# Field Notes: Stoel Rives Takes Legora Firm-Wide

> A 350-lawyer firm piloted Legora with more than 100 lawyers, ran a security review, then went firm-wide. What the record shows and what it leaves out.

By The Circle Desk | Field Notes | Published 2026-11-02
Source: https://legaltechcircle.com/insights/stoel-rives-legora-firm-wide-rollout/

Most law firm AI announcements say a firm has "partnered" with a
vendor. The Stoel Rives announcement on October 27 is more useful than
most because it describes the path from pilot to decision. The Am Law
200 firm, with about 350 attorneys across ten offices, [selected
Legora](https://www.stoel.com/insights/pressreleases/stoel-rives-deepens-its-ai-strategy-by-deploying-legora-firm-wide)
as its firm-wide AI platform after a pilot that reached more than 100
lawyers across several practice groups and offices.

One caution first. The release on Stoel's site is written as a vendor
announcement ("Legora, the agentic operating system for legal
professionals, today announced"), lists a media contact at newsPRos,
and matches the text on [Legora's
newsroom](https://legora.com/newsroom/stoel-rives-deepens-its-ai-strategy-by-deploying-legora-firm-wide).
It is one announcement published in two places, not two independent
accounts. Everything below about the pilot comes from that text.

## The Pilot and the Security Review

The release says the pilot spanned research, litigation and
transactional practice groups. That is a meaningful sample. More than
100 lawyers is roughly 30% or more of the firm's attorneys, large
enough that the result reflects more than a few enthusiasts.

Litigation was one of the most active areas. According to the release,
attorneys used Legora to map the facts of a case across large volumes
of documents, prepare early drafts of key filings and speed up intake
at the start of a new matter. Those are the setup tasks that eat a
litigation team's first weeks, so they are a sensible place to look
for time savings.

Legal research was the second focus, and the firm's library and
knowledge management team used the research features directly. The
release says several pilot participants raised, unprompted, that
Legora returned a smaller number of targeted results rather than a
long list to sort through. That is a claim from the vendor's
announcement, and no comparison data is published.

The detail most worth copying is the order of operations. The release
says Stoel's own AI, Privacy and Cybersecurity practice advises
corporate clients on vetting AI vendors, and that the firm held Legora
to the same standard by running a formal security review before
signing.

That matters because security now sits near the top of law firm
worries about AI. In the 2026 ILTA Technology Survey, as [reported by
LawSites](https://www.lawnext.com/2026/09/which-ai-product-is-most-popular-among-law-firms-findings-of-iltas-tech-survey-may-surprise-you.html),
generative AI appeared on the list of firms' biggest security
challenges for the first time and ranked second, behind only user
behavior. A firm that uses the same vetting checklist on itself that
it sells to clients has an easier time explaining the decision to
partners and clients alike.

> "Stoel Rives evaluated us rigorously on security and on substance, and chose to bring Legora in across the firm," said Max Junestrand, Legora's chief executive and co-founder, in the release.

The firm's own quote, from Firm Managing Partner Melissa Jones, ties
the move to the firm's strategic plan and client service. It does not
cite numbers.

## How It Compares With Other October Rollouts

Stoel was not alone this month. Jones Day said on October 22 that
lawyers across all its offices, more than 2,500 in 40 offices, will
[get access to Legora](https://legora.com/newsroom/jones-day-selects-legora-as-strategic-ai-partner-rolling-out-platform-firm-wide-to-2-500-lawyers-globally)
over the coming months, after what the release calls a structured
evaluation. The Jones Day deal adds a design partnership on a
forthcoming research product and a learning program with King's
College London.

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader went another way. On October 16 it [signed
agreements](https://www.hlc.com/en/news/hogan-lovells-cadwalader-unveils-the-next-phase-of-its-ai-strategy)
with both Harvey and Legora and created an AI Board to decide what to
build and what to buy. Its chief executive, Miguel Zaldivar, said,
"There is no single AI solution that will meet every need of a modern
global law firm." [Bar &
Bench](https://www.barandbench.com/law-firms/corporate/hogan-lovells-cadwalader-onboards-both-harvey-and-legora-to-start-next-phase-of-ai-strategy)
carried the same quote.

Stoel's path is the one most mid-size firms can copy: one platform, a
broad pilot and a security review run by people who do that work for
clients. In the LawSites summary of ILTA's survey, 16% of firms said
they were using or exploring Legora, while a separate question on
products being tested or piloted put Legora at 51%. The write-up does
not reconcile the two figures, but either way many firms are somewhere
in the middle of the same process.

## What the Announcement Leaves Out

The release does not say how many seats Stoel bought, what it pays,
when every lawyer will have access, or how the firm will measure
success after the pilot. It gives no time savings, accuracy figures or
adoption rates. It also does not say whether Stoel compared Legora
with other platforms during the pilot or tested Legora alone.

Those are the questions a firm considering a similar move should ask
its own pilot to answer: what share of pilot users kept using the
tool, which tasks got faster and by how much, and who signs off on the
security review when the vendor ships new features.

## Common Questions

**How big was the Stoel Rives pilot?**

More than 100 lawyers across multiple practice groups and offices,
according to the release. The firm has about 350 attorneys.

**What did lawyers use Legora for during the pilot?**

Mainly litigation work, such as mapping case facts, early drafts of
filings and matter intake, plus legal research by the library and
knowledge management team.

**Did the firm publish results from the pilot?**

No. The release describes uses and feedback but gives no metrics,
pricing or seat counts.

## Verdict

**Partly Real.** The pilot size, practice groups and security review
are specific and useful as a template. The outcome claims come only
from a vendor-issued release, so treat them as the firm's and Legora's
view until either publishes numbers.

---
Legal Tech Circle (https://legaltechcircle.com/). News and analysis, not legal advice.