AI × Law

Lawfare argues the Supreme Court’s Trump v. Slaughter decision weakens the case for an independent federal AI regulator, since it narrows options for insulating AI oversight from the president. The piece says that makes third-party auditors and other private regulators more attractive, especially as Illinois and Connecticut move ahead with new AI oversight rules.

Illinois enacted the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act, which requires large frontier AI developers to publish safety frameworks, undergo third-party audits, and report critical incidents to the state. But the law gives enforcement power to the attorney general only, so people still can’t sue under the statute for AI-caused harm and must rely on existing claims like negligence, product liability, or discrimination law.

IAM says an Apple-OpenAI lawsuit has opened a new front in AI trade secret litigation. Litigators quoted in the piece say the hardware-focused dispute could become a roadmap for future claims involving employee mobility, supply chains, and competitive intelligence.

The article says recent federal decisions make clear that lawyers may use generative AI, but they must verify every citation and quote before filing. One patent case sanctioned all attorneys whose names appeared on a brief with ChatGPT-generated errors, and a trademark case issued an order to show cause after allegedly hallucinated authorities were cited.

A federal judge in San José is weighing whether to pause a proposed class action accusing xAI’s Grok chatbot of generating and publicly posting non-consensual sexualized images. The case matters because it could shape how courts handle AI deepfake abuse, user consent terms, and where these disputes get litigated.

Munich Regional Court ruled that Suno breached German and U.S. copyright law by training on songs from GEMA’s repertoire and storing and reproducing them. The decision also says AI companies must pay licenses for systematic use of GEMA’s repertoire, covering both model training and output generation—an important signal for music AI and copyright liability.

A federal judge in San Francisco signed off on Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement with authors, which multiple reports call the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history and the largest copyright class action ever certified. The deal is a major signal for AI companies: even if training on books can be fair use, how data is sourced can still create massive liability.

Y Combinator’s July 2026 legal-startups roundup spotlights 54 companies using AI for law firm intake, litigation support, immigration, compliance, contracts, and government workflows. The list includes startups already live with major law firms and enterprise customers, suggesting continued investor and product momentum in legal AI.

Foley highlighted an AI-powered database, Pre/Dicta, that claims it can predict how judges will rule in state and federal civil cases by analyzing about 120 data points, including a judge’s background and past decisions. The tool could affect case selection, funding, and settlement strategy if litigators rely on it.

An Ohio Board of Professional Conduct guidance update is presented as a template for legal teams using AI tools. The article says it does not create new rules, but clarifies how existing lawyer obligations apply to AI use—useful for firms and clients setting outside-counsel guidelines.

Legal AI company Harvey says it now has 160 legal engineers, five times as many as a year ago, and is hiring 51 more. The hiring surge signals continued product expansion at one of the best-known legal AI startups.

Harvey is listed with a $11 billion valuation and $1.17 billion in total funding, including a latest $200 million Series G round. The company says more than 100,000 lawyers across 1,300 organizations use its AI platform, underscoring continued investor and customer momentum in legal AI.

Legora has acquired London-based Wexler, whose software extracts and structures factual evidence from large volumes of documents for litigation and investigations. The deal gives Legora a source-traceable fact layer for its legal AI workflows and adds Wexler’s engineering team to Legora’s London hub, as Legora continues expanding after its $600 million Series D and $5.6 billion valuation.

Filevine launched LOIS Explore, a free-to-use version of its Legal Operating Intelligence System for legal teams. The product handles large document sets, provides verified citations, and is pitched for litigation, transactional, and advisory work, which makes it a notable addition in legal AI tools.

Mintz promoted John Koss to the newly created role of Chief Innovation & AI Officer. He will oversee the firm’s innovation strategy, AI investments, agentic technology initiatives, and client-facing and internal development capabilities, signaling a more centralized push on legal AI.

Wolters Kluwer says its Libra legal AI workflows are now available inside One, its legal research platform in Italy, through a new Libra add-in. The company says the integration lets lawyers draft, review, and analyze work in one environment, with AI outputs tied back to source materials for citable use.

Ropes & Gray, Sheppard, and Winston are rolling out different programs to get associates thinking differently about AI, from billable-credit training and workflow competitions to firmwide AI mindset coaching and human-skills classes. The piece shows how big law is trying to turn AI anxiety into practical adoption inside the firm.

Harvey says Microsoft’s corporate, external, and legal affairs organization will use its AI across legal and compliance operations, and that Microsoft’s legal and compliance division has adopted its products. The company also announced strategic investments from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, plus an acquisition of Benchmark as it pushes beyond Big Law into the broader corporate market.

Vikk AI raised $4.2 million in a pre-seed and seed financing to grow its AI-powered legal discovery platform. The company says the money will go toward its consumer legal assistant, document analysis and generation tools, a forthcoming lawyer directory, and a sponsored advertising product for law firms.

Vector Legal, an AI-native law firm for startups, raised $5.19 million in seed funding led by Base 10 Partners, with Y Combinator also participating. Founded by former Y Combinator lawyer Mitch Duncombe and ex-Ironclad engineer Keenan Venuti, the firm blends attorneys and software so founders can handle more formation and contract work themselves while lawyers step in for higher-stakes matters.