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A&O announces exclusive launch partnership with Harvey

Published Date
Feb 15 2023
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Allen & Overy (A&O), the leading international law firm, has broken new ground by integrating Harvey, the innovative artificial intelligence platform built on a version of Open AI’s latest models enhanced for legal work, into its global practice. Harvey will empower more than 3,500 of A&O’s lawyers across 43 offices operating in multiple languages with the ability to generate and access legal content with unmatched efficiency, quality and intelligence.

A&O has been trialling Harvey (based on GPT-4) in beta since November 2022 under the leadership of a team of lawyers and developers tasked with disrupting the legal industry, called the Markets Innovation Group (MIG). At the end of the trial, around 3500 of A&O’s lawyers had asked Harvey around 40,000 queries for their day-to-day client work. 

Harvey is a platform that uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to automate and enhance various aspects of legal work, such as contract analysis, due diligence, litigation and regulatory compliance. Whilst the output needs careful review by an A&O lawyer, Harvey can help generate insights, recommendations and predictions based on large volumes of data, enabling lawyers to deliver faster, smarter and more cost-effective solutions to their clients. 

Harvey, which received seed funding from the OpenAI Startup Fund, was founded by a team of former lawyers, engineers and entrepreneurs who share a vision of transforming the legal industry with technology. 

The ground-breaking deal will give A&O a significant competitive edge in the market, as it will be able to advise clients using the most advanced and comprehensive AI platform in the legal sector combined with the proven prestige, quality and experience of one of the world's best and oldest law firms.

Wim Dejonghe, Senior Partner at A&O, said: "This announcement marks a new era for A&O and the legal industry. Harvey AI is not just another platform, but a game-changer that will enable us to deliver unprecedented value, efficiency and innovation to our clients. We are proud to be the first law firm to partner with Harvey AI. We share their vision of using technology to enhance and transform legal services."

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO and manager of the OpenAI Startup Fund, said: “We invested in Harvey because we believe AI can have a profound impact on the legal process and their proprietary platform will fundamentally change the way lawyers spend their time. The fact that A&O witnessed the benefits and level of engagement within a few short months is testament to what Gabriel Pereyra, Winston Weinberg, and team have built.” 

Gabriel Pereyra, Co-founder of Harvey, said: "We are honored and excited to partner with A&O. Their global presence, tradition of excellence and rapid adoption will allow us to safely develop and deploy cutting-edge legal AI to the most complex legal work across every practice area and legal system in the world."

I have been at the forefront of legal tech for 15 years but I have never seen anything like Harvey. It is a game-changer that can unleash the power of generative AI to transform the legal industry. Harvey can work in multiple languages and across diverse practice areas, delivering unprecedented efficiency and intelligence. In our trial, we saw some amazing results.

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David Wakeling

Partner

Content Disclaimer

This content was originally published by Allen & Overy before the A&O Shearman merger