Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has acquired Springbok AI, in a deal that will see the generative AI-focused legal technology company’s founder join the US firm with a 10-strong team. 

The deal comes as law firms grapple with how to integrate generative AI into their workflows. A number have partnered with AI platforms targeting the legal industry, like Harvey AI, or developed their own chatbots in-house to experiment with the technology more safely. 

Cleary’s acquisition of Springbok marks a rare purchase of a legaltech company by a law firm. 

For its part London-based Springbok consulted for Dentons when the law firm developed its own generative AI platform, fleetAI, according to a report by Artifical Lawyer, and has also worked with Hogan Lovells and EY in the past. The company’s products include tools for workflow automation and a chatbot designed to run searches on, compare and draft documents.   

Cleary managing partner Michael Gerstenzang said the deal “immediately enables us to create custom AI-powered solutions – something that sets us apart from many of our competitors”.

The deal will see Cleary onboard Springbok’s proprietary platform, SpringLaw, and the firm’s co-founder and CEO, Victoria Albrecht, join with a team of 10 data scientists and AI engineers. 

They will form Cleary’s AI Acceleration team and develop custom AI builds for practices where the workflows “benefit from use of data analytics, AI-powered summarisation, automation in data gathering and insights on that data”, Cleary said. The group is expected to work directly with clients and practice groups to identify opportunities to build high-value use cases. 

The deal builds on Cleary’s 2022 launch of its ALSP, Cleary X, which focuses on using tech to make transactional process matters like M&A due diligence more efficient. The firm also has an e-discovery and litigation technology group, which develops AI tools to improve processes for its disputes clients. 

Law firms are increasingly eyeing opportunities around AI. A raft of firms including A&O Shearman, O’Melveny & Myers, CMS, Vinson & Elkins and Reed Smith have formed partnerships with Harvey AI. Meantime, last year Travers Smith spun out its AI technology products into a separate software business known as Jylo, and Sullivan & Cromwell launched a dedicated AI practice.

Last month Luminance, in which Slaughter and May was an early-stage investor, raised $75m in a Series C funding round, one of the largest capital raises by a pure-play legal AI company in the UK and Europe, according to TechCrunch.