The AI-native law firm bidding for Weil Gotshal's assets as the 95-year-old giant winds down

Traditional Wall Street law firms exist across generations. Weil, Gotshal & Manges was founded in 1931, celebrated its 95th anniversary this year, and in less than three months has lost over 30 partners, watched a planned merger with Willkie Farr & Gallagher collapse, and is now preparing to dissolve. Instead of traditional competitors vying for its legacy, though, it is an artificial intelligence-powered law firm — founded in 2024 and valued at $400 million — that is reaching out to buy its assets.

Crosby, based in New York, sent a letter of intent on Thursday, October 29, to acquire Weil Gotshal's brand, trademark, and client-independent internal data. The company is also working to hire some of the firm's approximately 1,200 lawyers, according to the initial report from The Information, confirmed by TechCrunch. The terms of the offer were not disclosed, and there is no guarantee that Crosby will prevail.

The accelerated fall of a legal legend

Weil Gotshal did not collapse overnight. Its decline began in the summer of 2026, when the firm was preparing a leadership transition following 16 years at the helm of Barry Wolf. The designated successor, private equity partner Ramona Nee, walked away from the role. Soon after, Michael Aiello — the firm's corporate department chair — announced he would leave Weil for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, bringing a team of five M&A partners with him.

The cascade was relentless. Private equity partners followed to Paul Weiss and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Capital markets and M&A partners migrated to Sullivan & Cromwell. By the end of that month, Weil's own leadership admitted the firm was entering an "orderly wind-down" process. The office, which generated nearly $2.1 billion in 2025 and maintained offices in 16 countries, had fallen from ninth place in global M&A advisory in 2022 to outside the top 25 by 2025, according to LSEG data.

The attempt to save the firm through a merger with Willkie Farr & Gallagher also collapsed. Willkie was informed in the last 24 hours before the wind-down was formally announced. AlixPartners was hired to guide the out-of-court dissolution process, and associates and staff were told they would be paid for 90 days.

Crosby: the firm born digital

While Weil struggled against what seemed inevitable, Crosby was growing. Founded in September 2024 by CEO Ryan Daniels, a former Cooley lawyer, and CTO John Sarihan, a former engineering manager at Ramp, Crosby was introduced as "the world's first hybrid law firm" when it emerged from stealth in June 2025, armed with $5.8 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital.

The proposition was simple but ambitious: rather than selling AI tools to traditional firms — as rivals like Harvey and Legora do — Crosby would be a law firm itself. Its AI agents, built on models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, performed contract reviews in minutes, not hours. The median review time was 58 minutes. Clients including Cursor, Clay, Cognition, and Tishman Speyer used the service, which had already processed over 13,000 contracts by spring 2026.

In March 2026, Crosby raised $60 million in a Series B round led by Lux Capital and Index Ventures, with participation from Sequoia, Elad Gil, 01 Advisors, and Bain Capital Ventures, valuing the company at $400 million. The billing model does not follow the traditional hourly rate: Crosby charges per contract, between $250 and $1,000, depending on complexity.

The firm has more than 50 licensed attorneys working alongside its AI agents, and the volume of contracts negotiated through its platform has already surpassed $1 billion, according to data disclosed in its blog.

What Crosby wants from Weil Gotshal

Crosby's offer for Weil Gotshal's assets is significant for multiple reasons. The primary value is not just the brand — although a name with 95 years of Wall Street reputation has undeniable worth. The focus appears to be more on the firm's internal data.

Data from previous contracts, M&A agreement templates negotiated at different stages, records of how counterparties reacted to specific redlines — all of this can be used to refine legal AI systems. It is the same principle that has been driving the race for data from failed businesses: Google, Mercor, and Micro1 made bids for Spirit Airlines' internal data and code in the same context.

How Crosby would use Weil Gotshal's data remains unclear. Neither Crosby nor Weil publicly confirmed the details of the offer.

What this means for the legal industry

The dissolution of Weil Gotshal was not directly caused by the rise of AI legal services — it was the result of a combined leadership crisis, a wave of partner departures, and a failed merger. But the arrival of firms like Crosby illustrates how technology can accelerate structural transformations in established industries.

The U.S. legal services market is estimated at over $400 billion annually, with the top 100 firms generating about $69 billion in combined profit last year, according to data disclosed by Crosby. Every cent was paid out to partners as compensation, with no investment in internal technological innovation.

AI-native firms like Crosby offer a radical alternative: vastly superior speed and precision at significantly lower costs. The model does not replace human judgment — Crosby's lawyers remain responsible for final reviews and professional liability — but the time between request and delivery is dramatically reduced.

The question is whether the dissolution of Weil Gotshal will be an isolated case or the beginning of a trend: traditional firms that cannot adapt to the AI era following the same path as other industries that saw their business models transformed by new technologies. The answer will determine the future of a sector that moves more money than the annual technology budget of most of the world's giants.

Sources: TechCrunch, CNBC, AI Chat Daily

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