Jack Newton hopes artificial intelligence will help position Clio as the dominant legal tech platform in the world, but the promise of AI brings perils as well<\/p>\n
Published Mar 19, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 1\u00a0hour ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 11 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n Jack Newton is frequently on the road these days, jetting between Vancouver, New York and London, with stops in Dublin and Sydney sprinkled in. He spends his days whipsawing between discussions with his legal software customers, coordinating his global teams and giving speeches at law societies, business schools and his company\u2019s annual mega-conference in the United States that attracts thousands of lawyers and legal professionals.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O’Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world’s leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O’Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world’s leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Account<\/p>\n or<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n But the chief executive of Themis Solutions Inc., better known as Clio, can generally be found in Burnaby, B.C., where his work desk sits among dozens on the third floor of a dog-friendly, open-plan office that is outfitted with a fitness centre and games rooms, all overlooking the North Shore mountains.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Posthaste<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n For nearly two decades, small and mid-sized law firms have been Clio\u2019s bread-and-butter clientele, but the artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) boom of recent years and the enthusiastic uptake of the tech by the legal sector showed Newton that Clio should have bigger ambitions to tap into the largest law firms worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cAI was absolutely a transformative moment for Clio. It was the catalyst for our conviction around making this huge bet,\u201d he said, referring to the company\u2019s November 2025 US$1-billion acquisition of Barcelona-based vLex LLC \u2014 the largest M&A in legal tech history.<\/p>\n Yet the promise of AI comes with perils, too. Investor fears that frontier AI developers \u2014 the likes of OpenAI Inc.<\/a>, Anthropic PBC<\/a> and Google LLC \u2014 could devour<\/a> software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies recently sparked a massive stock selloff.<\/p>\n The next few years are going to be defined by who can win at bringing maximum context to the table for lawyers<\/p>\n Clio CEO Jack Newton<\/p>\n The rout, triggered by Anthropic\u2019s new AI tools for the legal industry, wiped a combined $1 trillion or so in market value from software and data providers, including Toronto-based Thomson Reuters Corp.<\/a>, which Clio counts among its key competitors.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Clio, as a private company, wasn\u2019t directly affected by the AI scare trade that rocked markets, but it will face off against declining software valuations and intensified investor scrutiny as it prepares for an eventual public listing.<\/p>\n But Newton said a series of recent acquisitions and upgrades position Clio as an AI-first company with an unrivalled \u201cdata moat\u201d that will allow it to thrive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next few years are going to be defined by who can win at bringing maximum context to the table for lawyers,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is all about data, and Clio has more data than anyone else in the world as it relates to practice areas, specific matters, as well as actual case law and primary legal data.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Clio is fighting battles on multiple fronts, including growing competition from AI titans and upstarts and the push to scale globally and quickly while remaining relevant for its day-one customers and new clients alike.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Newton\u2019s life as a startup founder is a departure from his original plan to chase a career in academia that almost led him to pursue a PhD in computer science studying under AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton<\/a>.<\/p>\n He took a shine to computers as a child growing up in Edmonton, with his fascination starting after his parents bought the family\u2019s first home computer \u2014 an Intel 8086 \u2014 when he was seven years old.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cI learned how to program and enjoyed programming through junior high and high school and fell in love with the concept of machine learning and the field of AI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Newton eventually completed his master\u2019s degree in computer science, specializing in machine learning, at the University of Alberta, but as a student, his aspirations changed after he read Hackers and Painters, a book by Paul Graham, founder of San Francisco-based incubator Y Combinator.<\/p>\n \u201cGraham talked about what a creative endeavour programming is and how you can create companies easily as a result of being able to program,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the spark for me realizing that I wanted to build a startup and my own company.