Tracked Changes, Thursday, March 5, 2026
8am survey finds 42% of legal professionals use legal-specific AI, double last year's share
8am released its 2026 Legal Industry Report on March 5, based on more than 1,300 responses collected online in September and October 2025. It says 42% of legal professionals use legal-specific AI, up from 21%, and nearly 70% use general-purpose tools. Some 43% say their firm has no formal AI policy and no plans for one. Only 9% have a policy they actively enforce.
LexisNexis says hackers reached a limited number of servers holding mostly pre-2020 customer data
LexisNexis said an unauthorized party accessed a limited number of servers that held mostly legacy data from before 2020, LawSites reported on March 4. The company says the data included customer names, user IDs and support tickets, but not active passwords, search queries or client and matter information. A group calling itself FulcrumSec claims it took more than 3.9 million records, including login credentials and profile data tied to about 400,000 users.
August adds Live Assist, which flags statements in a live conversation that conflict with uploaded records
August launched Live Assist on March 2, LawSites reported. The company says it transcribes a live legal conversation and checks statements against documents the lawyer has uploaded, such as prior testimony and contracts, flagging conflicts with a citation to the source. It is available to all August users at no extra cost. August costs $375 a month or $4,000 a year, with a two-week free trial.
Spellbook takes $40 million in debt financing from RBCx to fund acquisitions
Legal AI company Spellbook has raised $40 million in debt financing from RBCx, the technology banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, Artificial Lawyer reported on March 4. The company says the money will fund prospective acquisitions as the legal AI market consolidates. The debt follows a $50 million Series B about two months earlier that valued Spellbook at $350 million post-money.
American Arbitration Association launches a Resolution Simulator for nonbinding AI-generated outcomes
LawSites reported on March 4 that the American Arbitration Association has launched its Resolution Simulator. The AAA says it provides simulated, nonbinding dispute outcomes before formal arbitration begins, using the reasoning framework of its AI Arbitrator. It is designed for single-party use in documents-only commercial and construction disputes. The output is informational only. The report did not mention pricing.