Chen: Much bigger response than expected
A growing number of lawyers and law firms are contacting the solicitor who created Mike, a free alternative to the AI giants Harvey and Legora.
Launched just two weeks ago, the interest in Mike from lawyers around the world has made this the fastest-growing legal tech project in history.
Law firms can now choose between the major brands Harvey and Legora, which can cost hundreds of pounds per lawyer per month, or open-source Mike, which costs nothing.
Speaking to Legal Futures, Mike’s creator Will Chen, a former associate in the Singapore and London offices of US firm Latham & Watkins, said the sector was showing huge interest in his AI.
Mr Chen said: “The response has been much bigger than I expected. A lot of lawyers, innovation teams and technical people inside firms have reached out. There is clearly strong interest in self-hosted legal AI and alternatives to closed enterprise systems.”
And despite Legora’s and Harvey’s multi-billion dollar valuations and expensive global advertising campaigns, Mike is making history.
Mr Chen said: “Mike quickly reached thousands of [collaboration platform] GitHub stars and hundreds of forks in a few days. It is now the fastest growing legal tech [repository] in history.
“A viral trend is that new versions of Mike for different countries are popping up every few hours on LinkedIn. These include Korean, Dutch, French, Turkish and countless other variants. The collaboration has become very international very quickly.”
Mike sits on Microsoft’s platform and is powered by Claude and Gemini. Lawyers can use Mike in the same way they use Harvey and Legora, such as to read documents, research, and draft and edit contracts.
The name comes from the character Mike Ross from the TV series Suits. Harvey was named the same way, inspired by the character Harvey Specter. The ‘oss’ from Ross appears in Mike’s url, MikeOSS, which stands for open-source software.
Mr Chen built Mike in just two weeks, with small and medium-sized firms in mind.
His last legal tech project was Lawprof, which has grown into the UK’s largest online legal learning platform.
Mr Chen said: “I set out to prove that the core functionality of Harvey and Legora could be replicated in two weeks. And I put it in open source so anyone could see for themselves, so that people can build upon it and make it better. That is the whole point of open source.”
“I wanted to show that there might be a different future for legal AI: one that’s open, affordable and gives lawyers control over the application layer and their proprietary data. One that stands in contrast to the expensive, closed systems designed for vendor lock-in that are spreading across the industry.
“The ‘BigLaw’ firms that can afford these tools partly do so to signal prestige to clients. Every other AmLaw 100 firm bought it, so it must be good, right? But small and mid-sized firms are being priced out.”
Legora is valued at $5.5bn and is used by more than 1,000 firms, including Bird & Bird, Linklaters, and Dentons.
Harvey, which is valued at $11bn, is used by global firms too, including A&O Shearman.
In recent weeks Legora unveiled a global advertising campaign featuring Jude Law as part of its worldwide expansion. On billboards in London and New York, the Hollywood actor is seen wearing a dark suit inside a wood-panelled offices. The slogan says: “Law has never looked so attractive.”
Harvey has signed up Gabriel Macht, the actor who played Harvey Spector, and has moved into sports sponsorship, including on Premier League football electronic advertising boards.
Mr Chen said Mike’s marketing message was based on functionality and cost – “the open-source alternative to Harvey and Legora. All the features without an enterprise contract”.
Comments on LinkedIn from lawyers and AI developers around the world confirm the growing support for Mike and open-source lawtech.
Saad Ansari, founder of Stealth, an AI start-up, wrote: “Making law more accessible by making it cheaper is a great public service.”
Lindsay Healy, chief executive of Aria Grace Law, said: “What you have done is simply awesome.”
Inspired by the success so far, Mr Chen said the next step was building capability and trust in Mike.
“Right now the focus is improving stability, security and self-hosting. I intend for Mike to remain open source and I want for there to be a path where Mike becomes an enterprise grade solution.”
“Companies like Harvey and Legora are very strong, given their head start. But open source has advantages too – speed, flexibility, and transparency. Based on the response so far, I think there is clearly demand for an open alternative.”
Leave a Comment