Weil and Willkie walk away, Legora’s $550M raise, and AI’s new liability questions

This week's digest with the latest Legal.io trends, insights, and updates to help you navigate your legal career.

Happy Friday!

This week, AI found critical flaws in PHP, the language behind an estimated 70% of websites. Government sites in four European countries, Wikipedia’s operator and Japanese airline ANA took pages offline to patch.

Over the next years, expect similar stresses on the legal system as AI helps defenders and attackers uncover more legal risks and vulnerabilities.

Questions of responsibility, liability, and reasonable precautions will become increasingly urgent.

We talk a lot about the jobs AI might replace, and less about the risk, liability and demand for legal judgment it creates. Helping you navigate that gets us more than a bit excited about what’s next.

— Pieter Gunst

CEO & Co-Founder, Legal.io

More from Legal.io

On the road this week

Our team split up to cover both coasts: the Consero Legal Ops Forum in Atlanta and the first-ever Revlis Summit in Menlo Park. Long-running forum or brand-new event, we make a point of meeting you in person.

📊 Data-Driven Legal

$550M

Raised by Legora at an $8.8 billion post-money valuation, a 58% jump from where it was valued seven months ago.

1,000

Employees the IRS will now hire for its civil divisions, after about a quarter of its workforce left in 2025 through DOGE incentive deals.

81%

Share of in-house legal professionals in an Everlaw survey who expect outcome-based pricing to overtake the billable hour within five years.

📰 Industry Snapshot

What the Cloudflare ruling means for corporate governance

A Delaware judge has blocked a restructuring that would have let Cloudflare’s co-founders sell shares and keep voting control. The court questioned the special committee’s independence, and its use of disappearing Signal messages.

AI is not a legal entity, says Law Society

New guidance from the Law Society of England and Wales says lawyers “cannot transfer professional responsibility” to an AI tool. Its president also warns over-reliance could leave “a catastrophic gap” in future legal skills.

Legora vs Harvey: the multi-billion dollar AI battle

Legora has now raised about $1.4 billion, Harvey about $1.8 billion. Artificial Lawyer asks whether that money can actually move a $1 trillion market.

A Supreme Court lawyer replaced himself with AI. How did it go?

Jenner & Block’s Adam Unikowsky, who has argued 13 cases before the Court, let an AI model and a clone of his voice answer the justices’ questions.

Weil Gotshal and Willkie Farr call off merger discussions

The talks ended Thursday night, days after Bloomberg Law first reported them. Weil has lost a string of partners this fall, including its corporate chair to Cravath.

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