{"id":130162,"date":"2025-09-11T15:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130162\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:04:19","slug":"google-backed-ai-platform-buys-law-firm-in-uk-legal-industry-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/130162\/","title":{"rendered":"Google-backed AI platform buys law firm in UK legal industry first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lawhive acquires conveyance specialist <\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AdobeStock_160666998-3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-201726\"  \/><br \/>An AI powered lawtech company backed by Google has acquired a UK law firm, in what is thought to be a first for the country\u2019s legal industry.<\/p>\n<p>The deal, confirmed yesterday, sees Lawhive \u2014 which raised nearly \u00a340 million in funding last year \u2014 take over Woodstock Legal Services. The acquisition marks Lawhive\u2019s entry into the regulated legal sector, with the aim of combining lawyers\u2019 expertise with in-house AI tools.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 2014, Woodstock operates a consultancy model and specialises in property law and conveyancing.<\/p>\n<p>Lawhive\u2019s AI assistant, \u201cLawrence\u201d, is designed to handle tasks typically carried out by paralegals or junior lawyers, including drafting documents, conducting research and managing cases.<\/p>\n<p>Legal Cheek <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legalcheek.com\/2023\/11\/ai-paralegal-passes-sqe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> in 2023 that Lawrence passed the SQE with a score of 74%. Since then, Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet, has invested \u00a39.5 million in the firm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legalcheek.com\/the-firms-most-list\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The 2026\u00a0Legal Cheek Firms Most List<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The acquisition will see the technology rolled out in areas such as conveyancing, where time-consuming paperwork often slows down transactions.<\/p>\n<p>Lawhive currently operates across 12 consumer law practice areas including family, civil litigation and property. It says its AI allows lawyers to spend less time on admin and more time advising clients.<\/p>\n<p>CEO and co-founder Pierre Proner said: \u201cWe believe that Lawhive\u2019s vertically integrated model of a regulated law firm and tech platform for lawyers to work alongside AI colleagues, creates better outcomes for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woodstock founder Carly Jermyn added: \u201cThis partnership is about scaling our vision with the right kind of technology \u2014 AI that enhances our skills and values, rather than eroding them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Lawhive, its acquisition of Woodstock \u201cforms part of a broader trend where lawyers are rethinking their relationship with work, clients are demanding better service, and AI is becoming an integral part of legal practice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawhive acquires conveyance specialist An AI powered lawtech company backed by Google has acquired a UK law firm,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-130162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}