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham talked about what a creative endeavour programming is and how you can create companies easily as a result of being able to program<\/p>\n Clio CEO Jack Newton<\/p>\n Newton subsequently spent five years as a software developer at a startup, where he also learned the ropes of how to develop a product, build a team, raise money and talk to customers. He and his childhood friend Rian Gauvreau, who was an information technology manager at Gowling WLG LLG, founded Clio in 2008.<\/p>\n The duo envisioned the company as a cloud platform for small to mid-sized law firms where lawyers could manage their administrative chores, such as billing and accounting, calendars and client management. Gauvreau left the company in 2021, but retains a board seat.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Now, Newton\u2019s enduring interest in machine learning has come full circle as he wants to position Clio as the dominant AI-first legal tech platform.<\/p>\n To that end, Clio has completed a series of recent fundraising rounds and major acquisitions, including buying ShareDo, a legal tech company now based in Dublin, in March 2025. Its acquisition spree seems to have paid off so far, turning the company into a one-stop platform and cementing its status as one of Canada\u2019s most valuable private tech companies, now worth US$5 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n Newton said the firepower of the combined companies will allow lawyers to use Clio\u2019s tools for everything from daily admin tasks to time- and research-intensive work, such as poring through legal cases, crafting arguments and drafting documents, backed by AI assistants and the world\u2019s biggest legal database containing more than one billion legal documents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt positions us to do something no other company in the world has been able to do, which is to marry the practice of law and the business of law in a way that is fundamentally powered by AI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Newton\u2019s conviction has been matched by private-equity investor enthusiasm. Clio\u2019s purchase of vLex was partly financed by a US$500-million Series G equity fundraising round led by longtime investor New Enterprise Associates LLC, with participation from other global investors such as TCMI Inc. (better known as TCV), Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP and others. It also secured US$350 million in debt financing to further invest in AI and shop for more acquisitions.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Clio has now surpassed US$400 million in revenue and has a global client base of 400,000 lawyers and industry professionals across 130 countries. The company said it is profitable, but declined to provide an exact figure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited about Clio because it has the rare combination of a generational platform, a product-obsessed team and the ambition to reshape an entire industry,\u201d Tony Florence, co-chief executive of New Enterprise Associates, said<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n Clio\u2019s strategic acquisitions suggest they\u2019re thinking long term and not chasing trends<\/p>\n Sean Wise, Toronto Metropolitan University<\/p>\n Amol Helekar, general partner at TCMI, said his company conducted \u201cextensive research\u201d on the legal tech market for more than a decade prior to investing in Clio.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came to believe that Clio provides a mission-critical, customer-centric offering that is market-leading in its scope and quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sean Wise, an entrepreneurship and innovation professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, a partner at Ryerson Futures, a venture-capital fund and technology accelerator, and a former consultant for the Dragons\u2019 Den television show, is similarly upbeat.<\/p>\n \u201cClio\u2019s strategic acquisitions suggest they\u2019re thinking long term and not chasing trends,\u201d he said. \u201cThey picked a tough, unglamorous problem to solve and stayed with it. That kind of focus usually pays off over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Newton said Clio is now doubling down on a few critical goals: securing more enterprise clients in the form of large, multinational law firms, \u201caggressively\u201d expanding worldwide and refining and improving its platform and products with AI.<\/p>\n Still, not all customers are happy about Clio\u2019s new path. User complaints ranging from technical issues to poor customer service are not uncommon on online consumer forums.<\/p>\n Newton braved an Ask Me Anything live question-and-answer event on Reddit in December and responded to some of these grievances. He said the company is focusing on ensuring that its new products are well-integrated into one unified platform and that its customer support is \u201crated as one of the top\u201d among SaaS companies.<\/p>\n He also said the company is not prioritizing big law in response to comments from some lawyers at small and mid-sized firms who say they feel left behind.