OpenAI makes a major play for the legal market

OpenAI is making its biggest move yet into the legal sector, launching a dedicated AI offering for lawyers as the world’s largest AI companies increasingly target the legal technology market.

The ChatGPT maker unveiled Astra for Law on Thursday, combining its GPT-6 Astra model with tools and settings designed specifically for legal work, including a new search index covering US case law, statutes, regulations and court rules.

The move puts OpenAI much closer to the territory occupied by specialist legal AI companies such as Harvey and Legora, which have spent the past few years racing to become the AI platform used by major law firms.

But the relationship is not purely competitive. Harvey and Legora are both OpenAI API customers and will be able to build Astra for Law into their own products.

Building with Big Law

OpenAI has enlisted some of Big Law’s biggest names as it develops the technology.

Latham is working with the company on governance frameworks and safeguards for deploying frontier AI in law firms, including information permissions, ethical walls, client instructions and firm oversight.

“As AI becomes more capable, so too does the ability to deploy it in environments that demand rigorous governance, oversight, and accountability,” said Michael Rubin, chair of Latham’s AI Strategy Committee.

Ropes & Gray has worked with OpenAI on a transactional due diligence system, while Cooley has developed GO Public, an AI tool for IPO preparation.

Sullivan & Cromwell has built an agreement analyser that draws on the firm's negotiating playbooks and selected precedents to review deals and generate proposed redlines.

OpenAI is also working with Wachtell to explore how AI can support lawyers across corporate and litigation work.

AI giants arrive

The launch comes just weeks after Google made its own major push into the sector with Gemini Enterprise for Legal, counting Freshfields, Cleary Gottlieb and Weil as early customers. The product similarly combines Google's frontier AI models with legal-specific tools, data connections and workflows.

Anthropic is making a similar push with Claude for Legal, launched in May with more than 20 integrations with legal software and a dozen specialist plugins covering areas including corporate, litigation, regulatory and employment work.

That launch followed the company’s legal-focused AI plug-in, rolled out in February, and a Word add-in launched in April.

Anthropic has also partnered with Freshfields, which is working with the AI company to co-develop new legal tools.