Why Your Law Firm Needs Harvey AI Legal Assistant

8 mins

AI FOR Legal

17 May 2024, 02:10PM

In BriefHarvey AI is a legal AI platform using OpenAI's GPT-4.
Aimed at improving efficiency in legal workflows and document management.
Employs AI to analyze legal documents and assist in litigation.
Tested by law firms like Allen & Overy and Macfarlanes for automation.
Raised $101 million in funding to expand its capabilities and reach.

Why Your Law Firm Needs Harvey AI Legal Assistant

Harvey AI is a pioneering innovation causing waves and transforming the legal field. Think of a tool that is always available to provide quick legal help, support in drafting legal documents, or even an analytical mind to analyze data and provide insights with accuracy. This is not just a fantasy but a reality with Harvey, a new artificial intelligence platform designed exclusively for the legal industry.
Given its popularity, you might be asking: Should your law firm use this tool? Can it improve legal workflows and client management systems? This article offers an in-depth review of these questions and more.
Before we dive deeper, let's explore what Harvey,  AI legal assistant , is and how it revolutionizes legal services.
What is Harvey AI?﻿ Harvey AI  is described as an unprecedented  legal AI platform . It is a generative artificial intelligence startup for legal professionals that is already used by the world's largest law firms.
Harvey AI is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI model and was founded by Gabriel Pereyra and Winston Weinberg in 2022.
What does Harvey AI do?Harvey AI legal allows paralegals to leverage AI capabilities to assist them in routine tasks. Users can train Harvey with their own documents to receive personalized assistance based on the resources and general legal data they provide.
It uses large language models containing legal-specific datasets and other case law research materials to support lawyers by addressing various client issues and concerns across different practice areas, jurisdictions, and legal frameworks.
Harvey AI helps with contract analysis, litigation, and regulatory compliance. It generates insights, recommendations, and predictions based on data, enabling lawyers to deliver faster, cost-effective solutions.
Law firms can customize  Harvey.ai  functionality by training it with their documents and templates, similar to onboarding a new employee. 
Benefits of Harvey AIHarvey AI boosts law firm and company efficiency in many ways. The legal industry is excited to welcome a technology that is more than capable of handling various legal responsibilities. Here’s how Harvey AI benefits law firms:
Analysis of Legal Documents: A lawyer can ask Harvey AI to review documents and determine important elements and potential issues they must address. The platform uses trained data to spot these elements and provide legal research, allowing lawyers to focus on addressing them.
Litigation Assistance: Harvey AI helps lawyers by providing relevant case information from its database of past legal precedents and case files. It helps assess the risks of current cases by analysing outcomes from previous cases with similar facts and legal issues.
Regulatory Compliance: Harvey AI simplifies compliance requirements and regulatory documents. It breaks down technical jargon and monitors regulation changes to help firms avoid penalties and reputational damage.
Governance: Harvey offers insight into your firm's productivity. Monitor work produced on the Harvey platform by attorneys and in-house lawyers regarding client matters, practice areas, and more. Gain detailed control over usage and data provenance.
Law Firms Using Harvey AI: Use Cases Allen & OveryAllen & Overy tested Harvey AI on February 15, 2023, to automate the drafting of complex, documents and research tasks. They believe this will empower over 3,500 lawyers globally, especially with the tool's multilingual capabilities.
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…I have never seen anything like Harvey … Harvey can work in multiple languages and across diverse practice areas, delivering unprecedented efficiency and intelligence. In our trial, we saw some amazing results.
David Wakeling, head of Allen & Overy’s Markets Innovation Group
MacfarlanesMacfarlanes, a London-based law firm with a thousand employees, announced its rollout of Harvey AI on September 21, 2023, as part of its AI strategy.
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It is clear that generative AI will become widely integrated into the way that the legal sector supports its clients. Our partnership with Harvey demonstrates how we continue to progress our AI strategy, which has the potential to transform our professional services and the way we provide solutions and services for our clients.
Luke Powell, Managing Partner at Macfarlanes 
Gleiss LutzAs the first independent German law firm, Gleiss Lutz entered into a strategic partnership with Harvey on March 6, 2024. The decision follows a pilot conducted with over 125 lawyers. The generative AI platform will soon be available to all lawyers at Gleiss.
Gleiss Lutz will use the AI platform for tasks that can be performed particularly efficiently and productively with the help of artificial intelligence models, making Harvey another crucial component of the firm's legal tech portfolio.
Maples GroupMaples Group partnered with Harvey AI to advance their AI Strategy. 
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The Maples Group has always valued and invested in innovation, advising at the cutting edge of today's laws and regulations to help our clients to be at the forefront of what they do. We have increasingly harnessed technology to deliver superior legal services back to our clients and we invest heavily in LegalTech and RegTech solutions. Having been one of the first major law firms to start working with Harvey in late 2022, I'm excited that we are taking our AI journey to the next level. And I look forward to many more conversations with our clients and partners in the industry as we work together to unlock the potential of this technology.
Peter Stapleton, Managing Partner at Maples Ireland
FundingHarvey Legal AI raised a total of $21 million in a Series A+ funding round led by Sequoia Capital in April 2023. It also received $80 million in a Series B+ funding round from OpenAI’s startup fund, led by Elad Gil and Kleiner Perkins.
This investment shows confidence in Harvey’s potential and the demand for AI solutions in the legal industry. The funds will help Harvey grow the company's valuation further, expand its team, and develop its AI platform.
Meet The TeamLet's meet the visionaries behind Harvey:
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Gabriel PereyraPresident / Founder

Gabriel Pereyra, who previously worked as a Research Scientist at DeepMind, brings a wealth of experience in AI advancements.
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Winston WeinbergCEO / Founder

Winston Weinberg has a background in litigation at O’Melveny and extensive experience in the legal industry.
Legal TeamHarvey AI's legal team comprises some of the most prominent law firms in the world:
Latham & Watkins LLP
Paul|Weiss
SIDLEY
Skadden
O'Melveny
Tech TeamThe tech team behind Harvey AI features experts from leading technology companies, bringing a wealth of knowledge and innovation to the development of the next generation of AI tools.
This diverse team of tech experts leverages their experience from top-tier technology companies like:
DeepMind
Microsoft
Google 
Amazon
Tesla
 Surely they will drive the continuous improvement and sophistication of Harvey AI.
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The introduction of platforms like Harvey AI into the legal profession suggests a shift towards more technologically integrated legal practices and the adoption of these tools provides more than just ease for legal professionals, attorneys law firms; the usage of AI legal assistants is imperative. These resources enable legal practitioners to serve their clients better.
AI legal assistants can provide free consultations and research assistance for your legal needs, potentially reducing the need for firms but not entirely replacing human assistants. The constant use of AI raises ethical and privacy concerns about client information confidentiality and bias in AI-generated advice.