News You Can Use

Edition 22 · 15th - 31st July 2025

News You Can Use

Deep Dives

Three stories worth sitting with

Harvey and PwC: Terra Firma (Harvey case study / PwC platform)

Harvey case study|PwC platform

What
PwC has revealed a new M&A platform, developed in partnership with Harvey. The tool integrates generative AI to enhance due diligence, streamline deal workflows, and speed up document review across the deal lifecycle.
So what
This is a clear signal that clients are ready to embed GenAI into critical processes, and are willing to work directly with suppliers to do so. It is raising expectations for law firms to do the same. For us, this reinforces the need to tailor GenAI tools to specific practice areas.

Stare Decisis to Foresight: A Legal Mindset for the AI-Era World

Stare Decisis to Foresight: A Legal Mindset for the AI-Era World

What
Mark Cohen calls for a fundamental shift in the legal mindset: from a reliance on precedent to forward-thinking adaptability.
So what
The message aligns with our own transformation journey. It is a reminder that adapting to AI isn't just about tech deployment; it is about the mindset and culture shift.

The Agent Company - Benchmarking LLM Agents

The Agent Company - Benchmarking LLM Agents

What
TheAgentCompany's benchmark assesses how well AI agents can perform authentic workplace tasks. The most capable agents completed about 24–30% of tasks autonomously – they were successful at more straightforward tasks but largely failing on long-horizon, complex workflows.
So what
These findings highlight the importance of evaluating AI not just by single outputs but by multi-step task performance. It offers a valuable blueprint for how we could test legal agents in a controlled environment before broader rollout.

Worth Reading

Everything else worth a click

Early 2025 AI Experienced OS Devs Study (PDF)

[Internal AG resource] METR's RCT with 16 experienced open-source developers. AI tools (Claude, Cursor Pro) slowed them by 19% in real work, even while they believed they were faster by 20%.

The Agent Company - Benchmarking LLM Agents (PDF)

[Internal AG resource] Benchmark of LLM agents on realistic workplace tasks. Top agents only finish 24-30% of tasks autonomously - strong on straightforward work, poor on long-horizon multi-step flows.

Legal Tech Hub - Litera Introduces LITO

Litera launches Lito, an AI agent sitting inside Litera One and intended to act as a virtual team member across both business-of-law and practice-of-law tasks. Big consolidation play across Litera's product suite.

Law What's Next - When the Copilot Forgets

Alex Herrity on where Microsoft Copilot misses nuance in complex meetings, and what "good enough" actually looks like in legal use. Healthy reminder to understand your tool's failure modes as well as its strengths.

LinkedIn - Gareth Hughes on Legal AI

"AI is only as good as the data you feed it." Hughes argues firms need to fix data infrastructure before chasing the flashiest AI, or they will underperform those who build the boring foundations.

Harvey and PwC: [Terra Firma Case Study](https://www.harvey.ai/customers/terra-firma) / [PwC M&A Platform](https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2025/aipowered-deals-pwcs-latest-mna-technology-platform-reimagines-the-way-clients-do-deals.html)

Terra Firma used Harvey's Vault and PwC's UK Tax Model for deal due diligence and tax analysis. Tasks that took days now complete in hours or seconds - a real-deal client example of GenAI embedded in M&A.

Forbes - OpenAI Launching ChatGPT Agent

OpenAI rolls ChatGPT Agent into Plus/Pro - it can browse, click, run code and complete tasks on the user's behalf. Signals agents moving from developer API into consumer UX.

Legal Tech Trends #44

Peter Duffy's Q2 2025 round-up: AI adoption lag, strategic M&A and partnerships, Silicon Valley's focus on legal tech, and OpenAI's court-ordered data retention issues.

Ethan Mollick - The Bitter Lesson vs The Garbage

Mollick contrasts the Bitter Lesson (compute beats human priors) with the Garbage Can (real organisations are messy). If the Bitter Lesson wins, companies may not need to map their messy processes before letting AI agents do the work.

European Legal Tech Services Insight (PDF)

[Internal AG resource] European market view on legal tech services - vendors, buyer segments, and adoption dynamics. Good supporting material for European client pitches.

Harvey - How Harvey Saves Lawyers Time

Harvey's self-reported savings: 15-30 minutes per query, 13-25 hours per month for average users, up to 88 hours for top users. Vendor-sourced so treat with care, but useful baseline for conversations on ROI.

Fortune - AI and the Law

Fortune's round-up of the year in legal AI - copilots, research tools, record funding, plus the hallucination, deepfake and bias concerns. Good overview piece for non-specialist readers.

Forbes - Mark Cohen: Stare Decisis to Foresight

Cohen argues the legal profession needs to shift its default from precedent-driven to forward-looking. Less about the tech, more about the mindset shift required to lead in an AI-enabled market.