Tracked Changes, Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Law firms raised technology spending 9.7%, says the Thomson Reuters and Georgetown legal market report
Thomson Reuters and Georgetown Law released their 2026 Report on the State of the US Legal Market on January 7. It says the average firm increased its technology investment by 9.7% and direct lawyer compensation spending by 8.2%, and that demand grew 2.5% on average in 2025. The release also cites the 2025 Future of Professionals report, which found firms with a formal AI strategy are 3.9 times more likely to see critical benefits.
Harvey says it is building Memory, a feature that carries matter context from one session to the next
Harvey said on January 8 that it is co-building a feature called Memory with the legal industry. Memory would carry forward context users choose to keep, such as matter details, precedent and working preferences, and could draw on past threads within a firm's retention window. Harvey says firm admins can turn it on or off and that it will hold customer listening tours and working sessions over the coming months. No release date was given.
Clio launches Vincent Studio, a no-code workflow builder for large firms and enterprise legal teams
Clio introduced Vincent Studio on January 12, a feature that lets organizations tailor how its Vincent AI is used. The company says it replaces ad hoc prompting with structured, no-code workflows that embed a firm's own processes and standards. Clio describes it as available to large law firms and enterprise legal teams and says it has already been deployed with select enterprise customers through early access and beta programs. The announcement does not mention pricing.
Relativity makes aiR for Case Strategy generally available to pull cited facts and chronologies from case documents
Relativity announced general availability of aiR for Case Strategy on January 12, a RelativityOne product that extracts facts from documents, builds chronologies and drafts deposition outlines and witness summaries. The company says every extracted fact cites its source text and that one job can process up to 5,000 documents. More than 50 customers tested it in a limited program. Relativity did not disclose pricing.
Microsoft hires former Robin AI engineers for its Word team and says it has no plans to buy the company
Legal IT Insider reported on January 12 that Microsoft has hired several former Robin AI engineers and product specialists to join its Word team. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the hires and said the company has no plans to acquire Robin AI. The publication says Robin AI failed to raise funding last year, was put up for a distressed sale, and sold its managed services business to Scissero in December.
AlphaLit raises a $3.2 million seed round for voice AI that screens plaintiffs and routes cases to lawyers
AlphaLit announced a $3.2 million seed round on January 13 with investors including Lux Capital, Slow Ventures and Bright Ventures. Its voice AI interviews prospective plaintiffs, scores each case on liability, evidence and damages, and sends cases that pass a threshold to a lawyer in its network. It currently handles employment cases in California only. The company says over 64% of prospective plaintiffs' calls to law firms are ignored.