Spanish firm Cuatrecasas has created a new business unit to group its open innovation initiatives under one brand, known as Cuatrecasas Innova.

The initiatives that will be joined together under the new brand include start-up accelerator programme Cuatrecasas Acelera; technology piloting programme Cuatrecasas Fast Track; financing and investment support unit Cuatrecasas Ventures; legal-focused entrepreneur podcast Innovado Con Startups; legal and regulatory seminars for start-ups Jornadas Legales; and internal innovation initiative Food4Brains.

Cuatrecasas says it created the Innova brand to promote innovation with an open focus, encouraging collaboration and ideas exchange through a combination of knowledge, tools and other resources to support the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Francesc Muñoz, CIO at Cuatrecasas, said: “After 10 years driving innovation at Cuatrecasas and in the legal sector, we launch Cuatrecasas Innova to, on the one hand, better organise the growing initiatives we are developing and, on the other hand, to give greater momentum to these initiatives.”

The firm said more than 150 lawyers from its offices in Spain and Portugal, as well as its Latin American offices in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, will be providing expertise and support to the initiative, which it hopes will lead to new collaborations and projects in the future.

Diana Rivera, a venture capital and private equity partner at Cuatrecasas, said: “Cuatrecasas Innova emerges as a natural evolution to extend our presence in the ecosystem with new initiatives, spaces and collaborations, ensuring the viability and sustainability of innovation from a legal perspective.”

Other firms that have been ramping up their innovation efforts include Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which last month acquired London-based generative AI legaltech business Springbok AI.

Last May, Herbert Smith Freehills launched a global digital legal delivery practice that brought together its alternative legal services and tech teams under one unified practice to better support innovation.

In November 2023, Slaughter and May opened applications for the fourth edition of its Collaborate legaltech incubator programme, encouraging start-ups with a focus on Gen AI.

Meantime, a report published earlier this year by the International Bar Association’s Future of Legal Services Commission found that the legal profession is still unprepared for AI despite acknowledging its long-term potential.