Freeing up lawyers from menial tasks with Libra v2
A conversation with Henrik Volkmann, Director of Growth at our legal AI venture Libra
Today we have some great news from Libra, our stellar legal AI company which has just announced its latest update: Libra v2.
I’ve been super impressed with the Libra team under the leadership of founder Viktor von Essen, a trained lawyer who joined us at Merantix Capital as a founder-in-residence in 2023.
Libra’s mission is straightforward but challenging: becoming the go-to AI service for lawyers when it comes performing the more menial and time-consuming tasks of legal work, from research to contract review.
With Libra v2, the company has taken a big step forward. I recently sat down with Henrik Volkmann, Libra’s Director of Growth who joined the company in March, to hear about v2 and Libra’s roadmap for the future.
Adrian: Can you tell me a little about Libra v2? What’s the vision behind this update and how does it reflect what you’re hearing from the lawyers on the platform?
Henrik: Our goal is to redefine efficiency and precision in legal work. We've achieved this by integrating advanced AI, a sleek user interface, and practical tools, including our new Libra AI, which offers direct interaction and intelligent, agent-based reasoning tailored to the legal field. We're also rolling out a suite of new features and significantly improving the overall user experience. This update is directly driven by feedback from lawyers, ensuring that Libra v2 supports every aspect of their workflow, from initial research to final contract review. Ultimately, we want legal professionals to focus on what they do best: providing exceptional legal counsel
.Tell me about Noxtua, a specialized LLM for legal. What makes it uniquely suited for legal work compared to general-purpose models?
Noxtua is a specialized LLM for legal tasks, developed by our close partner, Xayn. It's fine-tuned using court decisions and legal documents like contracts, and it's updated monthly to incorporate new court decisions. A key advantage of Noxtua is its accuracy; it finds real court decisions and avoids hallucinating, providing links to the published decisions for each quote. Additionally, Noxtua excels at using legal language and writing legal documents in a manner preferred by lawyers.
What kind of use cases does Libra v2 excel at?
It's often tasks such as summarizing information or creating a first draft, but using our new Review feature for analyzing legal documents against internal standards and extracting relevant information from large documents is definitely a “killer feature.” This allows lawyers to quickly digest complex information and ensure compliance.
What do you think the future of AI looks like in the legal world, and how will Libra be a part of that?
We see AI becoming increasingly integrated into all facets of legal work, from initial research and case preparation to contract negotiation and even litigation support. Libra aims to be at the forefront of this transformation, continuously evolving to meet the changing needs of the legal profession. In the future, we will crack even longer and more complicated workflows and processes of legal work, automating and streamlining even the most intricate tasks. We envision a future where AI augments, rather than replaces, human expertise, allowing lawyers to focus on the strategic and nuanced aspects of their work that require human judgment and empathy.
What has surprised you about how Libra is being used so far by lawyers?
A surprising finding is that not only young lawyers but also older, more experienced lawyers are showing a great deal of interest and enthusiasm for Libra, recognizing its potential to streamline their workflows and enhance their practice.
Privacy concerns must be at the forefront of lawyers’ minds, particularly interacting with AI. How do you make sure that Libra is compliant and safe to use?
Regarding compliance and safety, Libra is compliant with GDPR and BRAO, and holds an ISO 27001:2022 certification. We meet the very strict compliance requirements that German lawyers have. To ensure the secure processing of sensitive client data within Libra, we have established comprehensive non-disclosure agreements with subprocessors such as Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom. German lawyers are required to have these agreements in place with us and our subprocessors. This allows us to compliantly process sensitive personal data.
With more than 3,000 lawyers already using Libra, where do you see the biggest opportunities for further growth? What’s the roadmap ahead?
The biggest opportunity for further growth is right in front of us. Most law firms are not yet using AI tools in their practice, and we often have the chance to be the first to demonstrate the possibilities. We're also engaging with many corporate legal departments. In the near future, we're focused on building more relevant features for legal professionals that will simplify their work and free up their time for actual legal tasks. We see significant potential in integrating more knowledge databases to enhance legal research, and also in further integrating Libra into the software lawyers already use, such as Microsoft Word and Outlook, as well as their document management systems.
Can you tell me a little about your background and your new role at Libra?
I am a fully qualified lawyer by training but have been a tech enthusiast since childhood, enjoying building computers and solving technical problems. At university, I founded a student-run non-profit to provide law students with experience in legal technology. Over the last years I gained experience from other startups and also worked in international law firms like Hogan Lovells and Noerr. At Libra, I am the Director of Growth and responsible for developing our customer base, which also involves a lot of work on the product side. I believe it's very important to have a legal background when selling to lawyers.
A bit of a self-serving question, but here goes: How does our Merantix ecosystem help you in your career as well as your work so far at Libra?
Being part of the Merantix ecosystem has been absolutely fantastic! The Merantix AI Campus is a vibrant hub, and the network it provides is truly incredible. I've had the chance to connect with so many brilliant colleagues from other AI startups, and the knowledge exchange has been phenomenal. We're not just talking about technical details either – we're diving into go-to-market strategies and sharing valuable insights that are directly impacting our growth at Libra. And let's not forget the little things that make a difference – I've even perfected my latte art skills using the awesome coffee machine! It's a supportive and inspiring environment that's definitely fueling our success.
Thanks very much for the chat and congrats on Libra v2!
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