Senior partners at global law firm Freshfields have discussed making its in-house legal technology unit, Freshfields Lab, a separate company that could be opened to external investors, the Financial Times reported Wednesday (Oct. 14).

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The senior partners believe the unit, which develops artificial intelligence tools for the firm’s lawyers and clients, could be worth billions, according to the report.

The report cited internal emails seen by the FT as well as the publication’s interview with Freshfields’ co-head of U.S. corporate and mergers and acquisitions, Ethan Klingsberg.

Klingsberg told the FT that the idea “just hit me last week,” per the report. He added: “Whenever you have something within your company that could be worth more if it were separate … if you’ve created something very valuable, you don’t want to dilute its value by burying it in something else.”

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Klingsberg added that the discussions were at an early stage, that they may not result in a change and that the value of the AI tools to other businesses that don’t have Freshfields’ data is uncertain, according to the report.

The valuations of other law-focused AI firms include Harvey at $15.5 billion and Legora at $5.6 billion, the report said.

Agentic AI is changing the pace of deployment of AI in legal departments , PYMNTS reported in August.

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