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Welcome to this week's edition of The Legal Wire!

AI is now both a weapon and a shield: tailored phishing, deepfake “execs,” and crypto-laundering are reshaping fraud work, while lawyers like RPC’s Chris Whitehouse say tech fluency is non-negotiable, “roughly right” won’t cut it. South Korea’s all-in AI Framework Act bundles strategy, promotion, and regulation in one statute, powerful, but risky if blunt mandates smother innovation, while Canadian business leaders push for fast, balanced national rules and sovereign data. In the market, Milan’s Lexroom raised $19M to scale its AI copilot, and LexisNexis’ CEO warns licenses could be on the line for filing unverified, open-model outputs.

Spotlight: Avokaado. If CLM still feels like duct tape, Avokaado’s pitch is simpler: treat contracts as structured data from the start. Templates and smart fields create compliant drafts; every clause, party, and approval stays queryable after signature, so legal’s insight isn’t trapped in PDFs. We spoke with founder/CEO Mariana Hagström on why “contract intelligence,” not traditional CLM, is the bridge between legal and the business. Read the full interview below.

This week’s Highlights:

• Industry News and Updates

• Contracts, But Make Them Data: Why Avokaado Might Just Be the Missing Link Between Legal and Business

• AI Regulation Updates

• AI Tools to Supercharge your productivity

• Legal prompt of the week

• Latest AI Incidents & Legal Tech Map

➡️ Life as a Lawyer Taking on AI-Fuelled Fraud | Chris Whitehouse, of counsel at RPC, has become a specialist in fraud cases shaped by crypto and AI. With a physics background, he applies analytical methods and game theory to litigation, co-founding the global Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery Network. AI has made scams harder to detect, from tailored phishing emails to deepfake executives tricking staff into multimillion-dollar transfers. Yet AI is also reshaping law itself, with tools streamlining disclosure and drafting. Whitehouse believes tech fluency is now essential for lawyers: “Something that’s roughly right isn’t really good enough.” His advice to the next generation, embrace technology, stay curious, and pair analysis with judgment.
^{Sep 29, 2025, Source: Legal Cheek}

➡️ One Law Sets South Korea’s AI Policy and One Weak Link Could Break It | By uniting strategy, promotion, and regulation in a single law, South Korea has given itself a powerful instrument to shape AI, but its blunt regulatory mandates threaten to drag down the very strengths that make the act ambitious. South Korea’s AI Framework Act is the first in the world to combine strategy, industrial promotion, and regulation into a single statute, magnifying both its strengths and its flaws.
^{Sep 29, 2025, Source: ITIF}

➡️ Lexroom Raises $19M to Expand Legal AI Across Europe | Milan-based startup Lexroom closed a $19 million Series A led by Base10 Partners, with backing from Acurio Ventures, Diego Piacentini’s View Different, and King founder Riccardo Zacconi. Founded in 2023, Lexroom uses generative AI to help lawyers with research, drafting, and advisory. The company has tripled its clients and doubled its team in six months, expanding to Germany and soon Spain. CEO Paolo Fois said the funding will accelerate international growth and embed AI “at the core of the legal profession.”
^{Sep 29, 2025, Source: The Legal Wire}

➡️ LexisNexis Exec Warns Lawyers Could Lose Licenses Over AI Misuse | Fortune reports: LexisNexis CEO Sean Fitzpatrick says it’s only a matter of time before attorneys face disbarment for relying on open-source AI tools like ChatGPT in court filings. Courts across the U.S. have already sanctioned lawyers for submitting briefs filled with fabricated cases and improper citations, raising alarm over the legal risks of “hallucinating” models. Experts warn that beyond bad citations, uploading client materials into open models risks exposing privileged information. Fitzpatrick argues purpose-built systems like Lexis+ AI, which operates in a closed database, are safer alternatives. Still, academics caution that all AI carries risks and that law schools and firms must quickly train lawyers and judges on responsible use as the technology reshapes the profession.
^{Sep 24, 2025, Source: Fortune}

➡️ Canadian Businesses Push for Quick, Balanced AI Rules | A new KPMG survey of 750 Canadian business leaders shows overwhelming support for fast but flexible AI regulation. Over 90% want Ottawa to establish a federal framework aligned with global standards, with incentives to keep AI talent, research, and data in Canada. Leaders back tax credits, grants, and streamlined rules to speed adoption, while calling the government’s $2.5B digital infrastructure pledge insufficient. Nearly all want investment in sovereign data centers and stronger incentives to retain intellectual property. Canada, they argue, must act quickly to stay competitive in the global AI race.
^{Sep 24, 2025, Source: NewsWire CA}

Legal Technology

Contracts, But Make Them Data: Why Avokaado Might Just Be the Missing Link Between Legal and Business

There’s something oddly satisfying about a contract done right. Not just signed, done. Tracked, searchable, compliant, clean. That’s the dream. But for many legal and operations teams, the contract lifecycle still feels like a mess of half-filled PDFs, version control nightmares, and overdue reminders buried in someone’s inbox.

