Prime Highlights-
- Law360 survey finds 54 percent of lawyers use ChatGPT, the most of any AI tool in the profession.
- OpenAI hires Ironclad founder Jason Boehmig three months ahead of its legal industry push.
Key Facts-
- OpenAI moves to integrate ChatGPT with leading legal software providers, expanding its reach into the legal industry.
- Anthropic and Google both package their AI models directly for legal departments and law firms.
Background-
OpenAI is preparing its biggest move yet into the legal industry, planning new integrations between ChatGPT and legal software companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company has been in talks with several legal software providers to connect its chatbot with their tools and data, letting lawyers update files, negotiate contracts and search legal databases without leaving ChatGPT.
Law firms are working to move faster and use associate time efficiently, while in-house legal teams look to automate more work and manage costs. This demand has fueled a wave of legal tech startups building on large language models from labs including OpenAI and Anthropic.
Frontier labs are now moving closer to end users directly. Anthropic and Google have both begun packaging their models as dedicated products for legal departments and law firms, selling directly to enterprises rather than only supplying the underlying models.
OpenAI enters the legal market with a notable edge. ChatGPT is already the most recognized and most used chatbot among lawyers, according to a Law360 survey, which found 54 percent of respondents use it, ahead of Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Harvey and Claude.
The company’s legal push comes three months after it hired Jason Boehmig, an executive with more than a decade of experience selling software to lawyers. Boehmig previously left a Big Law career to found Ironclad, which helps corporate legal departments manage contracts. Lawyers and the wider tech industry will watch closely as OpenAI’s plans take shape.
