Elite law firm to splash £370m on building own AI tool
The world’s largest law firm by revenue, Kirkland & Ellis, is investing £370m ($500m) to develop its own custom-built AI platform, challenging competitors that rely on widely used third-party AI tools.
The US-based firm, which has a large office in the City, said it plans to spend hundreds of millions over the next three to four years in building the platform alongside continuing to invest in other third-party AI tools.
Kirkland is planning on using the custom-built technology to “take the collective intelligence” of their lawyers, and “deploy that throughout our firm”, the firm’s chair, Jon Ballis, told the Financial Times.
The law firm recently broke records, becoming the first in history to surpass the $10bn mark, posting gross revenue of $10.56bn over the 2025 financial year. It plans to finance the AI investment with its own profits.
Many law firms rely on third-party legal AI platforms, such as Harvey, which serves over 1,000 law firms globally, and Legora, which is used by around 700.
Ballis added that the use of these readily available tools has been “raising the floor for everyone” in the legal world, Kirkland is opting to create their own, as “we don’t get hired for the floor”.
The firm is planning on hiring external tech professionals alongside their own data scientists and engineers, and said it will not sell it to any other firms, preserving their ownership of the platform.
The platform is being designed using information provided by 250 of their lawyers, 100 of them partners, and will be used for lawyers’ mandates in full instead of needing to use separate programmes for tasks.
Kirkland isn’t an outlier
However, Kirkland is not the first – other law firms, from mid-tier to elite, have been using their own custom-built AI technology for years.
London-headquartered firm Addleshaw Goddard launched a custom-built generative AI platform, AGPT, in 2023, which a spokesperson for the firm told CityAM is used by more than 90 per cent of the firm’s staff and generates 4,000 to 5,000 prompts daily.
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance built and deployed a similar platform to its lawyers across the globe in 2023, and Mishcon de Reya the same year launched their own AI system firm-wide.
Harvey v Legora
The professional services industry has been facing significant pressure, especially in legal, to invest in and embed AI over the past few years, and tech companies providing the tools have been popping up across the board.
Harvey and Legora have been dominating the legal market, with both using advertising campaigns featuring well-known celebrities to drive interest. Jude Law fronts Legora’s campaign, whilst Harvey recruited the actor who plays Harvey Spectre in the TV show Suits, after which the tool is named.
But amid the pressure and excitement of AI, firms are running into issues, and the cracks are starting to show.
This comes as earlier this week, top City law firm, Pinsent Masons, faced backlash after sending the court letters on behalf of a client for an insolvency application containing AI hallucinations, including fake legal rules.