The APEX benchmark — built by Mercor, with tasks authored by BigLaw-experienced lawyers and advised by Cass Sunstein — is the most rigorous test of whether AI can perform real legal work. The answer is more specific than vendors or skeptics suggest.
Cleary acquired an AI company. A&O Shearman and Freshfields co-develop with AI labs and share the revenue. Latham subscribes and builds on top. Three strategies, three very different risk profiles.
Every headline called Kirkland's $500M commitment an AI bet. The signals in the announcement — no named model, full exclusivity, value-based pricing — point to something different: an infrastructure play that happens to run AI.
