By Rob Hewett
This week (25th February) legal AI company Wordsmith and alternative legal services provider Cognia Law announced a new partnership as they seek to combine their expertise in a joint solution focused on transforming in-house legal operations. The partnership embeds Wordsmith’s AI functionality – including automated contract review, drafting and analysis – into Cognia’s client operating models.
Informal conversations between Wordsmith and Cognia have been taking place since 2024. Head of partnerships at Wordsmith, Jono Pepper, notes that the “high overlap” between their customer bases meant that they “should just be speaking to their customers together”, leading to an agreement completed in “around two months”. Peter Hall, CEO and head of innovation at Cognia adds that they had “really researched, really understood what [Wordsmith] can bring and how we quickly get to the next level, which is what our clients are looking for as well […] and show ROI.”
Pepper says that Cognia and Wordsmith are focused on discussions with large enterprise clients around the implementation of new Wordsmith capabilities and hope to see results in six to nine months. Kele Cericola, senior legal associate and legal delivery manager at Cognia adds that she expects to see an impact in the following areas, “efficiency gains from the red-lining, the changes to our processes and due diligence ” For Pepper, a successful partnership would look like “having a select number of customers that we feel we have the best opportunity to do great work together.” Hall concurs: “We would like to have this discussion in a year’s time and [have] five testimonials from clients who have actually changed their game.”
This partnership comes at a time as Wordsmith and Cognia are both expanding. Following Wordsmith’s $25m Series A round in June 2025, Falkenthal says that their headcount is now “north of 100 and we expect to reach 200-300 this year”. This headcount growth is reflected by a wider footprint of office space. Having already established two new offices in London and New York, they are in the process of opening in Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, and other North American locations. Cognia has over 100 employees, with main offices in London and Cape Town; Hall expects a steady headcount growth that is “driven by technology and enabling clients across more locations”. Both Hall and Falkenthal declined to provide revenue growth figures.
This news follows similar partnerships between legal AI companies and ALSPs and reflects broader competitive pressure from AI-native entrants such as Eudia, which combines AI platforms and legal services to reshape how in-house legal work is delivered. Leah (formerly ContractPodAi) is notable for having several similar relationships with ALSPs, including Integreon since 2023 and Morae and QuisLex since 2024. Some, like Elevate and Factor are building their own generative AI capabilities internally. Factor acquired legal technology design & development agency Theory & Principle in 2025 to further develop its own solutions. In February 2026, Elevate announced it had built its own generative AI capabilities, releasing a new product called ELMA.
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