Many new model, AI native, law firms are focused on more routine commercial contracts, with a notable group handling matters for startups. Blackletter is instead focused on work across M&A, finance, and other complex areas. It’s just raised $6m in a Seed round led by Lerer Hippeau.
It joins a growing contingent of new mods that handle the tougher, less predictable end of legal work. That group also includes: Norm, Covenant, Vetta, and others.
AL asked them about how lawyers fitted into their MSO structure. Head of Strategy, Loren Cohen, commented: ‘Our lawyers are critical to delivering a great client experience and we hire seasoned lawyers from top legacy firms.
‘They communicate directly with clients (without needing to count hours), and review and exercise their judgment on all work—they are ultimately accountable for all work they produce. They work alongside our tech platform to work smarter and more efficiently.’
At present – as they’ve just started – there are seven lawyers, but this will rapidly increase.
As with others, it’s refusing to use billable hours and like many AI natives it’s developed its own ‘OS’ and a range of AI agents. This is now ‘par the course’ for new mods. They don’t seek to curry favour with Big Law, or legal tech companies. They tend instead to take a highly independent approach.
The US law firm said that it ‘will use the funding to further build out its platform and to grow its bench of best-in-class lawyers and engineers’.
— Legal Innovators New York Conference – Nov 17 + 18 is next week!
—
They also noted that Blackletter’s co-founders Jonathan Rosenbluth and David Stewart previously held product and engineering leadership roles at AI company Cohere. While fellow co-founder Avi Brudner was COO of Blue J.
In terms of how it all works, they explained:
- ‘BlackletterOS draws on its co-founders’ experience developing and deploying frontier agentic AI systems at Cohere.
- BlackletterOS quarterbacks all legal matters, proactively working through multi-step assignments, and continuously digesting each client’s business context and preferences so that it gets better with every engagement.
- Blackletter’s benchmarking shows its lawyers completing tasks in less than half the time they would take at a legacy firm,
- and the output of BlackletterOS is consistently more accurate than work produced by leading legal software.
- On every matter, Blackletter’s lawyers make legal judgments, shape advice, communicate it to their client—and are accountable for the result.
- BlackletterOS’s accumulated client knowledge is the foundation for Blackletter Proactive Intelligence (BPI), which the firm is developing to articulate legal needs and identify strategic business opportunities.
- BPI enables Blackletter’s lawyers to function not only as legal counsel but also strategic growth partners to its clients.’
Rosenbluth, co-founder and CEO of Blackletter, commented: ‘The old law firm model is structured to benefit the firm and its senior partners, not the clients it serves or even many of the lawyers who work there. We built Blackletter the other way around.
‘Our technology and structure unlock an opportunity for Blackletter to be a critical partner to our clients, delivering strategic advice that drives real impact. Our proactive technology offering reflects our core conviction, that law should be an enabler for a business, not a tax on it.’
Is this a big deal?
Well….how many new mods is this now, Matt Pollins? AL has lost count. So many…!
As noted, there are few that focus on more complex matters, as it’s far harder to ‘commoditise’ the production of such with AI and fixed fees.
So, this is great to see! Congrats to the founders. See you in NY next week perhaps?
More about Blackletter here.
—
Legal Innovators New York Conference – Nov 17 + 18 is next week!
The two-day legal innovation conference, in association with global law firm White & Case, and held at the very cool Quorum venue by Convene in Midtown, New York, will have Day One focused on law firms, and Day Two all about the inhouse world.
We’ll be exploring how legal AI is changing our sector, where we have got to, what we have learned so far, and how to handle what comes next – and hearing from those who are right at the cutting edge of this evolution.
It’s going to be both highly useful to everyone who attends, with plenty of takeaways that can be applied to your law firm or legal team – and a lot of fun, with lots of opportunities to network and also see all the latest new product developments from the world’s leading legal tech companies.
Join us this November for a legal innovation conference that will make a difference!
Here’s the Express Registration link for your free ticket if you work at a law firm or within an inhouse legal team.
Legal Innovators New York Conference – Nov 17 + 18
Discover more from Artificial Lawyer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.