And Now Legal AI That Sees Into the Judge’s Mind . . Almost
Tom Borman, LawFuel contributing editor
Every litigator wants the edge. Some want it ethical. Others want it engineered and now a trio of brains — one BigLaw, two tech — have raised $5.3 million to deliver a crystal ball for courtrooms. It’s called Bench IQ, and it’s designed to tell you how your judge thinks before you say a word.
And yes — four of the top five Am Law 200 firms are already using it, so this is a legal AI tool that has al the hallmarks of a must-have, go-to legal tech tool.
Bench IQ: The AI That Sees Inside the Courtroom
Co-founded by Jimoh Ovbiagele, Maxim Isakov, and Jeffrey Gettleman (pictured above). Gettleman spent 17 years at Kirkland & Ellis, so not your average AI-bro), Bench IQ claims to do more than predict outcomes.
It aims to explain them.
Powered by proprietary court data (including federal transcripts, although the sources are… hush-hush), the system lets lawyers ask questions like:
“How has this judge ruled on emergency motions?”
Bench IQ delivers a report based on thousands of AI-powered “agents” combing the judge’s record in the standard ‘minutes’ – that’s AI for us all as time is measured by the seconds it takes to compile this data.
Further, the report is not just what the judge did. But why. And how you might change the result next time. If that’s not major intelligence for any litigator then I’m not sure what is.
Lawyers Creating Legal AI — Not Just Consuming It
Bench IQ isn’t built by engineers alone. Gettleman’s courtroom experience is baked into the system. The result? AI that thinks more like a partner than a product.
And that’s a major differentiator.
While Westlaw, Lexis, and Theo AI offer predictive dashboards and judge timelines, Bench IQ positions itself as the psychologist in the room.
As Ovbiagele puts it:
“Knowing how often wildfires happen is useful. Knowing why — and how to prevent them — that’s Bench IQ.”
BigLaw’s Quiet Arms Race for AI Strategy
Legaltech has been flooded with tools: Harvey AI, Hebbia, Theo, all angling to become the ChatGPT of BigLaw. But Bench IQ is targeting something more primal — how to win in front of a judge.
And the pitch is working.
Firms like Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, and Fenwick & West have not just adopted the tool but they’ve backed it financially.
And the power of legal AI tools can help raise the game, and profits, for small law firms too.
Ovbiagele’s Revenge: From Ross to Redemption
This isn’t Ovbiagele’s first rodeo. His last company, Ross Intelligence, was famously sued by Thomson Reuters for allegedly using Westlaw data to train AI — a case that sent shockwaves through legaltech.
Ross folded. But Ovbiagele didn’t.
He calls Bench IQ “unfinished business.”
Whether that turns into unfinished litigation remains to be seen.
What’s Next?
With $5.3M in funding from Battery Ventures, Inovia, and existing backers Haystack and Maple, Bench IQ now plans to expand beyond federal courts into state jurisdictions, beef up its engineering bench, and scale the product for even wider adoption.
Because let’s face it — in modern litigation, knowing your judge is as valuable as knowing the law. Roy Cohn was big on that, remember?
