Have you ever ever discovered your self current in a second and realized you had been witnessing one thing historic? It’s not an exaggeration to say that’s what lots of the 2,700 in-person attendees felt who had been current for Clio cofounder and CEO Jack Newton’s keynote tackle that opened the 13th annual ClioCon convention final week in Boston.
Two individuals informed me they actually teared up throughout his discuss. Others mentioned they felt chills down their spines. Whereas Newton’s previous keynotes have sometimes been punctuated by whoops and cheers as he laid out new merchandise and options, this 12 months’s viewers was so quiet throughout many of the discuss you can hear a pin drop. Their faces conveyed rapt consideration, fixated on Newton and the large pictures illustrating his phrases.
Afterwards, individuals informed me they felt an array of feelings: shell-shocked, thrilled, numbed, elated, energized, frightened. So many mentioned they wanted time to course of his phrases, to consider what all of it meant for them and their practices or their corporations.
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Even Newton himself acknowledged this. In his remarks closing the convention the subsequent day, he mentioned that one constant piece of suggestions he had obtained was that “so many individuals informed me they’re nonetheless processing what we introduced” and that “they felt a way of overwhelm and virtually had been shell shocked.”
“On one hand, I’m sorry,” Newton mentioned. “However alternatively, I’m additionally actually excited by that suggestions as a result of that tells me that we delivered a variety of worth and that’s fairly profound.
“It does take a while to course of not simply how this may change your each day and make it slightly higher,” he continued, “however how this expertise may essentially rewire and rewrite the way you run your regulation agency.”
Even I, who’ve coated authorized tech for 30 years, who has been to each ClioCon and heard each Newton keynote, in addition to the keynotes of so many different CEOs at so many different conferences, felt moved. It was a second at which every thing everybody had ever envisioned for authorized tech appeared lastly to be changing into tangible and actual.
Actually, “changing into” is just not even the correct phrase, as a result of a lot of what Newton described is already right here.
‘Clever Authorized Work Platform’
So what was occurring right here?
I’ll admit, to aim to convey any of this in a information report is daunting. Little doubt lots of you studying this may suppose I’ve misplaced my thoughts. If I had not heard the identical response repeated by so many who had been there, I’d in all probability agree with you. Nevertheless it appeared evident to everybody in that room that we had been current at an almost-tangible inflection level within the evolution of authorized tech.
This inflection level – this new chapter – is one which goals to dissolve the road between the enterprise of regulation and the observe of regulation and to redefine how authorized work itself will get carried out. And what’s enabling this new chapter, the important thing that’s unlocking it, the glue that’s holding all of it collectively, is generative AI.
Allow us to keep in mind that Clio is an organization that helped pioneer the cloud revolution in regulation when it began 17 years in the past. This 12 months’s keynote felt like a sequel of even larger magnitude: the daybreak of an AI-driven, absolutely related authorized ecosystem that Newton referred to as “the clever authorized work platform.”
Merely from a product perspective, this 12 months’s bulletins – which included the launch of the brand new Clio Work and Clio for Enterprise and the corporate’s most aggressive integrations of authorized AI but – represented essentially the most formidable set of bulletins in Clio’s historical past.
However past the merchandise, Newton’s keynote superior a broader imaginative and prescient: a authorized future constructed not on “techniques of file,” however on “techniques of motion.”
From Cloud Revolution to AI Reinvention
Newton started his keynote with a retrospective on Clio’s origins in 2008, when he and cofounder Rian Gauvreau launched one of many first cloud-based authorized practice-management techniques at ABA Techshow. Again then, placing your observe within the cloud was a revolutionary and even heretical concept.
Seventeen years later, Clio has grown from serving solos to greater than 200,000 authorized professionals worldwide, dominating the small-firm practice-management market, making notable inroads on the mid-firm market, and now setting its sights on the enterprise market.
That enlargement, Newton introduced, would come by a brand new devoted division, Clio for Enterprise, and a brand new suite of AI-driven instruments designed for world companies and company authorized departments.
Setting Sights On Massive Regulation
Constructing on its billion-dollar acquisition of vLex (which has but to be finalized pending approval by regulatory authorities in Spain, the place vLex is headquartered) and its acquisition in March of ShareDo, Clio introduced a brand new enterprise division of the corporate and the launch of a collection of merchandise housed inside that division, Clio Function, Vincent by Clio, Clio Library and Clio Docket.
Clio Function, constructed on the inspiration of ShareDo, previously a U.Okay.-based enterprise platform, is described as an “adaptive work-management platform” able to connecting workflows, analytics and collaboration throughout world groups.
