Relativity expands legal AI offering through Gavel acquisition

The acquisition adds Gavel’s AI-powered drafting and automation capabilities to Relativity’s expanding legal technology portfolio, as the company continues to broaden its presence across the legal workflow from data review through to document creation.

According to the company, the integration is intended to keep legal work product connected to the underlying data, insights, and matter context throughout the drafting and review process.

The CEO of Relativity, Phil Saunders, explained that the deal represents another step in Relativity’s efforts to strengthen its legal technology offering, as the company continues to invest in emerging AI tools and expand its reach across end-to-end legal workflows.

“We believe that Relativity’s role as a driving force in legal AI innovation requires investing in the technology and people that create real value for our customers and partners,” Saunders said.

“We’re delivering on that through Rel Labs, our partnership and start-up investment program, and strategic moves like this one.

“This acquisition enhances our ability to support a wider arc of legal work, in the place where lawyers spend most of their time. The Gavel team is exceptional, and we’re excited to come together and bring what they’ve built to the Relativity community.”

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As part of the deal, Relativity will integrate Gavel’s technology into Microsoft Word, allowing its legal data intelligence platform to sit directly within the document environment used by most lawyers.

The integration will allow customers to open, draft, edit, redline, and finalise work product generated in RelativityOne and Relativity aiR directly within Microsoft Word, eliminating the need to move between platforms during the drafting process.

In doing so, it brings a critical stage of legal work that has traditionally sat outside Relativity’s ecosystem into the platform itself, enabling lawyers to collaborate on redlines, refine documents, and finalise motions, briefs, and contracts while remaining connected to the underlying matter data.

Chris Brown, chief product officer at Relativity, noted that the move is designed to bridge the gap between legal data management and document creation, bringing Relativity’s matter intelligence into the Microsoft Word workflows where lawyers spend much of their time.

“With Gavel, drafting and collaboration happen directly in Microsoft Word. Once integrated with RelativityOne, that work could happen against the full context of the matter, with edits syncing back to the platform,” Brown said.

“We would be taking the system of action that lawyers already rely on and extending it into the surfaces where they actually do the work.”

Beyond expanding its technology capabilities, the acquisition will see Gavel’s leadership team join Relativity, including founder and CEO Dorna Moini and chief technology officer Pierre Martin.

In a statement, Relativity said their arrival adds significant expertise in AI-native drafting, document automation, and the Microsoft Word-based workflows that underpin much of modern legal practice.

Speaking about the deal, Moini said the acquisition provides an opportunity to expand the company’s technology to a broader legal audience while accelerating the company’s long-term vision for AI-powered legal work.

“This is an exciting next chapter for Gavel employees and our customers. Joining Relativity gives us an unrivalled opportunity to scale our shared vision for the industry, build faster, and bring our technology to more legal teams,” Moini said.

“Relativity’s footprint, data platform, and deep trust across the legal industry will help us take everything we’ve built at Gavel to the next level.”

Relativity indicated that it will maintain continuity for existing Gavel customers while gradually integrating the technology into RelativityOne.