The
legal
industry
is
turning
into
a
battleground
for
the
two
dominant
frontier
AI
companies.
Less
than
a
month
ago,
Anthropic
—
developer
of
the
Claude
AI
assistant
—
took
a
major
step
into
the
legal
market,
releasing
more
than
20
MCP
connectors
linking
Claude
to
the
software
that
law
firms
and
legal
departments
run
on,
along
with
12
plugins
tailored
to
specific
legal
practice
areas.
Now,
its
biggest
competitor,
Open
AI,
developer
of
ChatGPT,
has
hired
Jason
Boehmig,
the
cofounder
and
former
CEO
of
contract
lifecycle
management
company
Ironclad,
to
lead
development
of
products
for
the
legal
industry.
(Boehmig
announced
the
news
yesterday
in
a
LinkedIn
post.)
A
former
corporate
attorney
at
Fenwick
&
West,
Boehmig
cofounded
Ironclad
in
2014,
together
with
Cai
Wangwilt,
a
former
software
engineer
at
Palantir
Technologies.
Boehmig
was
a
guest
on
my
LawNext
podcast
in
2021.
He
stepped
down
as
CEO
in
2025,
but
not
before
seeing
his
company
grow
to
a
$3.2
billion
valuation.
He
remains
Ironclad’s
executive
chairman
and
a
member
of
its
board,
according
to
his
LinkedIn
profile.
Here
is
the
text
of
his
LinkedIn
message:
Today
I
am
filled
with
hope.
It’s
my
first
day
at
OpenAI,
leading
product
for
the
legal
vertical.
I
feel
lucky
to
be
here.
Twelve
years
ago
I
quit
my
job
as
a
law
firm
associate
to
start
a
company
called
Ironclad.
I
was
a
solo
founder
with
$200,000
in
student
loans
hanging
over
my
head,
and
on
top
of
that
I
could
barely
code.
I
was
also
working
in
a
space
that
investors
considered
a
wasteland
–
building
legal
technology,
selling
to
lawyers.
It
felt
like
the
odds
were
against
me.
But
I
had
one
great
advantage,
a
small
group
of
people
that
believed
in
me.
Nell
Newton
who
encouraged
me
as
a
law
student
to
explore
my
interest
in
technology
and
helped
open
doors
for
me
in
Silicon
Valley.
Ted
Wang
who
took
a
bet
on
a
misfit
lawyer
who
wanted
to
automate
their
own
job.
Jesse
Beyroutey
who
had
the
courage
and
foresight
to
put
the
first
dollars
into
the
company,
before
anyone
thought
it
was
a
good
idea.
Today,
Ironclad
manages
billions
of
business
contracts
for
industry
leaders
as
diverse
as
L’Oréal,
Shell,
and
The
New
York
Times.
It’s
scaled
from
my
old
apartment
in
Potrero
Hill
to
a
global
company
of
700+
amazing
teammates,
doing
hundreds
of
millions
in
recurring
revenue,
and
growing
as
fast
as
ever
by
deploying
AI
across
data
and
workflows.
It
also
has
one
of
the
best
CEOs
in
all
of
tech
in
Dan
Springer.
I
wouldn’t
have
been
able
to
make
this
leap
without
him
and
the
team
doing
such
a
good
job.
When
I
look
at
the
legal
industry
today,
it
is
a
lot
more
vibrant
than
it
was
twelve
years
ago.
Law
firm
leaders
rearchitecting
their
firms
for
the
next
hundred
years.
GCs
and
legal
ops
leaders
pushing
the
limits
of
what’s
possible
with
AI.
State
bars
and
pro
bono
organizations
looking
for
ways
we
can
responsibly
and
safely
close
the
access
to
justice
gap.
Law
schools
rethinking
legal
education.
And
thousands
of
thriving
legal
tech
startups.
It’s
such
an
exciting
time.
In
many
ways,
what
I
want
to
do
at
OpenAI
is
believe
in
this
ecosystem
the
same
way
that
Nell,
Ted,
and
Jesse
believed
in
me.
It’s
a
mistake
to
believe
that
any
one
player
can
do
it
alone,
even
a
frontier
lab.
So
I
want
to
hear
from
you,
the
builders.
I’ve
always
admired
the
creativity
and
civic
mindedness
that
lawyers
possess.
I
know
that
together,
we
can
harness
the
power
of
AI
to
be
a
force
for
the
good
of
all
society,
not
just
the
top.
I
can’t
think
of
anything
I’d
rather
work
on.