Harvey to Open Source Legal AI Models, Expand Research Team
Harvey plans to open source custom legal AI models by late 2026 and expand its research lab.
Why it matters: Open sourcing specialized legal AI models can accelerate innovation and adoption, helping firms automate complex legal workflows and integrate AI more effectively into practice.
- Harvey aims to open source its legal AI models by December 2026, focusing on complex legal workflows.
- The company is expanding Harvey Labs, its AI research division, to support model development and testing.
- Legal Agent Benchmark (LAB), launched in May 2026, includes 1,200+ tasks across 24 legal areas to assess AI capabilities.
- In December 2025, Harvey raised $160M at an $8B valuation; a strategic partnership with HSBC began in January 2026.
Legal AI startup Harvey revealed plans to open source custom AI models designed explicitly for legal workflows by late 2026. These models encode complex processes including client-specific interactions, validated through ongoing Proof of Concept studies with law firms.
To accelerate this work, Harvey is expanding Harvey Labs, its AI research division focused on advancing legal AI technology. Co-founder Gabe Pereyra noted this initiative draws inspiration from Cursor's Composer and represents the start of Harvey's legal foundation model series—tailored AI models trained specifically for legal applications.
In May 2026, Harvey launched the Legal Agent Benchmark (LAB). LAB provides over 1,200 benchmarked tasks across 24 legal practice areas to evaluate how AI agents perform on typical legal work, from contract review to litigation support.
Backing these technical advances, Harvey raised $160 million in a December 2025 funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, reaching an $8 billion valuation. Following that, in January 2026, Harvey formed a strategic partnership with HSBC to integrate its AI platform into HSBC's Global Legal function. HSBC's Group Chief Legal Officer Bob Hoyt highlighted the partnership's role in advancing AI capabilities within legal operations.
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg emphasized HSBC's goal of becoming an AI-fluent organization, underscoring the growing focus on deploying AI tools to improve efficiency and insight across legal teams.
By the numbers:
- 1,200+ tasks — included in Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark covering 24 legal practice areas
- $160 million — Harvey's funding raised in December 2025 led by Andreessen Horowitz
- $8 billion — Harvey's valuation following the December 2025 funding round
What's next: Harvey plans to release its open source legal AI models by December 2026, with further expansions to Harvey Labs through 2026.