After a Reddit user took a dig at Harvey, Harvey’s CEO fired back

Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg

Reuters/Fortune

Legaltech startup Harvey has responded to a viral rant from a Reddit user.
The poster, a purported former employee, alleged that usage and renewals were low.
Harvey’s CEO fired back with metrics, including a gross revenue retention of 98%.

The most-talked-about legal drama last week wasn’t on a streamer, but on Reddit. Harvey, an AI-for-law startup valued at $5 billion, found itself on defense after a purported former employee claimed in a post that lawyers weren’t actually using its tools. Harvey pushed back with internal stats, as screenshots of the post jumped to LinkedIn and the debate spilled beyond the startup.

Legaltech has long promised to draft contracts, sift data, and give lawyers their nights and weekends back. The reality has lagged. Lawyers are cautious and demand accuracy.

Harvey bills itself as the platform lawyers can finally trust: chatbots that don’t invent fake cases and assistants that don’t feed client data back to Big Tech. The company is selling large law firms and corporate legal teams a future where they aren’t automated away, just augmented.

Whether firms are truly buying in is the question lurking beneath Harvey’s Reddit flare-up. The answer matters to its employees and investors who’ve poured $800 million into the company. It may mean just as much for the dozens of competitors that have sprung up in Harvey’s wake.

Harvey has become the case study that others point to as “proof of market.” Startups, such as Legora, Supio, and Eudia, have raised fresh rounds of funding as investors chase the next big thing in legal, having seen Harvey’s momentum. Incumbents are reorganizing. In June, LexisNexis tapped Harvey to build tools on top of its primary law content and citations graph.

Even as more law firms purchase software licenses, not every shiny new tool succeeds in practice. Surveys of lawyers routinely find high intent but spotty adoption. A 2024 survey from the American Bar Association found just 30% of respondents said their offices were using AI tools. The bigger the firm, the higher the uptake: nearly half of lawyers at firms with 500 or more attorneys reported some use, compared with less than a fifth of solo practitioners.

Last week, a Reddit user claiming to be a former Harvey employee alleged that uptake was low, the product was mostly used by first-year lawyers, and churn only looked low because many customers were locked into multi-year contracts, which can prop up retention rates.

The user later deleted their account, and there’s no public evidence that they ever worked at Harvey. Business Insider was unable to reach the user for comment.

The conversation then moved to other platforms, where reactions ranged from skepticism to schadenfreude.

Satisfied customers posted glowing reviews. Without calling out Harvey, Anna Guo, a legal benchmarking researcher, argued that large funding rounds often fuel land grabs over product development or support. Competitors piled on: one called Harvey “a classic example” of growth at all costs, another lamented that the Reddit drama was a buzzkill for the industry.

“At Harvey, we deal in fact, not fiction,” a Harvey spokesperson told Business Insider on Tuesday. “We are grateful to the many customers and users of Harvey who spoke up, reached out, and renewed with us this week and are focused on making them really proud they chose Harvey.”

The gorilla with $800 million in funding

The takes were still flying when, over the weekend, Harvey’s CEO entered the chat.

On LinkedIn, Winston Weinberg shared internal metrics tackling the Redditor’s claims. “I know it’s pretty uncommon for startups to post these,” he wrote, before laying out renewal stats, “since folks seem curious.” He reported a gross revenue retention of 98% in the most recent third quarter, seat utilization at 77%, and, in his words, a “vast majority” of clients renewing early.

Last month, Harvey added a few new names to its client marquee, including Latham & Watkins, the second-highest-grossing law firm in the world, and the asset manager Blue Owl Capital. It also announced a partnership with leading law schools to teach its tools in the curriculum.

The hype isn’t only orbiting Harvey. It’s creating gravity for its competitors, too.

Swedish startup Legora began this year as Europe’s answer to Harvey and looks to end it as a real contender. The company told Business Insider that sign-ups from law firms and corporate legal teams climbed from 250 to 400 in the last six months. It has customers in 40 markets.

The attention isn’t evenly distributed, however. If the Reddit post had been about Legora, as industry consultant Zach Abramowitz put it, it likely would have come and gone. “The Reddit post itself didn’t tell us anything new,” he wrote on his blog. “It was catnip for Harvey-haters.”

The Reddit skirmish revealed a paradox: Harvey’s critics say lawyers aren’t using it, but the fact that everyone’s talking about it shows how much space it occupies in the market’s imagination.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at mrussell@businessinsider.com or Signal at @MeliaRussell.01. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Content Accuracy: Keewee.News provides news, lifestyle, and cultural content for informational purposes only. Some content is generated or assisted by AI and may contain inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. Readers are responsible for verifying the information. Third-Party Content: We aggregate articles, images, and videos from external sources. All rights to third-party content remain with their respective owners. Keewee.News does not claim ownership or responsibility for third-party materials. Affiliate Advertising: Some content may include affiliate links or sponsored placements. We may earn commissions from purchases made through these links, but we do not guarantee product claims. Age Restrictions: Our content is intended for viewers 21 years and older where applicable. Viewer discretion is advised. Limitation of Liability: By using Keewee.News, you agree that we are not liable for any losses, damages, or claims arising from the content, including AI-generated or third-party material. DMCA & Copyright: If you believe your copyrighted work has been used without permission, contact us at dcma@keewee.news. No Mass Arbitration: Users agree that any disputes will not involve mass or class arbitration; all claims must be individual.

Channels

Recently Played

After a Reddit user took a dig at Harvey, Harvey’s CEO fired back — and brought receipts

The gorilla with $800 million in funding

Military women fear losing ‘every bit of ground’ as Hegseth looks backward to the 1990s

Researchers find a carbon-rich moon-forming disk around giant exoplanet

Sponsored Advertisement

Channels

Recently Played

After a Reddit user took a dig at Harvey, Harvey’s CEO fired back — and brought receipts

The gorilla with $800 million in funding

Military women fear losing ‘every bit of ground’ as Hegseth looks backward to the 1990s

Researchers find a carbon-rich moon-forming disk around giant exoplanet

Related Posts

An economist and ex-central banker shares 5 investing rules to he ...

The family of a Qatar Airways passenger who died after choking du ...

Starbucks just launched its new protein cold foam lineup. It nail ...

Sponsored Advertisement