September 2026: Private equity found a law firm that said yes
Welcome to our monthly newsletter, Scooped.
Each month, co-founders Tom Dreyfus and Sam Flynn curate the latest news in legaltech and AI, and share what teams are creating on Josef.
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Greetings 👋
August was a big one for the future of legal – private equity made its entrance, and Google joined the legal AI race. Just a couple of years ago these kinds of moves would have been unthinkable. Now they barely make headlines for a few days. Our profession really is on the verge of some extraordinary change.
In non-legaltech news, we said goodbye to Dolly Parton, someone who wrote beautiful music, and who embodied kindness: something we need more of in this world. We’ll miss you, Dolly! 🦋
Here’s what caught our eye.
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Private equity found a law firm that said yes 💍
Private equity makes its biggest investment in a law firm to date, with Charlesbank Capital Partners signing a letter of intent for a huge investment in Wood Smith Henning & Berman, a 500-lawyer insurance-defense shop.
While PE has been circling for some time, this marks an important milestone, a sign that the same forces that have reshaped other sectors of the economy are coming for Legal too.
Meta’s $17.1B payout 💸
In a landmark settlement, Meta has agreed to pay $17 billion in reparations for creating platforms that were addictive and harmful to kids.
On one reading, it’s a reminder that the smoothest path through a technological revolution is the ethical one. The very features that Meta is implementing as a result of the deal, including daily time limits and quiet hours, could simply be seen as good design. On another more hard-nosed view, the reparations pale in comparison to Meta’s annual revenue…
Gimme, gimme… a legal AI platform? 🤖
Google launched Gemini Enterprise for Legal last week, joining Anthropic and OpenAI in the race for the legal AI space. For us at Josef, the efficiency play – where we can make lawyers a little bit faster or better – is getting really crowded. Where we’re seeing real value, and where these players are not operating, is in the self-service space: building tools that the business can access directly.
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HR giant Randstad cuts contract turnarounds from a day to a minute ❗️
A perfect example of self-service (as opposed to efficiency) has been playing out at global HR giant Randstad.
This month, Sam sat down with Head of Legal, Sarah Kate L. , to find out how she cut contract turnaround times from 1 day to 1 minute – really! Her secret? Build for the business. Read our recap or listen on:
Stacking is here to stay 🥞
The New York Times picked up on “stacking”, an old Norse word for haystack, now the shorthand of choice for combining the best-in-class everything rather than settling on one thing that says it does it all.
It’s where legaltech has been heading for a while now. Integration has gotten dramatically easier, people now expect more alignment than any single platform can give them, and AI is doing more of the actual work rather than just passing it along. For a deeper look, read our report on The Future of Contracting.
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See you next month.
Tom and Sam