented customer base: firms can buy general-purpose capabilities while seeking custom development for high-value workflows.
- The $500m Kirkland & Ellis platform commitment raises the competitive benchmark for other large firms deciding whether proprietary AI capability merits internal investment.
Third-order effects
- If this model spreads, legal technology is likely to separate into commodity productivity tools and firm-controlled systems built around proprietary workflows, rather than a single vendor stack for all legal work.
- Automation of formulaic work, first associated with tasks handled by entry-level lawyers, puts greater pressure on firms to define where junior-lawyer leverage remains valuable.
The trend: Legal AI is shifting toward a hybrid model in which firms buy broad productivity tools but build proprietary systems for strategically sensitive work.