Building the future of legal work with AI | Legora CEO Max Junestrand

**TL;DR: The co-founder and CEO of Legora explains why the legal industry is fundamentally supply-constrained, how Legora leverages OpenAI models to become the operating system for legal work, and the real results of a Fortune 100 client that reduced contract processing cycles by 90% and saved $20 million.** ## Results from a Fortune 100 Client The most compelling evidence of all our efforts can be seen in one of our Fortune 100 clients: - Contract processing cycles were reduced by **90%** - Over **$20 million** in savings on external litigation and due diligence costs - **9.5 hours** saved per lawyer per week, freeing up time for higher-value work The goal now is to have every piece of legal work running on Legislate. ## The Legal Industry Is Fundamentally Supply-Constrained Hi, I'm Mats, co-founder and CEO of Legislate. Our mission is to build **the operating system for legal work**. One very interesting characteristic of the legal industry is that it is fundamentally constrained by supply. Demand for legal services far exceeds current supply, which means: - Not every contract gets reviewed - Not every injustice makes it into litigation or a courtroom - You can't perform due diligence before taking assets public — you can only do it after the fact The world needs more legal services and legal intelligence — and is demanding more — and Legislate makes it possible to access these resources on demand. So what's truly exciting is how this field and the industry as a whole will leverage all of these new resources. ## The Role of Legal Teams: Protect the Business *and* Drive It Forward The job of legal teams is not just to protect the business — it's to help move it forward. - Rather than manually reviewing every single contract, let AI agents handle the first round of review - When conducting due diligence on an M&A deal, truly rely on AI to take on a larger share of the work so the deal can move forward faster ## Origins: From BERT to GPT-3.5 Many people don't know that the original idea for Legislate came out of using **BERT** — one of Google's early models. Many of the early use cases explored at the time were very tricky, and it wasn't until we got access to **GPT-3.5** that we finally had a breakthrough. Seeing that moment, the decision was made to **drop out of university**, because in many ways, GPT-3.5 was this generation's **"internet moment."** Without OpenAI, there may be no Legora. ## Trust: The Most Important "Currency" in Legal Trust is perhaps the most important "currency" in the legal field — even more so than billable hours. For our team, it's essential that clients never feel the need to compromise on trust or question it. ## F1 Car and Engine: The Relationship with OpenAI A common analogy is this: Legora is a very fast **F1 race car**, but this car needs a very powerful **engine**. OpenAI continuously ships new models and new engines that allow the team to install them into the car and make it go faster. ## Staying AI-Native: "Building Sandcastles" Even as the company grows and expands at a rapid pace, it remains critical to stay as **AI-native** as possible. That means maintaining a very humble mindset: - Not viewing product development as building something permanent - Always staying at the cutting edge of AI capabilities In a sense, this means **"building sandcastles"** — because the underlying technology changes so fast that you always need to fold the best technology into it. ## "This Is the Best Time Ever to Be a Lawyer" There's a saying at Legora: **this is the best time ever to be a lawyer.** If this is done right — whether it's the transformation the entire industry will undergo, or the power of individuals to achieve more through technology — it will be so profound that any previous wave of technological innovation will pale in comparison. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOfmD1fY-i8