Legally AI: Clio’s $1B vLex Buy, Dentons’ AXL & Legora Tie-Ups & Microsoft’s Thai Gov Deal

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the legal sector.

In some cases, the technology’s use has been heavily criticized with serious consequences, while at other times, it has been a welcome addition.

In the meantime, law firms, organizations, courts, and governments are trying to find the middle ground, where AI can be used to enhance processes and efficiencies without negatively affecting critical operations or ultimate outcomes.

That being said, AI is extremely popular in the legal sector, and legal technology providers, along with law firms, are always on the lookout to find new ways to integrate the technology into their products and daily professional lives.

Let’s explore some of the recent moves made in the industry.
 

Clio Acquires vLex For $1 Billion

Clio, a globally renowned provider of legal technology, revealed that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire vLex, a pioneer in legal intelligence, for $1 billion, which will be paid in a combination of cash and stock.

The move will help Clio combine its legal operating system—which is used by over 200,000 legal professionals—with vLex’s cutting-edge legal intelligence platform—including Vincent, its groundbreaking AI that’s built on the industry’s most comprehensive global legal database.

Vincent is known for its accuracy and advanced cross-jurisdictional reasoning, as well as its ability to deliver faster, deeper insights across global matters. The combination of these platforms will allow Clio to offer legal professionals a unified system that enables them to seamlessly manage, research, and execute legal work.


“For 17 years, we’ve built the foundational platform that enables law firms to operate at their highest potential. With vLex, we’re building on that foundation with technology that understands the substance of the law,” said Jack Newton, CEO and Founder of Clio.

[Contd.] “By bringing together the business and practice of law in a unified platform, we’re revolutionizing every aspect of legal work. This sets the stage for a future powered by agentic AI, and marks the establishment of a new industry category—one that will empower legal professionals to serve clients with unprecedented insight and precision.”

According to Clio, this is the most significant acquisition in its history, both in scale and strategic impact.
 

Dentons Partners With AXL And Legora

In the past few days, global law firm Dentons unveiled two new partnerships, both aimed at infusing AI technology into its services portfolio.

On June 25, Dentons announced a strategic partnership with AXL, a firm that transforms AI research into high-growth companies that shape the future of applied AI. Through the partnership, the two companies will co-develop ventures that boost innovation in the legal sector and modernize outdated workflows, pricing, access, and legal services.

Dentons also becomes the exclusive legal partner to AXL and the preferred provider to its growing portfolio of ventures. AXL comes in with the goal of launching 50 AI-powered companies over the next five years.

“This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to staying at the forefront of legal innovation and AI,” said Tim Haney, CEO of Dentons Canada. “By collaborating closely with AXL, we will unlock new models for how technology can enable us to provide exponential value to our clients through innovation.”

“We’re proud to partner with Dentons, a firm with global scale, legal sophistication, and an AI innovation roadmap that’s moving legal innovation forward,” said Dr. Daniel Wigdor, Co-Founder and CEO of AXL. “Together, we’re launching companies that will define what practical and scalable AI applications will look like in practice.”


Following this, on June 30, Dentons announced that it was partnering with Legora, a leading legal AI platform, to provide its lawyers with Europe-wide access to Legora’s advanced legal AI platform and its collaborative AI tools, including generative AI (GenAI), advanced machine learning, and natural language processing capabilities that will be used to optimize its legal workflows.

The move will bring Dentons’ lawyers automation for high-volume end-to-end tasks such as searching, reviewing, drafting, and editing thousands of documents, as well as securely conducting research using internal and external databases.

“Rolling out the platform across our European teams will give our lawyers a considerable head start on time-intensive tasks, and the improved speed and efficiency will allow them to spend more time delivering the quality legal advice that our clients truly value,” said Wendela Raas, CEO of Dentons Europe.

“Dentons has a very strong track record in utilizing AI, which will serve as a crucial point for further innovation and close alignment – for both the firm’s specific growth and transformation goals,” said Max Junestrand, CEO and founder of Legora.

Legora itself comes with new enhancements.

This includes expanding the external legal sources available through its Assistant with EDGAR, the online database maintained by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The move will allow lawyers to retrieve, analyze, and cite SEC filings into their workflows without leaving Legora.

Legora also launched Workflows, an advanced agentic AI framework that enables lawyers to use natural language and tools to orchestrate multi-step legal work and complete tasks without human intervention. The platform was built in close collaboration with world-leading firms.

 

The Thai Government Partners With Microsoft

The Thai government’s top legal advisory body—the Office of the Council of State of Thailand (OCS)—is partnering with Microsoft to transform access to legal information, advance toward OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) membership, and push digital transformation beyond just technology.

“Digital transformation is not just about the technology,” said Nilprapunt, secretary general of the OCS. “It’s about people. It’s about how we can use technology to better serve our citizens and support Thailand’s progress.”


OCS aims to use Microsoft’s cloud and AI capabilities to improve management of huge volumes of legislative documents, ease complex research of interlinked laws, and boost the transformation of Thailand’s legal framework.

“These documents aren’t just large in number, they’re deeply interconnected,” added Nilprapunt. “Each law can impact or be constrained by others, and all must align with the Constitution as well as international standards. Keeping this synchronized is a monumental task.”

What do you think about these developments in the legal sector? Do you think using AI technology in the legal sector should be curtailed, considering the sensitivity of the industry?

Let us know in the comments below!