While there has been no shortage of firms announcing partnerships with legal AI providers, Slaughter and May has gone a step further and taken a 5% stake in Luminance, the due diligence AI supported by tech billionaire Mike Lynch.
Slaughters 5% stake in the AI company, which could be worth more than $1m following Luminance’s latest funding round which saw the tech company claim a valuation of $20m. Luminance reached the valuation following backing from Lynch’s firm Invoke Capital and further funding in December last year from Talis Capital.
Partners at Slaughters were given a share of the business as part of their work developing the product.
Marketing material from Slaughters states that the M&A technology was ‘the ideal initial area for Slaughter and May to invest in an artificial intelligence system’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Slaughter and May has invested substantial amount of intellectual capital into Luminance and has played a major part in its creation and development. In return, the firm’s partners have been given a small equity stake in Luminance Technologies Limited, the company which owns the Luminance software. We are always open about this, whether in reference calls with potential purchasers of Luminance or in more formal written documentation.’
Bird & Bird advised Luminance on its incorporation and subsequent allotment of shares.
Others in the Magic Circle have been actively developing partnerships with AI firms. Linklaters recently developed an AI product with Eigen Technologies, a tech firm founded by former senior strategic adviser to the firm Lewis Liu.
Meanwhile, Allen & Overy has launched an initiative to court closer links with technology companies through its ‘Fuse’ technology incubator, to work with legal tech startups developing regulatory and deal technology.
And global firm Baker McKenzie has entered a global agreement to use real estate AI due diligence tool Leverton in the review of lease agreements, the latest firm to sign up to the software after Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance went public with the tool.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk
Read more in: ‘The arms race – City rivals ramp up AI tech for the battles ahead’
