Biglaw’s AI Partnership Wars Have Officially Begun

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

It’s the splashiness of the announcement. I’ve heard from people at Kirkland’s peer firms in the private equity area that they feel they need to respond somehow.

I think some other firm will feel threatened enough that they also need to do a landmark announcement, whether it’s with OpenAI, Anthropic, or someone else.

— Esther Chiang, SmartEsq founder and former partner at Paul Hastings and Kirkland, in comments given to the American Lawyer, concerning the wave of partnership announcements being made between Biglaw firms and legal AI providers. Firms like Kirkland & Ellis, Freshfields, and Debevoise & Plimpton have recently inked highly publicized deals with AI tech firms like Palantir, Anthropic, and Legora, respectively.

Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

The post Biglaw’s AI Partnership Wars Have Officially Begun appeared first on Above the Law.

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

It’s the splashiness of the announcement. I’ve heard from people at Kirkland’s peer firms in the private equity area that they feel they need to respond somehow.

I think some other firm will feel threatened enough that they also need to do a landmark announcement, whether it’s with OpenAI, Anthropic, or someone else.

— , SmartEsq founder and former partner at Paul Hastings and Kirkland, in comments given to the American Lawyer, concerning the wave of partnership announcements being made between Biglaw firms and legal AI providers. Firms like Kirkland & Ellis, Freshfields, and Debevoise & Plimpton have recently inked highly publicized deals with AI tech firms like Palantir, Anthropic, and Legora, respectively.

Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.