Kirkland & Ellis partner Erica Berthou turned a Big Law innovation announcement into a tech-stage presentation at a Palantir Technologies Inc. conference in Miami. Berthou was at the tech company’s 10th customer-led developer conference to unveil the highest grossing law firm’s artificial intelligence project to “revolutionize” private funds work. Berthou’s 11-minute demonstration described the law firm as serious about reducing the time its work takes, placing Kirkland alongside presentations from NScale, Hertz, and Accenture.
Kirkland said last week it would spend $500mn to develop its Artificial Intelligence platform, signaling that technology is central to staying at the top of one of its most important business lines. The tool, called “the fund formation engine,” is designed to build Kirkland’s proprietary fund formation knowledge into an automated workspace. Berthou said existing off-the-shelf legal technology tools have two major weaknesses: they do not help execute transactions, and they are trained on widely distributed deal information.
The platform aims to make the knowledge of top Kirkland partners available across the firm, which last year helped launch more than 1,000 funds that raised more than $500bn. Using a hypothetical client seeking to raise $3bn, the tool drafted a deal document based on a lawyer inputting a commercial term sheet. It then handled investor inquiries to develop bespoke bilateral agreements known as side letters and tracked obligations over the 10-year lifespan of the fund. Berthou said work that previously took days to analyze, discuss, and draft now happens in minutes.
The presentation also highlighted unresolved questions about how generative Artificial Intelligence will affect the traditional law firm business model. Indiana University School of Law professor Josh Kubicki said Kirkland appeared to be leaning into the reduction of billable hours, while noting that the market will determine whether the approach becomes a differentiator. Columbia Law School professor Eric Talley described the presentation as unusually similar to a Steve Jobs-style product launch and said the pitch appeared aimed at both clients and, potentially, future investors in the firm’s Artificial Intelligence machinery.
