The APEX benchmark – built by Mercor, with tasks authored by BigLaw-experienced lawyers and advised by Cass Sunstein – is the most rigorous test of whether AI can perform real legal work. The answer is more specific than vendors or skeptics suggest.
Cleary acquired an AI company. A&O Shearman and Freshfields co-develop with AI labs and share the revenue. Latham subscribes and builds on top. Three strategies, three very different risk profiles.
Kirkland's $500M has a name: Palantir. The deal is a knowledge-moat play – deep in one practice – but it's built on and bound to Palantir, which means the odds ride on Palantir's track record. Here's how it wins and how it breaks.
Every firm in this series pointed its AI at its own lawyers. Cooley pointed it at potential clients – handing Y Combinator founders an AI tool that doubles as marketing and relationship capture. A look at why the move fits Cooley's franchise, and which firms can actually copy it.
Every headline called Kirkland's $500M commitment an AI bet. The signals in the announcement – no named model, full exclusivity, value-based pricing – point to something different: an infrastructure play that happens to run AI.
