Earlier this month, Gravity Stack had the privilege of sponsoring and attending the Legal Innovators UK Conference, a premier event that brings together thought leaders in legal technology and innovation. The conference is produced by Artificial Lawyer’s Richard Tromans and the team at Cosmonauts which also produces the Future Lawyer series. The conference is broken up into two days: private practice and in-house day. Our team, including James Whittington (Assistant Director of Client Technology Solutions) and Trevor Byaruhanga (Data Scientist), joined me on in-house day, where I also spoke on a panel about AI and alternative staffing.
Following the conference, we reflected as a team about the conference. James highlighted the transformative role of generative AI in the legal sector, particularly in document review, contract analysis, and legal research. Trevior and I noticed that as well: contracts are the low hanging fruit of the AI world.
What impressed James most from the conference discussion was that in-house legal teams now expect their law firm partners to invest in and advise on innovative technologies to reduce costs, improve turnaround times, all while maintaining a competitive edge. Drawing an analogy, James compared the adoption of generative AI to upgrading from a bicycle to an e-bike, highlighting how it enables lawyers to achieve more in less time, with greater ease and at a lower cost. Put differently, law firms have their work cut out for them.
Trevor added another dimension. For lawyers, both outside counsel and in-house, it’s no longer a question of “Yes AI” or “No AI.” Today, the question is, “Which AI?” But, with the rapid emergence of various options, staying updated while maintaining consistent service presents a challenge. Trevor also noted that firms seemed just as focused on lawyer training as they are on finding the right AI vendor.
My Reflections
Over the years, Gravity Stack has collaborated closely with startups like Heretik, a contract review AI platform which was acquired by Relativity. Gravity Stack was an early design partner for Heretik, and we were impressed by their team. Heretik, however, was an outlier. Today, it’s evident that the quality and pedigree of entrepreneurs in the legal tech space have significantly improved. We were very impressed by the companies presenting at Legal Innovators UK. Notably, many founders are moving beyond merely packaging GPT for legal use. Instead, they are starting from the premise that large language models have inherent shortcomings and are exploring techniques to effectively integrate them into legal workflows. This, to me, reflects the growing maturity of generative AI applications in the legal sector.
Our participation in both the Legal Innovators UK and California conferences has been invaluable in staying abreast of industry developments and connecting with top entrepreneurs and innovators. We look forward to continuing our support for these conferences in 2025 and beyond.
At Gravity Stack, we remain committed to leveraging our expertise in AI and legal technology to help legal teams adopt AI for enhanced efficiency and decision-making, offering tailored support and training. If you want to hear more about AI trends impacting legal departments or, if your department is thinking about starting its own AI journey, get in touch with us.
Press Contact
Bryon Bratcher, Managing Director at Gravity Stack
bbratcher@gravitystack.com
