Tom Borman

Billable Hours vs. Billion‑Dollar Bots – Legora and the New Economics of Law

Headlining, Legal AI / March 12, 2026

A two‑year‑old Swedish startup has just become one of the most valuable legal tech businesses on the planet—and it is using that war chest to plant its flag squarely in the US legal market. Legora’s $550 million Series D at a $5.55 billion valuation is not just another exuberant AI round; it is a blunt message to law firm leaders that the window for treating AI as a side project has closed.

Legora’s pitch is disarmingly simple. Built on top of large language models, its platform targets the work that eats most of a junior lawyer’s life: research, document review, contract drafting and due diligence.

The company claims tens of thousands of legal professionals using the product daily, across some 800 customers in more than 50 markets, including heavy‑hitting firms like Bird & Bird, Cleary Gottlieb, White & Case, Linklaters, Goodwin, Dentons and advisers such as Deloitte.

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Taylor Rose’s 1,000‑Lawyer Milestone: Has the Consultant Model Finally Gone Mainstream?

Featured, Law Firms, UK Law / March 12, 2026

Tom Borman, lawFuel Contributing EditorTaylor Rose has become the first UK law firm to push its consultant platform through the 1,000‑lawyer ceiling, underlining just how fast the fee‑share model is eating into the traditional partnership franchise.The national firm, part of the AIIC Group, now sits on more than 1,000 consultant solicitors across its brands, alongside

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No JDs on Forbes’ 2026 Celebrity Billionaire List — But Kim Kardashian Just Failed the Bar and Refuses to Quit

Briefings, LawPreneur, Press Releases, US Law / March 11, 2026

Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editorThe world’s 22 richest celebrity billionaires are worth a collective $48.1 billion as of March 1, 2026. Not one holds a J.D. or has ever practiced law.Forbes dropped the fresh ranking March 10, and the verdict for the legal profession is crystal clear: fame-first wealth still trumps billable hours. But two

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Is This The Death of Lockstep Pay for BigLaw?

Headlining / March 9, 2026

For decades, BigLaw partnership compensation had the reassuring predictability of a Swiss watch. Progress through lockstep. Accumulate seniority. Collect your reward. Repeat.

That model isn’t dead. But the announcement in February 2026 that Freshfields, the world’s 13th largest firm by gross revenue, and an institution that maintained an all-equity partnership for its entire existence, was introducing a nonequity partner tier while simultaneously stretching its lockstep to reward higher earners at the top of the pay scale, made something abundantly clear.

The Pay Reset is Now

Freshfields isn’t alone. Cravath created a salaried partner tier in November 2023, and that move gave other highly-ranked firms permission to follow suit — Paul Weiss, WilmerHale, Cleary, Skadden, Debevoise, and Sullivan & Cromwell have all introduced nonequity tiers in the two years since.

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Macfarlanes’ Curious New York Move: A Manhattan Office With No U.S. Law

Headlining, Power Firms, US Law / March 5, 2026

Macfarlanes Opens Manhattan Office – With a Deliberately Limited MissionMacfarlanes is joining the steady procession of London firms establishing a presence in New York. But unlike the usual BigLaw expansion playbook, the firm insists it has no intention of practising U.S. law.Instead, the profile City firm is opening what it calls a “representative office” in

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US Gunslingers Are Turning Our Courts Into a Bloody Mess – And Martyn Day Has Had Enough

Featured, Law Firms, UK Law / February 24, 2026

Martyn Day didn’t build Leigh Day into one of the most feared claimant firms in the country by playing nice. But even he’s raising an eyebrow at the American cavalry now thundering through the Royal Courts of Justice.

“From my experience,” the Leigh Day co-founder told The Times this week, “American firms tend to be more aggressive.”

“With the English firms, you know the lawyers… you can have sensible conversations with them and, where necessary, you can do deals and sort things out in a sensible, proper way.”

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Legal AI’s Quiet Winner – How Affinda Is Scaling While Big Software Stumbles

Australia Law News, Featured, Legal AI / February 16, 2026

Affinity brother Ben and Tim Toner - Legal AI, Australia

While public markets flinch at every new AI headline, Melbourne-based Affinda is doing something unfashionable in tech right now: raising money, growing revenue, and selling actual products lawyers use.

In a fresh $25 million funding round, Affinda lifted its valuation to $220 million, up from $120 million in mid-2024. The round was led again by Toll Group founder Paul Little, with backing from Ellerston Capital’s Ashok Jacob and former MYOB and REA Group CEO Greg Ellis.

No meme tokens. No vaporware. Just document AI doing unglamorous but billable work.

From “Legal AI Tool” to AI-Native Infrastructure

Affinda isn’t trying to replace lawyers with chatbots. It’s doing something far more dangerous to incumbents: making legal work faster, cheaper and harder to justify billing for inefficiency.

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Brad Karp’s Paul Weiss Exit – When ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Evenings Come Back to Haunt You

Headlining, Lawyers, US Law / February 6, 2026

Brad Karp’s 18-year reign atop Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison ended Wednesday night not with a bang, but with a carefully worded statement about “distractions.” Translation: the Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein-related documents last week made his position untenable faster than you can say “conflict of interest.”

The emails paint a picture that’s more uncomfortable than a BigLaw associate’s billable hours target. In July 2015, Karp thanked Epstein for “an evening I’ll never forget,” describing it as “truly ‘once in a lifetime’ in every way, though I hope to be invited again.” Epstein’s response? A promise of “many many nights of unique talents” and assurances Karp would “be invited often.”

Spoiler alert: those invitations are now exhibit A in why being Chair of a white-shoe law firm and socialising with convicted sex offenders don’t mix well.

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Dechert Raids McDermott With 20‑Partner Team as It Re‑Enters Chicago and Targets Texas

Headlining, LawStars / January 24, 2026

Dechert has fired the opening shot of 2026’s lateral wars, lifting a 20‑plus partner team – including a top‑ranked complex litigation and accounting defense squad – from McDermott and using it as the launchpad for new offices in Chicago, Dallas and a disputes outpost in Houston.

Dechert has brought in more than 20 lateral partners across litigation, corporate and securities, IP and employment from McDermott Will & Schulte, anchored by a preeminent U.S. complex litigation practice and a Chambers Band 1 accounting defense team.

The group is led by Chicago trial and strategy heavyweight law star Mike Poulos, formerly partner in charge of global strategy and an executive committee member at McDermott, who becomes Dechert’s vice chair and global head of strategy.

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Willkie Farr Hit With $735m Fraud Suit: Franchise Group, Conflicts And Big Law Risk

Big Law, Featured, US Law / January 21, 2026

Willkie Farr & Gallagher is now at the centre of a $735 million fraud suit that doubles as a warning shot for Big Law about conflicts, gatekeeper liability and deal‑side risk management.The firm has already been stung by a major talent walkout last year over its deal with the Trump administration.BRC Group Holdings (the rebranded

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