Defining the future of legal with long-term investment in AI research, technologies, and education

NEW YORK, Aug. 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epiq announced today Epiq AI Labs™ now includes more than 25 members who are working together to advance the creation and successful adoption of agentic AI in the legal industry.

Epiq is leading this invitation-only community of legal and AI researchers, engineers, academics, and industry experts to solve problems that go beyond known business-of-law and practice-of-law needs. Membership is growing with representatives from corporations, law firms, and academic institutions.

New members include:

  • Stephen Aschettino, Partner, Steptoe
  • Stacey Blaustein, Counsel, Corporate Litigation, IBM
  • Ron Brachman, Co-Director and Professor, Computer Science, at Cornell University
  • Wendy Curtis, Chief Innovation Officer, Orrick
  • Matthew D'Amore, Professor of the Practice in the LLM program at Cornell Tech
  • Stephen Dooley, Director of Electronic Discovery and Litigation Support, Sullivan & Cromwell
  • Eduardo Kassner, Chief Data & AI Officer, Software & Digital Platforms, Microsoft Corporation
  • Daryl Shetterly, Managing Director, Orrick Analytics
     

“This group of AI technology researchers, engineers, and industry-leading practitioners is actively applying AI to corporate legal and law firm work,” said Head of Epiq AI Labs™ Igor Labutov. “Epiq AI Labs™ is developing innovative AI solutions while navigating the practical real-world experimentation and iteration required to deliver meaningful leaps in outcomes, rather than incremental improvements. Corporate legal departments and law firms can turn to this community to inform their AI strategy and support their teams to accelerate their legal service efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility.”

“We are committed to a long-term vision for AI in legal,” said Bishan Yang, Head of Product, Epiq AI Labs™. “We are focused on solving the most difficult and important technology challenges — those that require fundamental research and development and will become products for clients over a two-to-three-year horizon.”

Epiq AI Labs™ is organized into three groups:

  • The AI Strategy Group is defining the future of legal AI technology by helping to shape Epiq AI Labs™ research initiatives. AI Strategy Group advisors help prioritize development and advise on regulatory compliance, ethical considerations, and AI governance frameworks.
  • The Industry Partners Group gains early access to test new AI features and co-innovate within the Epiq AI Labs™ community. Industry Partner Group advisors identify pain points in current legal technology solutions and provide practical feedback on product roadmaps and features.
  • The Scientific and Academic Group contributes to AI advancements by working with real-world data and business challenges. Scientific and Academic Group members help identify technical risks, benchmark Epiq AI Labs™ technologies, and provide students with opportunities to work on AI-based legal industry initiatives.
     

“Epiq AI Labs™ provides us the opportunity to get early access to new AI products and explore innovative ideas and best practices with industry peers and top AI technology researchers,” said Wendy Curtis, Chief Innovation Officer, Orrick.

Eduardo Kassner, Chief Data & AI Officer, Software & Digital Platforms, Microsoft Corporation added, “It's a forum that is guiding the market positioning and long-term vision for AI in legal."

Epiq AI Labs™ places a strong emphasis on education — grounding emerging developments in objective, scientific reality through benchmarks and studies. A goal of Epiq AI Labs™ is to provide realistic projections on the trajectory of these technologies and contextualize them within frameworks the industry already understands and increasingly accepts.

The concept of Epiq AI Labs™ was born out of the initial collaboration between Labutov, Yang, and industry-leading practitioners at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. The Lab is focused on solving priority legal use cases and informing the development of Epiq agentic AI solutions. Corporations and law firms use Epiq AI Discovery Assistant™, available in the Epiq Service Cloud platform, to simultaneously review data for issues, privilege, and responsiveness, using prompts and models automatically created from review protocols. Epiq AI Discovery Assistant™ automates more than 80 percent of traditional eDiscovery processes and completes reviews up to 90 percent faster than traditional TAR or linear review, with up to 4000x throughput, including for large and complex datasets.

About Epiq 
Epiq, a technology and services leader, takes on large-scale and complex tasks for corporate legal departments, law firms, and business professionals by integrating people, process, technology, and data. Clients rely on Epiq to streamline legal and compliance, settlement, and business administration workflows to drive efficiency, minimize risk, and improve cost savings. With a presence in 18 countries, our values define who we are and how we partner with clients and communities. Learn how Epiq and our 6,100 people worldwide create meaningful change at www.epiqglobal.com.

Press Contact 
Carrie Trent 
Epiq, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Public Relations 
Carrie.Trent@epiqglobal.com