AI Boom Lifts Legal Tech to Record Funding With Filevine's $400M: RLUSD Brings 24/7 Liquidity to BlackRock and VanEck Tokenized Funds

Legal Tech Funding Sets New High as AI Targets Repetitive Work

Legal tech is having a record year. Startups in the legal and legal technology sectors have raised just over $2.4 billion in 2025 across seed to growth-stage rounds-with more than three months left to go.

A major catalyst: Filevine disclosed two previously unannounced rounds totaling $400 million, pushing totals to an all-time high.

Filevine's $400M: Where It Goes and Why It Matters

Filevine, founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City, offers practice management software covering time tracking, billing, case management, and secure document management. The company plans to funnel new capital into expanding its AI capabilities.

Insight Partners led the first round; Accel and Halo Experience Co. co-led the second. Filevine reports nearly 6,000 customers and 100,000 users. Note: the $400 million spans roughly 15 months, but was disclosed in 2025 and counted in this year's total.

Other Big Checks This Year

• Harvey (San Francisco): Two rounds of $300 million each in 2025; more than $800 million raised to date.
• Blue J (Toronto): $122 million Series D led by Oak HC/FT and Sapphire Ventures for its GenAI tax research platform.
• Eudia (Palo Alto): Up to $105 million Series A led by General Catalyst for its intelligence platform serving Fortune 500 legal teams.

Why Funding Is Flowing Into Legal AI

Much legal work is repetitive, structured, and expensive. That's the sweet spot for AI-driven automation across intake, research, document review, drafting, and billing.

Analysts estimate that a large share of legal tasks is automatable. Even if pricing doesn't fall immediately, AI should free lawyers and staff to focus on higher-impact work and higher-value hours.

Practical Moves for Law Firms and In-House Teams

• Audit your workflows: Identify high-volume, rules-based tasks (intake, NDAs, privilege logs, status reporting) for near-term automation.
• Run controlled pilots: Limit scope to one matter type or team. Track turnaround time, accuracy, and client satisfaction.
• Demand enterprise controls: SOC 2, data residency options, SSO, granular permissions, redaction, audit trails, and model transparency.
• Protect confidentiality: Contractual data-use limits, no training on your data by default, and strong deletion policies.
• Measure ROI: Time saved per matter, error rates, realized vs. billed hours, and matter throughput.
• Upskill your team: Build prompt patterns for recurring tasks and train matter leads on model strengths and failure modes. Consider role-specific learning via AI courses by job.

Tokenized Funds Meet Stablecoins: What Counsel Should Watch

Securitize and Ripple announced that shareholders in BlackRock's BUIDL-and soon VanEck's VBILL-can exchange fund shares for RLUSD, Ripple's US dollar-pegged stablecoin. The aim: real-time settlement and programmable liquidity across compliant, on-chain investment products.

For legal and compliance teams, the takeaways are immediate: review subscription docs, transfer restrictions, KYC/AML flows, tax treatment of redemptions and exchanges, and custody implications for stablecoins used as settlement rails.

Quick Facts: BUIDL and VBILL

• BlackRock BUIDL: Launched March 20, 2024 with Securitize; exposure to U.S. Treasuries, cash, and repos. Over $2 billion AUM across 91 holders. Available on Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Aptos, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism. Daily income distribution; 0.20-0.50% management fee; ~$425 million monthly transfer volume.
• VanEck VBILL: Launched May 13, 2025 with Securitize; blockchain-based access to short-term U.S. Treasuries. Lower minimum ($100,000), 14 holders, ~$74 million AUM. Available on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, and Avalanche.
• RLUSD integration: Live for BUIDL; VBILL support slated "in the coming days."

Risk, Ethics, and Governance Checklist

• Model risk: Calibrate guardrails for hallucinations, citation requirements, and version control. Require human-in-the-loop for critical outputs.
• Privilege and confidentiality: Enforce strict data handling, disable training on client data, and log every AI-assisted action.
• Billing policy: Set clear guidance on what is billable with AI assistance and how to disclose efficiency gains to clients.
• Regulatory watch: Tokenized assets and stablecoin use touch securities, payments, and tax regimes. Document your positions and update engagement letters where relevant.
• Business continuity: Assess vendor viability, model/provider redundancy, and export paths for data and prompts.

Bottom Line

Capital is pouring into tools that reduce repetitive legal work and improve liquidity in digital asset workflows. If you lead a firm or in-house team, now is the time to run targeted pilots, tighten governance, and build the skills to manage AI and on-chain products with confidence.

The teams that standardize processes, measure outcomes, and train fast will set the bar for efficiency-and client value-in 2025 and beyond.