<\/p>\n We have a very strong conviction that context will win this battle and that the only durable moat that exists in this space is data<\/p>\n CLIO CEO Jack Newton<\/p>\n \u201cI fundamentally believe that the investments we\u2019re making will benefit both, whether you\u2019re working solo or at a 3,000-person multinational law firm,\u201d he said, pointing to Clio Work, its new AI legal assistant that formulates answers based on lawyers\u2019 own documents and the world\u2019s largest database of primary and secondary case law.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The recent AI scare stock selloff serves as a cautionary tale for investors and company founders alike, but Newton said the market is entering a new era, one of rapid innovation and cutthroat competition between foundation model providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, AI-native legal toolmakers like Counsel AI Corp. (Harvey)<\/a> and one-stop platforms such as Clio.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very strong conviction that context will win this battle and that the only durable moat that exists in this space is data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also welcomes the possibility of teaming up with a company such as OpenAI to unite its agentic AI capabilities with Clio\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what we don\u2019t want to be is merely a data provider to a foundation model that harnesses the value of that data and delivers it directly to their customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Market watchers say Big AI won\u2019t erase the need for specialized software companies, though they may have to work harder to prove themselves. Wise said Anthropic\u2019s new legal AI tools validate the market, but specialized providers often win out.<\/p>\n \u201cLaw firms don\u2019t want a generic AI,\u201d he said. \u201cBig platform players create powerful general tools, but the companies that dominate industries are the ones that adapt them to real workflows.\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Thomas Park, chief investment officer at InBC Investment Corp., who led the deep tech fund at Business Development Bank of Canada<\/a> for nearly a decade, said software companies shouldn\u2019t try to directly compete with companies such as Anthropic or OpenAI.<\/p>\n \u201cEven they are fighting uphill against incumbents with massive distribution,\u201d he said. \u201cThe real opportunity for Canadian companies is in solving specific, high-value problems, combining AI models with proprietary data, domain expertise and strong distribution channels. That\u2019s where durable moats form.\u201d<\/p>\n The battle for data has also played out for Clio in a U.S. courtroom. Fastcase Inc., a Clio-owned company that merged with vLex in 2023, sued Toronto-based competitor Alexi Technologies Inc. last November for allegedly misusing its data to build its own legal tech platform and breaching a data-sharing agreement.<\/p>\n Fastcase and Alexi inked a licensing agreement in 2021 that gave Alexi access to the former\u2019s U.S. case law files. Alexi countersued Fastcase and Clio in response, hitting them with an antitrust lawsuit in January.<\/p>\n Alexi chief executive Mark Doble has accused Clio of pursuing \u201csham litigation\u201d to backtrack on a key provision of the Alexi-Fastcase contract to stamp out competition and said his company has never violated the licensing agreement.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Newton declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n Canadian company, global ambition<\/p>\n Even in the face of lawsuits and AI disruptions, Clio has no plans to slow down its mission to grow globally and it is set to open its inaugural New York office in the second half of 2026 to try to reel in major multinational law firms headquartered in the city.<\/p>\n Clio launched its first international office in Dublin in 2014, which paved the way for its expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and set up a Sydney, Australia, branch three years ago with an eye on growing its Asia-Pacific footprint.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational (markets) have been one of our growth imperatives for over 10 years,\u201d Newton said.<\/p>\n Clio currently has 2,000 employees, who Newton likes to call \u201cClions\u201d \u2014 a nod to his love for Star Trek \u2014 and plans to hire 700 more employees this year to build out its enterprise sales, research and development, engineering and product management teams in New York, Dublin, Sydney, London and Barcelona.<\/p>\n We\u2019re very deliberately building a presence in the U.S., but also in every key legal market around the world<\/p>\n CLIO CEO Jack Newton<\/p>\n Newton said the company is experiencing the strongest growth in African countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe, as well as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.<\/p>\n Some Canadian startups, such as cleantech platform CoeusAI and cybersecurity firm ThreatIQ Inc., have recently pivoted<\/a> from selling to the U.S. to other international markets in the face of strained ties between Ottawa and Washington. But the U.S. remains Clio\u2019s primary market and key focus.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. is still our most important market by a significant margin,\u201d Newton said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing extremely rapid growth in the U.S. It\u2019s the largest legal market in the world and we\u2019re continuing to invest aggressively there. We\u2019re very deliberately building a presence in the U.S., but also in every key legal market around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Clio has been insulated from North American trade tensions because digital services are not subject to tariffs or other restrictions under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).