US giant targets investment fund work in latest tech push
Latham & Watkins has teamed up with legal AI company Harvey to develop a new AI tool aimed at streamlining the paperwork involved in setting up investment funds.
Lawyers from Latham’s investment funds practice are working directly with Harvey’s product and engineering teams to develop the new tecj, focusing on document-heavy tasks including limited partnership agreements (LPAs), side letters, subscription documents and comment memos.
The idea is to speed up some of the more repetitive parts of the process, giving lawyers more time to focus on the commercial and strategic issues that matter to clients and investors.
Matthew Chase, global chair of Latham’s investment funds practice, said:
“Fund formation requires lawyers to navigate an enormous amount of detail while staying focused on the commercial priorities of sponsors and investors. We’re excited to partner with Harvey to combine their engineering expertise with the breadth of practitioner perspective across Latham’s premier global platform, and to translate our market knowledge and insights into AI-enabled tools that support our clients.”
The Harvey tie-up comes as Latham continues to ramp up its AI investment. Last month, the firm revealed it had bought its own Nvidia-powered servers to run and customise AI models in-house, rather than relying solely on outside providers.
Harvey co-founder and chief executive Winston Weinberg said the collaboration would give its product and engineering teams “direct insight” into how Latham lawyers handle complex fund work, helping shape tools around the realities of the job.
The move is the latest in a growing run of BigLaw AI tie-ups. Freshfields has partnered with Anthropic, while Kirkland & Ellis is working with Palantir as part of a major push to build its own AI tools. Other US firms, including Sullivan & Cromwell, Ropes & Gray and Cooley, are also working with OpenAI on legal AI tools.
The 2027 Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Latham recruits around 32 trainees each year through its vacation schemes. Rookies earn £70,000 in their first year and £75,000 in their second, with pay rising to £173,077 upon qualification.