AXL & Dentons partner to drive AI innovation in legal sector
AXL and Dentons have announced a strategic partnership to develop new approaches for delivering legal services through artificial intelligence.
The collaboration will focus on exploring models such as a "virtual law firm" and developing ventures designed to update how legal services are accessed, priced, and provided. Both organisations aim to address the current gap between AI breakthroughs and their commercial adoption in Canada, where most AI patents from leading institutes end up with foreign technology companies rather than local businesses.
Strategic alliance
Through this partnership, Dentons will become the exclusive legal partner for AXL and the preferred provider for its growing group of ventures. The intention is to embed legal insight in the early stages of bringing AI concepts to market, supporting companies from inception to commercialisation. Both entities will co-develop ventures with the goal of accelerating innovation in the legal sector.
Tim Haney, Chief Executive Officer of Dentons Canada, commented on the partnership, stating:
This partnership reflects our 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.
AXL's approach to bridging the AI research-to-commercialisation pipeline involves its AI Catalyst programme, which brings together research from the University of Toronto with industry perspectives. This initiative is designed to validate and accelerate the development of ideas emerging from Canada's AI sector.
New venture models
Dr. Daniel Wigdor, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AXL, aims to launch 50 AI-powered companies in the coming five years. According to Dr. Wigdor:
"We're proud to partner with Dentons, a firm with global scale, legal sophistication, and a strategic AI roadmap that's moving legal innovation forward. Together, we're launching companies that will define what practical and scalable AI applications will look like in practice."
Dentons is joining a group of Canadian organisations working with AXL in structures referred to as "think tanks". Within these collaborations, participants explore the application of AI in ways intended to drive efficiency across various industries, including legal services. Dentons will support these ventures in their market rollout, focusing on grounding each company in market demand and customer insights while ensuring potential for growth.
Mike Hollinger, Partner and Toronto Leader of Dentons' Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies Group, described the firm's role as follows:
"With AXL, we are not just offering legal services to startups – we are contributing to the formation of AI ventures from day one. Together, we are reimagining how legal services are delivered. This partnership puts Dentons and AXL at the center of that transformation."
Looking to previous transformations
Dr. Wigdor connected the current drive to reshape legal services to earlier transformations in the profession, remarking:
"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."
This collaboration aims to capture more value from Canadian AI research by applying it to the domestic legal industry, rather than having intellectual property move overseas. By involving legal expertise at an early stage, the partnership hopes to create businesses positioned to address inefficiencies in legal workflows, update traditional pricing structures, and improve accessibility to legal services.
The alliance is also part of wider initiatives to encourage responsible adoption of AI in the legal sector, indicating a move towards more cross-disciplinary cooperation between technology and legal professionals.
