_{The Woodstock team, with a new colleague}

An Artificial Intelligence business backed by Google has purchased a high street law firm in a first for the UK.

While AI law firms have begun to emerge in the market, and many firms already use AI for support, the purchase announced this week marks the first time an AI business has acquired a traditional law firm in the UK. 

Lawhive, an AI legal-tech platform set up in 2019, raised almost £40 million in funding last year, including an investment of over £9 million from Google Ventures. It has now used some of that cash to buy Woodstock Legal Services, a firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Poole. 

Part of the appeal for the AI business seems to be Woodstock's expertise in property law (the firm also advises on areas including family law, employment and private client).   

Casting its robot eye over the conveyancing market, Lawhive commented that "administrative burdens routinely delay one of life's biggest decisions - buying a home. Property lawyers spend hours manually filling forms and chasing documents, while stressed clients face uncertain timelines and communication constraints." And they may have a point.

Lawhive said that its "AI colleague" Lawrence "handles labour-intensive administrative tasks" in order "to give time back" to lawyers and enable them "to focus on building meaningful client relationships and delivering expert advice."

Lawrence breezed through the Solicitors Qualifying Exam multiple choice section on its first attempt, as RollOnFriday reported in 2023. 

RollOnFriday asked Lawhive and Woodstock whether they anticipated any job cuts as it brought in the technology, given that some firms which have embraced machine learning, have also made various roles vulnerable.

Lawhive said that its "AI colleagues" are "capable of working alongside and supporting human lawyers. The goal is not to replace lawyers, but to augment their work, reducing repetitive tasks and legal admin."

Pierrre Proner, the CEO and co-founder, reassured staff that the machine megabrain designed to do what they do 1000x faster than them was "about growth and scaling, not downsizing". 

"All roles are secure, and we will continue to invest in talent", said Proner. "We’re acquiring Woodstock precisely because of the quality of their team and the community-driven approach to legal practice."

Carly Jermyn, CEO and founder of Woodstock Legal Services echoed the position that the firm's "people-first culture remains central" and that "All roles are secure." 

Linklaters carried out tests on various AI models this year and came to the conclusion that although AI "can reasonably replicate some tasks carried out by a human lawyer", it required "expert supervision". 

The Magic Circle firm noted that the AI sometimes produced incorrect responses, and there said there were "dangers" in using it if lawyers "don't already have a good idea of the answer."  

The warning not to completely rely on AI follows cases where lawyers have landed in hot water for using non-existent case law due to its hallucinations. With City firms are increasingly making use of AI, the SRA has also told them not to rely on machine learning. 

Proner said his business doesn’t "rely solely on third party foundation models that are trained on public internet data," and they’ve built their "own legal AI models specific to legal workflows", which "significantly reduces the chance of hallucination".

He also stressed that Lawhive's lawyers "never rely solely on anything an AI tool outputs, they always check work and sign it off”.

Staff across the legal profession may also be relieved to know that certain tasks in the workplace still require a human touch.