Debevoise and Legora Launch AI Advisory Platform STAAR 2.0

Debevoise and Plimpton launched STAAR 2.0, an AI advisory platform built with Legora, offering clients subscription-based access to AI risk tools.

The New York-based law firm announced the second version of its Suite of Tools for Assessing AI Risk on March 9, 2026. The updated platform replaces hourly billing for low-risk AI advisory work with a flat monthly subscription fee. Clients, including Blackstone, Capital One, Evercore, GSK, and New York Life, are currently participating in a beta testing period.

This launch matters because it signals a concrete shift in how Big Law firms can price and deliver AI advisory services. The subscription model challenges the standard billable hour structure by spreading costs across multiple clients for shared, repeatable work.

Search Problems Fixed

The original STAAR launched in July 2025. It gave clients access to AI adoption policies, vetted use cases, and regulatory updates for a flat monthly fee.

The platform struggled as content volumes grew. Avi Gesser, co-chair of Debevoise's data strategy and security group, explained the core issue directly: "The problem was the search capability inside the portal wasn't very good. We had just generated so much content that it was actually hard to find stuff."

Debevoise partnered with Swedish legal AI company Legora to fix this. The firm integrated Legora Portal to power a generative AI search function inside the platform.

How Search Works

STAAR 2.0 answers natural language questions by pulling from Debevoise's own library of policies and use cases. It does not draw on outside sources. If a relevant document does not exist in the system, the platform tells the user directly.

The new system can stitch together answers from multiple documents. Gesser described the result: "It opens up a possibility that you can get an answer to a question that is really an answer we gave to other people, but in different pieces, now aggregated."

Preparing content for this system required significant effort. Gesser noted that formatting existing content to work cleanly with an AI model is harder than it appears. Each question must be answered once, clearly, with no overlapping answers elsewhere in the data set to avoid confusing the model.

Subscription Model Benefits

The platform currently serves 130 AI clients at Debevoise. The subscription structure allows the firm to do work that no single client would likely fund on its own. Clients benefit from access to a common standard for low-risk AI use cases without duplicating effort across engagements.

Gesser was direct about the efficiency gains: "We have 130 AI clients, and we get a lot of questions from clients we've already answered for someone else. We're a small group, we cannot be spending all day, every day, answering questions we've already answered."

For cases where the platform lacks a relevant policy or use case, Debevoise will draft new content as part of the subscription, provided the use case fits the program. Higher-risk use cases and those tied to core competitive functions are still handled individually on an hourly basis.

Regulatory Review Tool

STAAR 2.0 also includes a tabular regulatory review feature. Users can ask natural language questions about specific AI regulations and receive grounded answers about legal changes. The tool also allows users to compare rules across different jurisdictions.

The beta testing period runs through the end of August 2026. After that, the platform will launch for general availability.

Gesser indicated the subscription model could expand beyond AI advisory work. The firm is evaluating whether the same approach could apply to cybersecurity, employment law, and other practice areas.

About Debevoise and Plimpton

Debevoise and Plimpton is a New York-based international law firm with practices across litigation, transactional work, and regulatory advisory. Its data strategy and security group advises clients on AI adoption, data governance, and cybersecurity matters. The firm currently works with 130 AI-focused clients across industries, including finance, healthcare, and insurance.

About Legora

Legora is a Swedish legal AI company that builds AI-powered tools for law firms and legal teams. The company developed Legora Portal, the platform technology used to power the generative AI search function inside STAAR 2.0. Legora's tools are designed to help legal professionals surface relevant information quickly from large document sets. Its partnership with Debevoise marks a significant deployment of its portal technology within a major international law firm.

Read more about Legora here:

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