Top 100 US law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has announced the launch of Kilpatrick Labs, which is focused on developing and operating AI-powered tools for its attorneys and clients.
The Atlanta-based law firm says the programme is currently working on 15 projects in various stages of development, spanning patent and trademark prosecution, litigation monitoring and billing automation.
Kilpatrick is developing client-facing AI applications as part of the programme, some of which are being co-developed with clients.
Charles Gray, a partner at Kilpatrick and leader of Kilpatrick Labs, said that the firm wanted to rebuild around AI, as opposed to having it bolted onto the practice.
“Standing up Kilpatrick Labs as its own program, with engineering inside the firm, was the only way to do that without losing control over our clients' data or our attorneys' judgment," he explained.
"Our clients increasingly want software, not just memos. Tools like our clearance triage app are where the line between legal counsel and legal product starts to blur, and we'd rather be the firm building those products with our clients than the one explaining why we don't.”
According to Law.com, the lab was established around nine months ago, and mainly uses Anthropic’s Claude large language model (LLM).
The firm says that several lab tools are active on client engagements, and its new programme operates an open intake channel for attorneys and staff alike to unearth new automation candidates.
Kilpatrick Labs is powered by an in-house Model Context Protocol platform that connects 17 of the firm's systems to AI tools. The firm says this allows lawyers to use AI across its data and applications while keeping client and matter information secure within the firm's environment. Its approach to AI is to combine established platforms such as Harvey and Gemni with proprietary tools created by its own engineering team.
In 2023, the firm launched Kwery, an internal AI-assistant that helps its lawyers to analyse legal and client information, alongside reviewing patents, trademarks, contracts, and litigation materials.
Last week, New York firm Fried Frank created an AI-powered proprietary platform known as FundAssist, to support its asset management, regulatory and tax lawyers with fund formation, fund operations and transaction matters.
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