Crosby bids for Weil assets, Wikimedia files fair use brief in OpenAI case, and more - Legal AI Weekly #69

In this edition, covering 30 October to 5 November:

• Crosby, a US AI focused law firm, bid for the trademark, brand and some internal data of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which is preparing to vote on dissolution.
• The Wikimedia Foundation, four entertainment unions and the Human Consent Foundation filed amicus briefs in The New York Times copyright case against OpenAI.
• A Victorian Legal Services Board census of 2,221 lawyers found AI use rose from 37% to 55% in one year.

This spot is open for 2027. One company puts its name on every Legal AI Weekly, which has 1,100+ subscribers. See what's included

From our lists

This list covers contract lifecycle management software that uses AI to draft, review and track contracts.

Contract Lifecycle Management with AI

Lawsuits

The Wikimedia Foundation filed an amicus brief arguing fair use may cover training models that create new works, and that retrieval augmented generation systems should meet licensing and attribution requirements before reproducing source content. OpenAI published excerpts from court filings that back fair use for AI training, from authors, libraries, technology groups, academics, Public Knowledge and the US government. Wikimedia brief · OpenAI filings

SAG-AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians and the Writers Guilds of America East and West opposed a categorical fair use exemption for AI training, arguing unlicensed use harms more than 250,000 workers. The Human Consent Foundation, backed by Cate Blanchett, and Hollywood groups argued that OpenAI and Microsoft can license creative works through existing rights clearance systems. Unions · Human Consent Foundation

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued Rengstorff Consulting, owner of A2E, alleging the service lets users create sexually explicit images of children and of people who did not consent; A2E says it works with law enforcement to detect and prevent such material. A2E

Law firms and law schools

Crosby bid for the trademark, brand and some internal data of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and wants to hire some of the firm's 1,200 lawyers; terms were not disclosed. Singapore firm WongPartnership chose August as its strategic AI partner to train its people and build custom AI agents based on the firm's knowledge and working methods. The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law joined Legora's academic programme, and will introduce the platform after students learn core legal skills. Crosby and Weil · WongPartnership · NUS Law

A&O Shearman will invest $1.1 billion over five years in AI, with every practice spending at least 3% of its time on specialist AI tools. Fieldfisher is rolling out Legora to 1,400 lawyers and staff after a six week pilot with 137 users. Fieldfisher · A&O Shearman

Adoption and ethics rules

Harvey says partners now make up 23% of its law firm users, and associates use it more at firms where partners use it heavily. A Victorian Legal Services Board census of 2,221 lawyers found AI use rose from 37% to 55%, while 46% said clients brought inaccurate or misleading AI assisted information. The New York State Bar Association adopted AI guidelines for lawyers covering human oversight, bias checks, conflicts, client and court disclosures, fees and vendor supervision. Harvey usage · Victorian census · New York guidelines

Best Lawyers' survey of 5,753 firms found generative AI use among firms with at least 20 lawyers rose to 28% from 11% a year earlier. Best Lawyers

A Clio survey of all 50 states found court rules on AI vary widely; Massachusetts bans generative AI for judges' legal research and writing, while New York allows some approved uses. Clio survey

Legal AI tools

Everlaw unveiled Omni, an agentic AI suite that combines its investigation tools to answer case questions, and connects its platform to Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Harvey and Legora through MCP. Litera's Lito now searches, retrieves and summarizes Box documents through an MCP integration that keeps existing Box permissions and administrator controls. Ivo signed a multi year deal as exclusive legal AI partner of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, whose legal team will use it for drafting, negotiations and research. Everlaw Omni · Litera and Box · Ivo and HBSE

Agiloft launched three contract agents for bulk updates, request routing and Adobe Acrobat Sign, and previewed an MCP server with Claude as its first client. Agiloft

Litera partnered with filerskeepers to bring global legal retention rules into its FileTrail records management and added a SharePoint connector for FileTrail. Litera and filerskeepers

Harvey introduced Harvey Graph for shared matter context, a planned two way iManage integration and new Outlook, Intake and Contract Intelligence workflows at its FORUM Chicago event. San Francisco based GC AI now syncs completed Docusign agreements into its Contract Intelligence platform, so legal and business teams can search terms, renewal dates and obligations without moving files. Leah launched Harness Builder, which lets business users create governed AI systems in natural language, with its Maestro platform coordinating agents across legal, procurement, finance and shared services. Harvey · GC AI and Docusign · Leah

Funding and results

Juritas, an Irish founded startup based in Stockholm, raised €1.4m in funding led by Passion Capital for its platform that tracks contract commitments and payments due in supplier agreements. Athena raised $2.5 million from a16z; its affiliated firm Athena Circle uses AI agents to review commercial property agreements and draft redlines, and lawyers approve all work. Thomson Reuters reported third quarter revenue of $1.833 billion, up 10% from a year earlier, with organic growth also at 10%. Juritas · Athena · Thomson Reuters

Also

Manifest OS named Sophy King, who previously led Newland Chase and Envoy Global, president of international immigration and plans to expand its AI based immigration practice to more than 100 jurisdictions. DISCO appointed Mich Razon as chief technology officer and Johann Wrede as chief marketing officer; both joined on 2 November. Manifest OS · DISCO