First published at Australian Financial Review : The latest law tech, legal innovation and AI-in-law happenings.
The newest kid on the law AI block is MiAI Law, a home-grown “reasoning system” that everyone’s favourite ex-judge Michael Kirby calls “the way of the future”. MiAI is an Australian original, built by Sydney barrister Laina Chan, of 2 Selborne chambers, who was Kirby’s associate back in his days on the NSW Court of […]
First published at LSJ Online Legal Updates June 2026: AI to slash graduate law jobs over next decade
Prospective lawyers face a brutal reality over the next decade as next-gen AI cuts the need for junior talent. The heavy impact of artificial intelligence technology’s impact on the legal industry’s junior ranks is fast becoming clear, as major law firms start to reassess graduate intakes. Top tier law firm MinterEllison this year became the […]
The Human Judgement Behind AI Law: Laina Chan on Keeping Lawyers in the Loop
In a recent Xraised interview, host Myles spoke with barrister and CEO Laina Chan about the intersection of law and artificial intelligence and why judgment, ethics, and storytelling still define great lawyers even in an algorithmic age. When asked whether AI can now retrieve and rank every precedent in seconds, Chan made an important distinction: […]
Where Empathy Ends – and Judgement Must Begin
In professional decision-making, empathy is often celebrated as an essential quality. It is seen as a marker of emotional intelligence, a tool for connection, and increasingly, a differentiator in an age shaped by automation. Yet as discussions around AI, ethics, and human judgment evolve, a more nuanced question is emerging: where does empathy strengthen decision-making, […]
From Hype to Reality: The AI Repricing Moment in Legal Tech
For the past few years, artificial intelligence has been framed as an unstoppable force, reshaping industries, accelerating productivity, and driving valuations to unprecedented levels. Now, that narrative is beginning to shift. In a recent episode of XRaised, barrister and MiAI LAW CEO Laina Chan joined financial markets expert David Ioannidis to examine what many are […]
Dissent as a Safeguard: Preserving Human Judgement in an AI-Driven Legal World
In legal systems, dissent is often misunderstood as disruption. In reality, it serves a far more essential function. It is the mechanism that allows the law to question itself, evolve, and correct its course over time. As conversations around artificial intelligence and automated decision-making accelerate, the role of dissent is becoming increasingly significant. In a […]
First published at SmartCompany: I built my startup after three decades in law. I couldn’t have done it at 25
For a long time, I assumed startups belonged to other people. The dominant startup narrative has always centred on youth. Founders are expected to be twenty-something disruptors, often technical, often male, often celebrated precisely because they are inexperienced enough to “move fast and break things.” My path looked nothing like that. I built my technology […]
First published at Women Love Tech: AI in Law – The Barrister Who Wrote Her Own Code and Rewrote the Rules of Legal Artificial Intelligence
Some people see a challenge and rise to it. Laina Chan saw a gap in the legal world and built a solution herself. In just five days, she raised $2 million to launch MIAI Law, Australia’s first legal-AI reasoning system. Unlike existing tools that merely locate cases or statutes, MIAI Law reasons like a lawyer, […]
First published at Law360: Australian Legal AI Startup MiAI Launches With Initial Capital
A technology startup in Australia aiming to grow its legal artificial intelligence reasoning system officially launched Monday after what it described as successful beta tests with law firms. Sydney-based MiAI Law emerged publicly on Monday, disclosing that it raised AU$2 million (about $1.4 million) in five days last year from investors. The startup was founded […]
First published at Women’s Agenda: Barrister builds a Legal AI that thinks like a lawyer
Sydney barrister Laina Chan saw a gap in the market for AI legal tools and sought to fill it — while still continuing her work at the bar. She found that AI tools relied on post-trained language models that draw on a combination of model memory and secondary materials to construct answers. That’s a problem because these […]