Why Hogan Lovells built a 100-person legal tech company: Sebastian Lach on what clients actually want from AI

Hogan Lovells partner Sebastian Lach, who runs the firm’s legal tech company ELTEMATE, discusses the evolution and future of legal AI. ELTEMATE grew from a small group to over 100 people, creating domain-specific tools to solve client problems. Lach argues that successful law firms will need their own legal tech units, focusing on specialized tools rather than generic platforms. He believes clients are demanding these specific solutions to gain real efficiency, noting that general AI tools often fall short of meeting lawyers' needs, achieving only 60-70% accuracy compared to the 90%+ accuracy of domain-specific AI. He also touches upon ELTEMATE's funding model, which relies on revenue generated from efficient, client-valued technology.