Lawhive, Orbital and Naya didn't build AI-native firms. They built technology companies, then bolted a regulated law firm on top. That's a different model - and a better-placed one.

Matt Basile spent years selling efficiency into law firms. Then a CFO asked him why they'd want it. So he went and built the firm instead.

David Burgess spent 25 years clearing content for Netflix, The Independent and the Evening Standard. ClearDraft turns a 22-hour book review into under an hour — and he is adamant the machine should never make the final call.

Vibecoding has collapsed the cost of building. That removes the forcing function that used to make founders — and firms — validate before they build. Here's the pre-MVP framework that replaces it.

When the Human in the Loop Becomes the Weakest Link If you're a lawyer, you've been told AI won't replace you - that the human in the loop is the safeguard. In this inaugural episode of Re-Leveraged, we explore why that model could be inverting for certain kinds of legal work, and what happens to the profession if the human stops being the protection and starts being the risk. In this conversation, Philip Young - the founder of the UK's first SRA-regulated AI-native law firm

Every firm has an AI story. A copilot in the document management system. A pilot with one of the research tools. A working group, a policy, a slide somewhere that says AI-first. Underneath, though, most of them are doing the same thing: taking the way they already work and bolting AI onto the side of it. A recent talk by Diana Hu, a partner at Y Combinator, named the thing that bothers me about that. Her argument is short. AI should not be a tool your company just uses. It sh

When Legal Technology Stops Asking for Your Attention “Build products so good at their job that they disappear. So intelligent that they don’t need supervision. So valuable that people choose them not because they can’t look away, but because they can finally look up.” Pete Flint For the past two decades, the defining feature of successful software has been its ability to capture and retain attention. Entire product categories have been optimised around engagement, measured i

I meet a lot of lawyers who are quietly frustrated. Not frustrated by the law itself, but by how hard it is to solve simple problems with technology. Or to test an idea that could unlock new value for their practice, their team, or their clients. That frustration shows up everywhere. In small firms that can’t justify bespoke development. In practice areas across large firms that know exactly where inefficiencies or opportunities sit, but don't have the bandwidth to explore th

“The time is absolutely now.” That was the recurring theme in my conversation with Rob Hanna on the Legally Speaking Podcast. We covered a lot of ground, from launching legal tech ventures to why law firms need to think more like tech companies. Watch on YouTube: Rob Hanna and Alex Baker - Legally Speaking Podcast Listen on Spotify: Lawyers as Founders: From Legal Practice to Legal Product Many of today’s most promising legal tech startups are founded by lawyers. They have d

The Splinter Cell program was designed as a black-ops, covert espionage initiative. Operatives worked alone, outside the constraints of traditional military and intelligence structures, armed with cutting-edge tech, a mission-first mindset, and the mandate of the “Fifth Freedom”: the freedom to do whatever was necessary to protect the Four Freedoms – freedom of speech, religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. What does this have to do with the legal industry? Is th

In the latest episode of Legal Innovation Spotlight, I joined Ted Theodoropoulos to explore the provocative idea that specialist law firms might be better positioned than Big Law to thrive in the AI era. The conversation spanned everything from productisation strategy and structural barriers to client demands and the evolving role of knowledge management. Below, I’ve expanded on the core themes from our discussion - and why this moment presents a defining opportunity for firm

Technology is eating into revenues generated by law firms and actively reshaping revenue models across the profession. ​Lawyers are responding by productising their services, launching tech products, and building digital-first law firms. ​The barriers to entry have never been lower, but that also means more ventures are failing before they even start. Why? Because too many overlook the foundational steps needed to build something viable and scalable. Our session at Legal Tech

Can You Run a Law Firm Like a Tech Company? Introduction Law firms and tech companies operate on fundamentally different business models. Traditional law firms are built on billable hours and incremental, linear growth, whereas tech companies scale products to a broad market with exponential potential. This disparity raises a provocative question: can a law firm be run like a tech company? In an era of rapid innovation and AI-driven change, law firm leaders and LegalTech entr

More Lawyers Can Now Offer Best In Class Client Service Through Productisation I’ve spent almost 15 years working with AI companies. Back in 2012, I joined a fast -growing Ad Tech company that went on to become one of the biggest IPOs out of France. It was at a time when printed advertising was on the decline and ecommerce was growing fast. In 2018, I found myself unexpectedly pulled into the world of legal tech. I quickly realised that the market dynamics that contributed t

Opportunities, Challenges, and the Path Forward I started writing this article about 2 weeks before the announcement that Cleary had acquired Springbok AI. Cleary isn't the first to try their hand at establishing their own technology offering. Allen & Overy developed aosphere, which was sold to PE firms Inflexion and Endicott Capital for £200m. Kennedys has developed Kennedy’s IQ for their insurance clients to manage claims, and Taylor Wessing developed Outpace to support ear

We're already seeing AI revolutionise other professional service industries. The marketing and advertising landscape looks very different to just 12 months ago. Yet in boardrooms across the legal industry, there still seems to be paralysis around “What our AI strategy be?”. The real question isn’t whether to adopt AI tools — it’s whether your firm will build the future of legal services, or buy it from someone else. We are entering a once-in-a-generation shift — one where fir

Building A Minimum Viable Legal Tech Product