Akin Gump Expands AI Use with NetDocuments ndMAX

Driving adoption: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP rolls out NetDocuments’ AI suite firmwide Patrick Shortall speaks with Jeff Westcott, Akin’s London-based director of innovation and AI, about the rollout of ndMAX Akin, the Am Law 100 global law firm based in Washington DC, has expanded its use of AI across the firm with the rollout of NetDocuments’ ndMAX; a suite of generative AI tools that includes natural-language search across the document management system. Read more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eHkyPsnN #NetDocuments #Akin #law #lawfirm #AI #WinsandDeals

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, the Am Law 100 global firm, decided to use the new AI functionality within NetDocuments, its document management system, rather than opt for a more powerful standalone legal AI tool. Doing so has improved document governance while providing a gentler on-ramp to AI adoption across the firm. Full article with more insights here: https://lnkd.in/eX3Ea3Ym

💡 Freshfields has doubled down on its tech agnostic approach, striking a deal with AI giant Anthropic to build legal AI tools. While many firms have aligned themselves closely with a single provider, Freshfields has taken a different route - using multiple solutions and, so far at least, not partnering with legal AI frontrunners Harvey and Legora. The tie-up also underlines Anthropic’s growing push into legal. From a Word add-in for contract work to a legal plugin for Claude Cowork, it’s moving quickly onto turf once dominated by specialist providers. https://lnkd.in/ehTRGg8M

Anthropic has entered a major partnership with global law firm Freshfields to develop advanced AI solutions for legal work. The collaboration will focus on building AI tools for legal research, contract review, document drafting, and workflow automation aiming to integrate AI directly into everyday legal operations. The partnership highlights the growing shift toward AI-powered legal services, with law firms increasingly adopting tools to improve efficiency and decision-making. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eepC4gHE

Eleven legal AI products. Nearly all of them run on the same three foundation models. The difference between a tool that saves ten hours a week and one that collects dust after the pilot isn't the model — it's the application layer on top. The market has quietly sorted itself into three lanes. Multi-workflow platforms like Harvey, CoCounsel, and Protégé serve as primary AI infrastructure across research and drafting. Single-workflow products like Everlaw, EvenUp, and Luminance each picked one domain and built so deeply into it that no generalist can match them there. Then there's the procurement decision most litigation teams won't escape: publisher lock-in. If a firm already pays for Westlaw or Lexis, the AI add-on from that publisher almost always wins on total cost. CoCounsel vs. Protégé is as much about existing contracts as product quality. 🔍 Luminance stands alone as the only product that built its own legal LLM from the ground up. Everyone else is renting the same engines and competing on what they build around them. The right question isn't "which product is best?" It's which workflow costs the most time — and which product is purpose-built for exactly that. Part 3 of the Legal AI Landscape series. Full breakdown — eleven product profiles, architecture diagrams, pricing where available, and hallucination strategies: https://lnkd.in/e8Ps5iiU

Most people are sleeping on what Anthropic just announced. Claude for Legal isn't just another AI tool for lawyers. It's a sign of where the entire AI industry is heading. Here's what stood out to me: Anthropicdidn't try to build a standalone legal AI product from scratch. Instead, they built Claude into the tools lawyers already use every day — Westlaw, DocuSign, iManage, Word, Outlook. 20+ integrations. 12 role-specific plugins. One AI with shared context across all of it. That's the real play. Not replacing legal software. Becoming the intelligence layer on top of it. And the results are already showing up: → Freshfields, Quinn Emanuel, Holland & Knight using it on live matters → Harvey, Legora, and Eve all built on Claude's models → Opus 4.7 scoring 90.9% on BigLaw Bench The lesson here isn't just about legal AI. It's about how the best AI products in every industry will be built: Not by replacing existing workflows — but by embedding into them so deeply that you become indispensable. Every industry has its version of iManage and Westlaw. The AI that wins will be the one that plugs in — not the one that asks people to start over. Watch this space. 👀

2026 marks the 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗽𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆. The focus is shifting 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗜 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 2026 will be defined by organisations prioritising how AI can be embedded into everyday workflows to deliver sustained, long-term impact, rather than treating AI as a standalone or exploratory tool. According to the Forbes Technology Council, 𝘀𝗶𝘅 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 and redefining how legal teams will work. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dCyE5zAj

AI is changing legal work in a way that’s easy to misunderstand. The tools are impressive, but the deeper shift is what they do to professional judgment, and how people build that judgment over time. That was the heart of the discussion in the Paralegal TownHall breakout session I facilitated on AI and the legal field. The session was well attended, and I was genuinely impressed by the openness of the questions. Some were practical “how-to” questions about using these tools responsibly in day-to-day workflows. Others went deeper into the future-of-work anxiety that’s starting to show up across the profession. Two questions kept surfacing in different forms: How do I find time to learn AI responsibly while also leveling up professionally? And how do you keep sharpening your legal judgment if AI starts doing more of the first-pass work, the drafts, the structure, the starting point? My take is that AI can help without hollowing out skill, but only if it’s used in a disciplined way. Treat it like a junior assistant for first passes, structure, checklists, and issue-spotting, then force the work back through human judgment and verification. That way, the tool speeds up the parts that don’t need to be heroic, and you protect the reps that actually make you better at the profession. A lot of people in attendance asked for a follow-up resource. I’m going to put a brief one together based on the discussions that day, and I’m happy to share it once it’s ready. Just DM me. Huge credit to John Paul Rodrigues, Justin D Rochester, and The Paralegal TownHall. The event was run extremely well, the speakers were excellent, and the questions from attendees were as real as it gets.

One of the most dangerous habits in AI-assisted legal work is assuming the output is complete. For managing partners and IT heads overseeing legal tech adoption in Philippine firms, this is critical: AI tools — no matter how sophisticated — do not know what they do not know. They can miss recent Supreme Court decisions. They can misread procedural nuances. They can confidently present an answer that is technically incomplete. This is why the second best practice in responsible AI use is establishing a structured review protocol — not just for individual lawyers, but as a firm-wide standard. What does that look like in practice? 🔹 Define which tasks are AI-assisted versus AI-drafted — and treat each with a different level of human review. 🔹 Require senior associates or partners to sign off on any AI-generated legal research before it influences strategy. 🔹 Log AI tool usage per case file so your firm has an auditable record — essential if a client dispute ever arises. 🔹 Train your team regularly. AI tools evolve fast. Your internal protocols must keep pace. LegalQuest was built for Philippine law firms that want structure, not just speed. Our platform supports your firm's governance layer — giving managing partners visibility into how AI is being used across the practice. Responsible AI adoption is a firm-wide commitment, not an individual workaround. 👉 Talk to our team about building your firm's AI governance protocol with LegalQuest. Message us to schedule a consultation.

Legal AI is scaling fast – and so is tool sprawl. A clear operating model, backed by strategy, standardised workflows and secure, legal-grade tools grounded in trusted data, is the difference between scattered pilots and reliable adoption at scale. https://gag.gl/xqhYSP