Photo: Dentons Canada CEO Tim Haney
Dentons has partnered with Canadian venture studio AXL on artificial intelligence innovation initiatives – a collaboration that will see the firm become AXL’s sole legal partner.
Dentons will co-develop AI-related innovation ventures involving workflows, pricing, and access with AXL. The firm will offer legal advice in the early stages of the process.
According to Dentons Canada CEO Tim Haney, the partnership reflects the firm’s “ongoing commitment to staying at the forefront of legal innovation and AI.”
“By collaborating closely with AXL, we will unlock new models for how technology can enable us to provide exponential value to our clients through innovation,” Haney said in a statement.
AXL co-founder and CEO Dr. Daniel Wigdor said that the partnership would launch “companies that will define what practical and scalable AI applications will look like in practice.”
“The last time legal services fundamentally changed, it was because of a research lab. Lawyers modelled the modern law firm after Thomas Edison’s lab — teams of associates supporting partners to boost output and value. Dentons and AXL are now picking up where that transformation left off, building the next wave of practical, scalable AI applications for law,” Wigdor said.
Wigdor has indicated that his goal is to establish 50 AI-powered companies in the next five years, driving the country’s AI research-to-commercialization pipeline; AXL’s proprietary model combines AI research obtained from the University of Toronto with its AI Catalyst program.
“With AXL, we are not just offering legal services to startups – we are contributing to the formation of AI ventures from day one,” said Mike Hollinger, partner and Toronto leader of Dentons’ venture technology and emerging growth companies group.
Wigdor delivered the keynote address at the Dentons North American AI Legal Summit. His speech focused on the evolution of interactive computing across successive technology waves, resulting in the current AI wave.
Dentons is one of several Canadian organizations that have partnered with AXL in “think tanks” concentrating on applying AI to boost efficiency in different industries.