Legal technology company Clio has acquired Learned Hand, a startup that builds artificial intelligence tools for judges and law clerks, Business Insider reported on Wednesday, with terms of the deal not disclosed.
The purchase deepens Clio’s move into the judiciary and beyond its core customers of small and midsize law firms and corporate legal teams. Clio was last valued at $5 billion, and Learned Hand founder Shlomo Klapper had raised about $5 million for the startup, according to Business Insider.
Klapper worked at Palantir in a role similar to a forward-deployed engineer before attending law school and joining litigation firm Quinn Emanuel as an associate.
Jack Newton, Clio’s founder and chief executive, said state trial court judges are already burdened by heavy caseloads, and he expects artificial intelligence to add to the pressure as more people use chatbots to research the law and represent themselves.
The share of pro se cases in federal court rose from a long-term average of 11% to 16.8% in 2025, according to a recent paper by two doctoral students at the University of Southern California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology cited by Business Insider.
Learned Hand’s software lets judges upload court filings and other documents, extract key facts and see how each side’s legal arguments connect to the record. It can also draft memos, orders and opinions, with citations linked back to their sources.
Klapper had been in talks to raise new funding, including from Clio’s corporate venture arm. Newton said he had just received a memo recommending an investment when Pablo Arredondo, a recent Clio hire, suggested the two companies consider a bigger combination.
Earlier this month, Clio hired Bridget Mary McCormack, a former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and most recently chief executive of the American Arbitration Association, to help lead its expansion into the courts.
The deal is part of Clio’s effort to sell software across the legal system. The company, which began with back-office tools for solo practitioners and small firms, bought legal research firm vLex for $1 billion last year and has expanded into document review and drafting.
Newton said the judiciary could also open a path to large law firms, where newer companies Harvey and Legora are raising large sums to expand. If judges use Clio’s tools and data, he said, the company would sit inside the infrastructure lawyers use every day.
“We are building judiciary-grade AI,” Newton said. “There’s no higher bar than the bar judges demand.”