Newton referred to as it “Clio Handle’s huge brother,” a system configurable sufficient for 1,000-lawyer companies but nonetheless grounded in Clio’s hallmark usability.
The second-morning keynote featured an interview with psychotherapist Esther Perel carried out by author and former lawyer Gretchen Rubin.
The engine driving this enterprise suite is Vincent by Clio, the gen AI platform Clio inherited by its vLex acquisition. With vLex already deployed at eight of the world’s 10 largest companies, based on Clio, Vincent is ready to ship “enterprise-grade authorized AI” grounded in a verified world authorized corpus of over one billion paperwork spanning 110 jurisdictions.
That makes Clio one in every of solely three corporations on the earth, alongside Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis, with such depth of authorized information.
Newton unveiled three notable improvements constructed on Vincent:
- Vincent Studio, a no-code setting for attorneys to construct their very own AI instruments.
- Vincent Drafting, which generates complicated contracts from agency precedents.
- Deep Integrations with document-management techniques akin to iManage, NetDocuments and SharePoint.
Collectively, these choices mark Clio’s most aggressive transfer but into the larger-firm market, signaling a bid to compete not solely on usability however on depth, information and complicated AI.
From System of Document to System of Motion
Whereas the enterprise announcement illustrated Clio’s market ambitions, Newton’s introduction of the idea of the Clever Authorized Work Platform outlined its philosophical ones.
For many years, he informed the group, practice-management software program has been outlined by one important position – serving as a regulation agency’s system of file, the place the place they retailer every thing about their observe. However within the period of AI, he mentioned, companies want techniques that don’t simply file what occurs, however that make issues occur.
As Newton framed it, Clio is now changing into a system of motion that may be a proactive participant in authorized work, automating duties, anticipating subsequent steps, and changing context into outcomes.
“In a system of file, you enter a deadline,” he defined. “In a system of motion, AI provides it to your calendar, alerts your crew, and drafts a consumer replace in your behalf.”
“In a system of file, you enter a deadline,” he mentioned. “In a system of motion, AI provides it to your calendar, alerts your crew, and can even draft a consumer replace in your behalf. A system of motion takes motion and does work in your behalf.”
That transformation is embodied, Newton mentioned, in a four-pronged integration of AI inside Clio’s product suite:
- Clio Handle AI, automating docket extraction, billing, and consumer updates.
- Clio Develop AI, screening leads, operating battle checks, and scheduling consults routinely.
- Clio Draft AI, reworking agency templates into full workflows in minutes.
- Clio Work, a brand new workspace uniting analysis, drafting, and reasoning below a single AI layer.
Collectively, they type what Newton repeatedly known as the Clever Authorized Work Platform, “the ecosystem for the total lifecycle of authorized work – consumption, scheduling, analysis, drafting, monitoring, billing – all related, all powered by AI.”
An AI-Native Authorized Ecosystem
Central to Clio’s new product universe is Clio Work, a workspace that mixes a lawyer’s matter information with the vLex authorized library to ship “analysis, evaluation, and case technique attorneys can depend on.”
The primary day of ClioCon ended with an after occasion at Boston’s MGM Music Corridor.
In contrast to generic AI instruments that “summarize, speculate and anticipate course,” a Clio press launch mentioned, Clio Work “understands.” It integrates immediately with Clio Handle to attract stay information from paperwork, emails, and notes; cross-references that with Clio Library’s verified regulation; and supplies exact, cited suggestions in actual time.
The result’s what Newton referred to as context engineering – AI that mirrors the way in which attorneys suppose by understanding the relationships amongst details, regulation and intent.
“Context engineering is about giving AI the identical full image you’re carrying round in your head, so it doesn’t have to interpret textual content in an island, however it grasps that means and relationships and intent, as a result of it has all of the context essential to make the correct conclusions,” he mentioned.
“That is the place our strategy to AI actually units itself aside from what others within the trade are doing, as a result of Clio already connects every bit of your observe collectively in a unified system of file, and we are able to deliver all of that data to bear as context for our AI.”
Clio Work’s capabilities embrace drafting motions, analyzing proof, extracting claims and timelines, and even transcribing depositions with built-in authorized evaluation. For transactional attorneys, it opinions contracts for danger and inconsistency and suggests negotiation methods.
Bought as an extra product at $199 per person per thirty days, Clio Work delivers “a complete authorized intelligence suite,” Newton mentioned, which incorporates Vincent AI, Clio Library and deep integration with Clio Handle.
Merging Authorized Enterprise and Apply
Maybe essentially the most resonant theme of the keynote was Newton’s assertion that the normal division between software program for the observe of regulation and the enterprise of regulation is out of date.
