New Firm, New Fuse - A&O Shearman unveils the latest companies to join Fuse

Fuse was originally launched in 2017 to identify LegalTech companies that would help Allen & Overy achieve its ambition to become the world’s most advanced law firm. Now, as A&O Shearman, Fuse has expanded its remit to become a client-facing center of learning expertise, providing its lawyers and clients with a source of market insight, a broad network and opportunities around core themes of strategic importance to them.

This year, Fuse focused on companies operating in digital assets and, through a process of client recommendations, curated a cohort of start-ups and scale-ups from across the U.K., the U.S. and Europe committed to addressing clients’ most pressing issues in that area. These companies will be joined by six new LegalTech companies and three alumni companies from the previous cohort.

Explore the nineteen technology companies joining Cohort 8 of Fuse.

The program runs for seven months. Each company will be mentored by an A&O Shearman partner who provides relevant subject matter expertise and their networks. They will also have access to Fuse’s specially designed innovation space at A&O Shearman’s London offices and a newly launched Fuse space in A&O Shearman’s San Francisco office. 

Fuse also retains LegalTech as part of its core activities. Today, eight of the 12 LegalTech tools in A&O Shearman’s toolkit are from companies who have participated in Fuse.

A&O Shearman partner and head of Fuse, Shruti Ajitsaria, said: “This year, in addition to receiving more than 230 applications from across 28 countries for our LegalTech stream, we also had 80 companies nominated by our clients to our digital assets stream.

“As FinTech innovations increasingly democratize access to financial services, embracing these advancements fosters inclusive and efficient financial ecosystems, driving positive change on a global scale. Digital assets are transforming the legal landscape, driving operational efficiencies and helping companies to access new markets by introducing new infrastructure, categories of property and ownership, each of which challenge traditional legal frameworks. Our clients want us to understand the underlying technology deeply, to enable us to be at the forefront of those legal changes.”

Shruti added: “Fuse underlines A&O Shearman’s strong commitment to act as a thought partner to our clients beyond the purely legal. We are here to shape and lead the debate on topics which are front of mind for clients - in a differentiated way.

“It is at the epicenter of learning providing an experiential forum for our clients to explore real life matters and understand topics that are front of mind for them, together with our lawyers. Now as A&O Shearman, we enter an exciting chapter in the evolution of Fuse.”