Legal Rebels Podcast

To buy or not to buy? For Cleary Gottlieb, acquiring an AI company was a no-brainer


By Victor Li

shutterstock_Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton sign

Photo from Shutterstock.

Law firms acquire or merge with one another all the time. But when it comes to technology companies, firms usually keep it in-house or enter into a partnership with an outside vendor. They rarely go ahead and just buy a tech company.

So when Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton announced in March that it had acquired artificial intelligence product developers Springbok AI, it made headlines.

According to a March 17 press release, Cleary Gottlieb said the addition of the Springbok team would help the firm build its AI tools.

“Cleary has never been one to follow trends—they set them,” said Victoria Albrecht, the co-founder and CEO of Springbok, in the press release.

In this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, Ilona Logvinova, the director of practice innovation at Cleary Gottlieb, speaks to the ABA Journal’s Victor Li about the Springbok acquisition. They also talked about general issues relating to generative AI and how it can help lawyers at her firm now and in the future.

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In This Podcast:

<p>Ilona Logvinova</p>

Ilona Logvinova

Ilona Logvinova is the director of practice innovation at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Her work focuses on developing innovations that help lawyers flourish in their work and improve their quality of life. She is a Fastcase 50 honoree, a McKinsey & Company alumna and an insightful contributor to the legal technology and artificial intelligence world.