How Crosby is Building the Future of Legal Services with an AI-Powered Law Firm
The rise of the AI-powered law firm is reshaping how legal services are delivered—faster, cheaper, and more scalable than ever. A prime example is Crosby, a legal tech startup that just exited stealth with a $5.8 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital. But Crosby isn’t simply creating tools for attorneys—it is a fully operational law firm that blends AI technology with legal expertise. This new model directly answers what many startups and small businesses are asking: How can legal services be faster and more affordable? Crosby’s approach delivers a compelling answer by offering contract reviews in under an hour, and soon, perhaps in mere minutes. This signals a seismic shift in how legal bottlenecks can be resolved using AI.
What Makes Crosby’s AI-Powered Law Firm Unique
Crosby is not selling AI software to traditional law firms—it is creating its own. The company employs real lawyers who leverage internally built AI tools to dramatically speed up contract review and negotiation. Co-founder and CTO John Sarihan noted that the current turnaround time for reviewing contracts is under an hour, with goals to reduce this to just minutes. This kind of efficiency is rare in law, where document review and legal due diligence often drag on for weeks. By owning the entire legal process, Crosby eliminates friction between software and legal teams. It’s a vertically integrated model that mirrors the most successful tech strategies: build in-house, optimize the full pipeline, and scale. And that’s exactly what Crosby is doing for legal services.
The Experience Behind Crosby’s Legal Tech Vision
Crosby’s founders bring credibility and domain expertise that support its vision. CEO Ryan Daniels, a seasoned attorney with deep roots in the startup world, previously worked at Cooley LLP and later served as general counsel for rapidly growing tech companies. He saw firsthand how legal contract processes often stall business growth. “Most of the legal time was spent on sales agreements and MSAs,” he explained—areas ripe for automation. His partner, John Sarihan, formerly of Ramp, brought in engineering talent from high-growth startups to build the firm’s core AI infrastructure. Together, they’ve created a tight-knit team of about 19 legal and tech professionals who are focused on solving a very specific problem with precision and speed.
Why Crosby’s AI-Powered Law Firm Model Could Change Everything
Traditional law firms are slow to adopt innovation, but Crosby’s startup DNA allows it to move fast and break the mold. Instead of bolting AI onto old workflows, Crosby rebuilt the law firm from scratch to make AI central to its operations. This move ensures that automation isn't just a side tool—it’s the engine. The founders believe that real disruption in legal services won’t come from legacy firms adopting AI; it will come from new entrants like Crosby designing everything around it. As AI continues to evolve in 2025, Crosby’s model offers a clear blueprint for how other sectors might follow: combine domain-specific expertise with purpose-built AI systems to unlock value. For startups burdened by slow legal turnarounds, Crosby offers a radically better option that could change how legal work is done everywhere.
Crosby is a bold experiment in how an AI-powered law firm can rethink the entire legal service pipeline—from hiring to tech development to service delivery. Its end-to-end approach, startup agility, and experienced leadership put it at the forefront of legal tech innovation. As more businesses look for ways to reduce delays in contract negotiations and increase operational efficiency, Crosby’s model may soon become the standard rather than the exception. For now, it’s one of the clearest signs that AI is no longer just transforming the future of work—it’s already reshaping it.
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