Aakash Gupta(@aakashgupta):Harvey was valued at $15.5B in September, selling AI to lawyers. Many of them still get paid by the hour. Every hour the software saves them is an hour they can no longer bill. Thomson Reuters ran the math. If AI cuts a one-hour task to 12 minutes, a firm billing hourly loses 80% of the revenue on that task. So an hourly firm has little reason to pass the speed on to the client. My guess is that's a big part of why legal still feels slow to the people paying for it. The gain goes to the firm that changes the pricing. A firm that charges per document keeps every hour AI saves, so it has every reason to get faster. The client gets a known price and a quicker turnaround, and the firm keeps the difference. Arceus launches today as that kind of firm. It says AI prepares every output and a licensed attorney approves each one before it goes back. Clients send work over Slack and approve a flat price up front. The firm says a contract review typically comes back in 4 to 6 hours. Big firms could move to flat fees tomorrow. Alternative fee arrangements have sat around 20% of law firm revenue since roughly 2014, per Thomson Reuters. When partner pay rides on billable hours, I think a flat fee looks like a pay cut until the firm gets fast. Legal AI keeps selling time savings to firms whose product is time.

2026.10.01 16:14

Harvey was valued at $15.5B in September, selling AI to lawyers. Many of them still get paid by the hour. Every hour the software saves them is an hour they can no longer bill. Thomson Reuters ran the math. If AI cuts a one-hour task to 12 minutes, a firm billing hourly loses 80% of the revenue on that task. So an hourly firm has little reason to pass the speed on to the client. My guess is that's a big part of why legal still feels slow to the people paying for it. The gain goes to the firm that changes the pricing. A firm that charges per document keeps every hour AI saves, so it has every reason to get faster. The client gets a known price and a quicker turnaround, and the firm keeps the difference. Arceus launches today as that kind of firm. It says AI prepares every output and a licensed attorney approves each one before it goes back. Clients send work over Slack and approve a flat price up front. The firm says a contract review typically comes back in 4 to 6 hours. Big firms could move to flat fees tomorrow. Alternative fee arrangements have sat around 20% of law firm revenue since roughly 2014, per Thomson Reuters. When partner pay rides on billable hours, I think a flat fee looks like a pay cut until the firm gets fast. Legal AI keeps selling time savings to firms whose product is time.

Mac Liu@themacliu

2026.10.01 16:01

I’m excited to announce that @arceuslegal is launching with $17M in funding, led by @greycroftvc, with participation from @craft_ventures, @spc, and others. As a founder, I always hated how helpless I felt working with law firms. I went through four or five different firms and somehow the experience was always the same. I’d be waiting on something important to our business with no idea when I’d hear back. I’d have to re-explain our business over and over again. And I dreaded jumping on calls because I knew every minute was costing me money. We started Arceus because we believe every business deserves a better law firm. One that moves faster, costs less, and puts the client first. And we’re just getting started. ↓

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