Artificial intelligence is gradually establishing itself in one of the last bastions of professional services: law. Legal research, contractual analysis, document drafting or due diligence are now among the activities that new AI platforms seek to automate.

In this context, the Swedish startup Legora announces a fundraising of approximately 505 million eurosenhancing the company $5.55 billion. This operation explicitly aims to accelerate its expansion in the United States, where the adoption of artificial intelligence in law firms is progressing very quickly.

This orientation of Legora illustrates a dynamic now visible throughout the sector, if legal AI innovation is partly European, the market and competition are mainly structured in the United States.

Law, one of the major markets for professional AI

The global legal services market represents approximately 900 billion dollarsmaking it one of the largest professional services sectors in the world.

Until recently, much of this market remained relatively unautomated. Legal work still relies largely on labor-intensive activities:

• research in case law
• contract analysis
• writing legal memos
• preparation of litigation files.

The arrival of next-generation language models is gradually changing this equation. Legal AI platforms are now seeking to automate not only certain one-off tasks, but complete work chainssometimes described as agentic workflows.

From this perspective, the issue goes beyond the simple creation of tools, technology companies are trying to build legal work software infrastructurethat is to say the platforms on which law firms and departments will organize their activities.

The United States, economic center of gravity of legal AI

If innovation is distributed between several regions of the world, the American market remains the main economic engine of the sector.

The United States represents approximately half of the global legal services market. The country is also home to the largest international firms, often grouped under the name Big Law. Several of them exceed 2 to 3 billion dollars in annual turnover and employ several thousand lawyers.

This concentration creates a particularly favorable environment for the adoption of new technologies. When an artificial intelligence solution is deployed in a large firm, it can be used simultaneously by hundreds or even thousands of lawyers.

New York has thus become one of the main global legal tech hubs, attracting startups, investors and international law firms. Several European companies in the sector have chosen to open their first American offices there in order to get closer to this market.

Competition is already structured around several technological players, including the American startup Harvey AI, which also develops automation solutions for law firms and legal departments.

An innovative but fragmented European ecosystem

Europe is not absent from this transformation. Several startups are developing advanced artificial intelligence technologies applied to law.

In the United Kingdom, Luminance specializes in automated contract analysis and M&A transactions.

In Germany, the startup Noxtua is developing a legal artificial intelligence platform presented as compatible with European requirements in terms of data sovereignty. The company raised approximately 80 million euros to accelerate the development of this technology.

Other players, such as Wordsmith AI, are exploring the creation of agents capable of automating certain legal tasks within companies.

Despite this activity, the European market remains more difficult to structure. The fragmentation of law on the continent, between national legal systems, languages ​​and distinct databases, complicates the creation of pan-European platforms capable of quickly reaching large scale.

France, an active but different legaltech ecosystem

France also has a relatively dynamic legaltech ecosystem, even if it has historically developed around different issues.

Several French companies have contributed to modernizing access to legal information:

• Doctrine, search engine specializing in jurisprudence
• Legalstart, platform offering online legal services for entrepreneurs.

These companies have contributed to digitalizing access to law and certain legal procedures. However, they operate in a more fragmented economic and regulatory environment than that of the United States, which sometimes limits their ability to quickly reach a large scale.

A battle for the digital infrastructure of law

The current transformation of the legal sector goes beyond the simple automation of certain tasks. It also concerns the question of knowing which platforms will structure the work of lawyers in the era of artificial intelligence.

Companies that can gain traction in law firms and departments could become essential intermediaries between legal professionals and AI systems.

From this perspective, conquering the American market appears to be a strategic step for many European startups. It provides access to a larger market, to clients capable of rapidly deploying these technologies and to a particularly active investment ecosystem.

A Swedish startup that has become one of the most funded players in legal AI

Founded in Stockholm in 2023, Legora develops a collaborative artificial intelligence platform for lawyers and corporate legal teams. The company was created by Max Junestrandwho is today its CEO.

The company has raised more than 700 million euros in several successive financing rounds, including $550 million during this series D, with investors such as Accel, Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and ICONIQ Capital.