Freshfields Strikes Multi-Year Anthropic Deal to Build Agentic Legal AI

The agreement signals large law firms pushing vendor-built AI into daily work under tighter security and compliance.

Overview

Freshfields signed a multi-year partnership with Anthropic that gives the firm access to Claude and a role in shaping Anthropic’s next AI offerings.
Claude is now available to about 5,700 staff across 33 offices, and the firm says usage rose roughly 500% in the first six weeks after rollout.
Freshfields and Anthropic plan to co-develop agentic workflows that carry out multi-step legal tasks end to end, with expansion to Anthropic’s Cowork platform governed by firm security, compliance and training rules.
The firm is an early tester of Thomson Reuters’ next CoCounsel Legal, rebuilt on Anthropic technology with Westlaw and Practical Law built in for research and drafting.
The move comes as the industry scrutinizes AI risks, with reports of cybersecurity concerns tied to Anthropic’s Mythos model and a recent court filing that contained AI-generated errors, while Freshfields also keeps a separate Google Cloud and Gemini engagement.