For 50 years, he famous, these two domains have been served by separate applied sciences, akin to LexisNexis and Westlaw for analysis on the practice-of-law aspect, and Clio and others for observe administration on the business-of-law aspect. AI, he argued, is now collapsing that divide.
“By AI, we’re bringing collectively the observe of regulation and the enterprise of regulation to create a wholly new class of resolution for you at this time – a single context-aware platform the place one AI understands how the items match collectively.”
In Newton’s telling, each main milestone in expertise – Microsoft’s creation of its Workplace suite, Google’s launch of its collaborative cloud instruments, Apple’s hardware-software synergy – has been outlined by convergence. Clio, he argued, is now driving that very same unification in authorized expertise.
“That is what we noticed as the chance to deliver Clio and vLex collectively. We really noticed it as a one plus one equals 10 alternative.”
Grounding AI in Authorized Intelligence
A central thread in Newton’s keynote – and a central justification for Clio’s acquisition of vLex – was the differentiation between “generic” AI merchandise as represented by foundational fashions akin to OpenAI and Claude and what he referred to as “authorized intelligence” – AI grounded not within the open net however in dependable authorized information sources akin to case regulation and statutes.
“In authorized, the efficiency of AI relies upon solely on the standard behind its solutions, and that’s why vLex is so necessary to Clio,” he mentioned. As a result of Vincent is anchored in vLex’s 1 billion doc corpus, it will possibly obtain 3.7 instances larger accuracy and a 38 % productiveness carry throughout key workflows, Clio claims.
That grounding, Newton argued, isn’t just about precision, however about belief. “Each perception Vincent supplies to you,” he mentioned, “is supported by verified citations and sources you’ll be able to belief.”
Newton additionally framed AI as not merely an effectivity device however as a catalyst for increasing all the authorized market.
Citing information from the World Justice Challenge, he famous that 77 % of authorized issues worldwide go unaddressed by attorneys. If AI-enabled attorneys can serve even a fraction of that unmet want, he argued, the entire addressable marketplace for authorized companies might develop from $1 trillion to $4 trillion yearly.
In his closing keynote, futurist Richard Susskind cautioned that attorneys might not at all times be the “finest reply” for these with authorized issues.
“AI is just not right here to exchange authorized professionals,” Newton mentioned, “AI is right here to amplify your influence.”
A Turning Level for Clio …
Over practically 90 minutes, Newton painted a portrait of Clio not merely as a SaaS vendor, however because the nucleus of a brand new legal-AI infrastructure – one which spans solo practitioners, small companies, mid-sized companies, multinational companies and company authorized departments alike.
The total array of Clio’s new product line-up.
The Clio for Enterprise launch strikes the corporate into direct competitors with entrenched enterprise suppliers; the Clever Authorized Work Platform positions Clio as a doubtlessly category-defining AI firm reasonably than merely a practice-management device; and Clio Work embodies the imaginative and prescient many have had of contextual, actionable AI for authorized professionals.
In doing so, Newton gave the impression to be suggesting, Clio has accomplished its evolution from the cloud-based startup that liberated attorneys from servers to the AI-driven platform that will quickly liberate them from administrative drag altogether.
… and for Authorized Apply?
The thinker and mathematician Blaise Pascal as soon as famously mentioned that if he had extra time, he would have written a shorter letter. I really feel that means about this put up. However, then once more, I’m trying to report a virtually 90-minute keynote and share some inkling of why it felt so impactful.
In the long run, I feel the explanation so many in that viewers had been so moved or so shell-shocked is that the implications of what Newton laid out are profound. If Clio succeeds in executing on all this, it strikes AI from the periphery of authorized work to its core. It renders AI capable of interpret, anticipate and act throughout each layer of a agency’s operations.
For the broader legal-tech trade, Newton’s keynote units a brand new benchmark for integration and ambition. It’s a direct problem to incumbents which have but to fuse analysis information, workflow automation and AI right into a single cohesive expertise.
And for the occupation at giant, Clio’s product agenda hints at a future the place expertise lastly narrows the hole between authorized demand and provide – the place attorneys, armed with “context-aware” AI, can serve extra shoppers, with greater high quality, at decrease value.
“This isn’t the top of the story,” Newton concluded. “That is the start of a brand new one. Each product, each innovation, each step alongside the way in which has been main us right here to the primary chapter of a brand new period for authorized expertise, a chapter that may redefine how authorized work will get carried out.”
Though I’ve written this story a couple of particular keynote given by a particular CEO of a particular authorized tech firm, I actually imagine that what occurred final week was not nearly one man or one firm.
It was a couple of second in historical past that signified one thing taking place on a far-broader scale – a turning level for all the authorized occupation and for everybody whom that occupation serves – and everybody it must be serving however is just not.
