Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has adopted Lexis+® with Protégé™ firmwide as part of a broader commitment to grounded, human-centered artificial intelligence in legal practice.
The international law firm built its own in-house AI orchestration platform, called Wendell Intelligence, before selecting the LexisNexis solution as a core component of its technology strategy.
Todd Friedlich, Director of AI & Innovation at Willkie, has spent more than two decades working in legal technology, beginning with early knowledge management systems.
Friedlich recently spoke with LexisNexis about the firm’s deliberate and considered approach to integrating AI tools into everyday legal workflows.
“Our attorneys have long been fans of the entire Lexis platform,” said Friedlich. “So, when the opportunity arose to partner with LexisNexis on the integration of the Protégé APIs and the full Lexis+ stack, we saw tremendous potential.”
Central to Willkie’s AI philosophy is a principle the firm describes as grounded legal data, ensuring every AI-generated response links to authoritative, verifiable sources attorneys can trust.
In a practice environment where accuracy is non-negotiable, the ability to connect AI outputs to citable, reviewable documents is considered essential to responsible deployment of the technology.
“Grounding the data within our generative AI tools is of the utmost importance to Willkie,” said Friedlich. “It’s how we ensure our answers are based on current law and authoritative documents.”
Friedlich explained that attorneys at the firm expect every AI-generated answer to include a clickable citation, allowing them to review the underlying document and independently verify the accuracy of the information.
“Our attorneys know every answer they receive must include a citation that they can actually click through, review the underlying document, review the source, and vet the accuracy of the information themselves,” Friedlich said.
With the Lexis+ with Protégé integration built into Wendell, legal data requests are routed directly to Protégé, which identifies the most relevant source across the broader Lexis content library to answer each query.
The integration removes the need for attorneys to navigate between separate research systems, streamlining the process of gathering and verifying legal information in a single workflow.
“By ensuring our attorneys have access to tools like Lexis+ with Protégé, we can simplify the process of exposing grounded information to them,” Friedlich added. “We’re no longer requiring them to go to separate data systems and gather…”
The rollout reflects a growing trend among major law firms investing in structured AI frameworks that prioritise accuracy and source transparency over speed alone.
Willkie’s approach, building its own orchestration layer before integrating third-party AI tools, signals a maturing attitude toward legal AI adoption that other large firms may look to replicate.