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07 May 2025
Issue: 8115 / Categories: Legal News , Technology , Artificial intelligence
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AI law firm gets regulatory approval

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has authorised the first law firm providing legal services through artificial intelligence (AI)

Garfield.Law Ltd is a purely AI-based firm which offers businesses the use of an AI-powered litigation assistant to help them recover debts, guiding them through the small claims court process. It is a claimant-only firm, charges £2 per letter, and can draft claim forms, settlement letters and responses to documents received.

Paul Philip, SRA Chief Executive, said: ‘Any new law firm comes with potential risks, but the risks around an AI-driven law firm are novel.

‘So we have worked closely with this firm to make sure it can meet our rules, and all the appropriate protections are in place. As this is likely to be the first of many AI-driven law firms, we will be monitoring progress of this new model closely.’

The SRA checked there were safeguards on client confidentiality, conflict of interest and the risk of AI ‘hallucinations’, where the tech plugs gaps by inventing information such as caselaw.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
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A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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