<\/p>\n Building in Canada Hanging in the light-filled lobby of Clio\u2019s Burnaby headquarters is a framed Vancouver Canucks jersey emblazoned with the company\u2019s logo. Other tributes to Clio\u2019s B.C. heritage can be found scattered around the office, such as meeting rooms named after the province\u2019s notable landscapes, like Sunset Beach and Bella Coola Valley.<\/p>\n Those may catch the eyes of visitors to the office, but market watchers have their eye on whether Clio could be among the next Canadian companies to go public, which would help end a years-long drought<\/a> of Canadian initial public offerings (IPOs).<\/p>\n \u201cA Clio IPO would absolutely be a win for Canadian tech. Every successful Canadian IPO strengthens the belief that global companies can be built here,\u201d Park said. \u201cIt would be a positive signal in what I hope becomes a broader reopening of the market.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n A public listing is on Newton\u2019s agenda, but he said it\u2019s not on the immediate horizon. He said private markets have evolved in recent years to capably support companies such as Clio. It has raised more than US$2 billion since 2008, which includes two mega-raises in 2025 and 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing public has always been a long-term ambition and maybe the ideal home for an enduring company like Clio, but we\u2019re in no rush to do so,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you focus on building something for a decade or more, you can build something truly transformative, even if that\u2019s at odds a bit with the Silicon Valley ethos of \u2018build-and-flip.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Wise agreed with Clio\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n \u201cGood companies don\u2019t rush their IPO decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cThey focus on building something solid and letting the market come to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Newton said counting IPOs is an inadequate way to gauge the health of Canada\u2019s tech ecosystem, which has been plagued by long-standing debates on whether the country is doing enough to stem the flow of companies and talent moving south.<\/a><\/p>\n Over the years, Clio has staved off requests from prospective investors to relocate to the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m deeply patriotic,\u201d he said. \u201cI, very deliberately, have chosen not to move Clio south of the border. I want Canada to be a country of builders and entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n Newton said the solution to keeping other homegrown companies is simple: the government needs to better reward risk-takers by rapidly adopting policies that will encourage founders and tech talent to stay in Canada, from tax incentives to reducing red tape.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen good movement from Carney\u2019s government. But we need bold leaps, not incremental change,\u201d he said. \u201cFounders will make utilitarian, self-maximizing choices based on those policies, and we need to make sure Canada comes out on top. This is our moment. We have all the right ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Clio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/clio3-0319-ph.jpg\")
Clio CEO Jack Newton at the company\u2019s headquarters in Burnaby, B.C. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO\/PNGArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Financial](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.8.1\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-fp.svg\"){kind=logo}
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<\/p>\n![\"Anthropic\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/anthropic-gs0317.jpg\")
Investor fears that frontier AI developers \u2014 the likes of OpenAI Inc., Anthropic PBC and Google LLC \u2014 could devour software-as-a-service companies recently sparked a massive stock selloff. Photo by JOEL SAGET \/AFP via Getty ImagesAI firepower<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/clio5-gs0317.jpg\")
Newton\u2019s original plan was a career in academia that almost led him to pursue a PhD in computer science with AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO \/Postmedia<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/clio1-0919-ph.jpg\")
Jack Newton\u2019s work desk sits among dozens on the third floor of Clio\u2019s dog-friendly headquarters in Burnaby, B.C. that is outfitted with a fitness centre and games rooms, all overlooking the North Shore mountains. Photo by Nick Procaylo\/PostmediaDurable moats<\/p>\n![\"OpenAI\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/OpenAI-gs0317-1.jpg\")
Jack Newton said he welcomes the possibility of teaming up with a company such as OpenAI to unite its agentic AI capabilities with Clio\u2019s platform. Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/clio4-gs0317.jpg\")
Jack Newton in New York City in 2024 in front of the Nasdaq board in Times Square. Newton said he is in no hurry to take Clio public. Photo by Vanja Savic \/2024 Nasdaq Inc.<\/p>\n