Avokaado has other plans.

Founded with the conviction that legal should be a proactive driver of business, not just a checkpoint, Avokaado offers a contract intelligence platform that’s far more than a smarter CLM. It treats contracts as structured data from the start. Not after the fact. Not with a half-baked integration. From day one.

And that changes everything.

From Document to Data Without the Fuss

When I got in touch with the Avokaado team, it was clear they weren’t interested in flashy demos or one-size-fits-all sales pitches. Their approach is methodical, almost architectural. Take contract automation, for instance: using templates and smart fields, teams can build contracts that are tailored, compliant, and instantly usable, not weeks later after legal’s final review.

But it’s what happens after the draft that really caught my attention. Every clause, every approval, every party is structured, searchable, and linked. It’s not just about speeding things up (though it does that). It’s about creating a foundation where legal insight isn’t locked in documents, but unlocked for the rest of the business.

Click here to continue reading the full interview

The AI Regulation Tracker offers a clickable global map that gives you instant snapshots of how each country is handling AI laws, along with the most recent policy developments.

The most recent developments from the past week:

📋 29 September 2025 | All EU countries back Dutch coalition for Chips Act 2.0: It is reported that all 27 EU member states have endorsed the Semicon Coalition's declaration for a revised Chips Act 2.0, presented by Dutch Minister Vincent Karremans to the European Commission in Brussels. This initiative, initially launched in March 2025 by the Netherlands and eight other countries, outlines five strategic priorities: enhancing cooperation within the semiconductor ecosystem, aligning and accelerating investment approaches, developing a robust talent pipeline, promoting sustainable production practices, and strengthening international partnerships while maintaining European strategic autonomy. The coalition aims to address previous criticisms of the 2023 European Chips Act by fostering a more focused and efficient strategy to bolster Europe's semiconductor industry.

📋 29 September 2025 | Azerbaijan and Türkiye aim to unite forces in AI: It is reported that Azerbaijan and Türkiye have signed a historic protocol to collaborate in the field of AI, aiming to rank among the world's top 20 countries in this sector. Zafer Kucuksabanoglu, Chairman of Türkiye's Artificial Intelligence Policy Association (AIPA), stated that the agreement seeks to combine the two nations' knowledge, networks, and capabilities to maximize economic benefits from AI, targeting a share in the projected $15.7 trillion global AI economy by 2030. The collaboration also emphasizes ethical considerations and data privacy safeguards to protect citizens' rights and national security.

🆕 Josef - Create Q&A, contract, and workflow tools that answer questions, draft documents, and move the business from A to B seamlessly.

🆕 Humata - Ask questions across all of your files. Get answers you can trust. Command our AI to do your work.

🆕 Tritium - The word processor built for lawyers.

Want more Legal AI Tools? Check out our
Top AI Tools for Legal Professionals

This prompt gives you a ready playbook to surface, disclose, and defuse bad law—saving hours of research and sharpening your brief with prebuilt distinctions and clean citations.

Instructions:
Provide a one-sentence issue statement, jurisdiction, and your primary supporting case(s). Ask for:

1. Likely adverse authorities (name, citation, one-line holding).

2. Distinguishing angles for each (facts, procedural posture, doctrinal nuance).

3. Fallback framing (narrow concession + stronger alternative rule).

4. Disclosure footnote drafts and crisp parentheticals.

5. A checklist for candor/ethical compliance and a two-paragraph rebuttal outline.

The Responsible AI Collaborative is a not‑for‑profit organization working to present real‑world AI harms through its Artificial Intelligence Incident Database.

View the latest reported incidents below:

⚠️ 2025-09-20 | Nomi AI Companion Allegedly Directs Australian User to Stab Father and Engages in Harmful Role-Play | View Incident

⚠️ 2023-11-08 | Lawsuit Alleges Character AI Chatbot Contributed to Death of 13-Year-Old Juliana Peralta in Colorado | View Incident

⚠️ 2025-09-11 | Purported AI-Generated Deepfake of Irish Fine Gael Presidential Candidate Heather Humphreys Used in Fake Investment Videos on Meta Platforms | View Incident

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