Cambridge Graduate Sells Legal AI Startup to Thomson Reuters

Alexander Kardos-Nyheim sold his legal AI startup Safe Sign Technologies to Thomson Reuters before he qualified as a solicitor. The 25-year-old Cambridge graduate founded the company in 2022 while completing the legal practice course at BPP University Law School.

Kardos-Nyheim developed large language models for legal use and raised millions of dollars from investors. He hired and fired about 25 people while working as a trainee at what was then Allen & Overy, conducting business during lunch breaks in the firm canteen.

Reuters acquired the company with funds from its £6 billion AI acquisition budget. The deal was large enough to be life-changing for all 33 shareholders, Kardos-Nyheim said. The model, now called Thomson, will power Westlaw, Practical Law, and CoCounsel.

Kardos-Nyheim now co-leads AI research at Thomson Reuters and plans to make the technology available through Citizens Advice and similar organizations.

Kardos-Nyheim chose to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge, after a planning dispute threatened his family's home in Lewisham when he was 14. He researched planning law and successfully opposed developers at a planning meeting. He said the experience showed him that law could help ordinary people.

Kardos-Nyheim stated he could not sleep at night if he did not work to expand access to justice through AI.