US legaltech giant Litera has acquired UK legal document platform Office & Dragons to bolster its document drafting offering.

Office & Dragons provides drafting and editing software that uses automation and generative AI tech to streamline document workflows and reduce repetitive tasks. It says users report time savings of 85-97% for mass editing and document generation work.

Chicago-headquartered Litera offers a range of legal workflow and AI tools including drafting, knowledge management and review analysis software.

Office & Dragons founder and CEO Samuel Smolkin said: “The entire O&D team will be coming on board, and we’re excited about the opportunities to grow our platform with Litera’s extensive resources and complementary products. With integrations spanning Compare, Kira, Transact and beyond, we aim to make Office & Dragons an essential part of every lawyer’s toolkit – helping them save hours of repetitive work, focus on higher-value tasks and improve their quality of life.”

The stated rationale of the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, is the augmentation of Litera’s product offering by enabling lawyers to process large volumes of legal documents without complex coding or specially crafted templates.

Avaneesh Marwaha, Litera CEO, said: “I’ve been so impressed by Sam’s understanding of the market, involvement in the industry and passion for building strong solutions for the legal tech community. This acquisition is a prime example of Litera’s ongoing commitment to expand our portfolio with mission-critical tools that integrate with native attorney workflows.”

The Office & Dragons acquisition is Litera’s first since Marwaha was re-appointed CEO in October, having spent the past two years as chairman. He replaced Sheryl Hoskins, who took over the CEO role in 2022.

In July, Litera purchased records management platform FileTrails to bolster its governance, risk and compliance offering. Last year the company also purchased customer relationship management platform Upper Sigma.

The Office & Dragons acquisition is the second deal involving a US legal services business in the past month, following Harbor’s purchase of UK legaltech firm Ascertus at the end of October. Other US legal services businesses have also been shopping for assets in the UK, with legaltech firm Consilio acquiring flexible legal services firm Lawyers on Demand and legaltech consultancy SYKE back in August 2023.