When Cleary Gottlieb acquired generative artificial intelligence firm Springbok AI in March, it joined the swelling ranks of law firms expanding their tech capabilities with a team of in-house data scientists.<\/p>\n
Law firms have worked with data and legal tech for years, but the boom in generative AI has prompted several to build their own tech teams to improve and speed up day-to-day operations and services to clients.<\/p>\n
Cleary\u2019s acquisition of London-based Springbok AI, which included a team of 10 data scientists, is a rare example of a law firm buying an AI company. But practitioners and industry observers believe the legal sector will see further, similar deals in the years ahead. <\/p>\n
At the same time, however, foundational legal skills learnt by lawyers are still valued more than backgrounds in data science, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n
The American multinational firm is taking a multipronged approach to its adoption of AI, says Ilona Logvinova, the firm\u2019s director of practice innovation. Cleary still relies on third-party vendors, such as the partnership announced in May with Stockholm-based platform Legora, but the firm\u2019s leaders also decided it was important to \u201cbuild our own AI internally to power our workflows\u201d.<\/p>\n
This strategy recognises that many legal functions are document-based and saturated with words \u2014 and \u201cwords are data points\u201d. And with the Springbok team based in London, between the US and Europe, the acquisition is designed to have a global impact, she says.<\/em><\/p>\n Law firms will be out there looking to hire people with data science capability\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. it\u2019s going to be a pretty febrile market<\/p>\n\n