FOR-M alum Law LM builds legal AI platform

Milwaukee-based legal tech startup Law LM is building a tool to help litigators make better use of their evidence.

Founded in late 2024 by trial attorney Michael D. Aiken, MSOE professor Derek Riley, and a third silent partner, Law LM is focused on one thing: helping lawyers securely analyze testimonial evidence using large language model technology.

The name, a play on “LLM” (large language model), reflects the company’s mission. “It’s essentially a secure AI pipeline to analyze evidence,” Aiken said. “We really specialize in evidence, because to me, that’s what moves the needle.”

Designed specifically for litigation, Law LM summarizes depositions and then allows users to query across multiple transcripts. The chatbot identifies relevant responses and provides citations down to the page and line, a feature Aiken emphasized as essential for legal professionals who need precise citations in court filings and briefs.

“There’s like intelligence that’s built into the summary,” he said. “Now we’ve got all this rich information from these depositions… what happens if we take the language model and apply it to that and start asking questions across multiple witnesses?”

According to Aiken, the tool offers major time savings and increases accuracy by highlighting key information instantly. “You’ve got 10 to 15 depositions and there are issues that traverse all of the witnesses. Now the chatbot can scrape that information and give you an answer with who said it, where in the testimony they said it, and what page and line it appears on.”

While the company is still in soft launch mode, the tool is already in use. Aiken noted that he has integrated it into his daily legal practice and continues to discover new ways to leverage it. Riley, who teaches computer science at MSOE, said the rapid pace of AI development is central to Law LM’s design philosophy.

“A year ago, it took five students nine months to build something like this. Now, our engineer did it in a matter of weeks,” Riley said. “We’ve built the infrastructure to be agile. Staying on the forefront of AI tools and strategies is absolutely critical to remain relevant.”

In 2024, Law LM participated in the FOR-M program sponsored by the MKE Tech Hub Coalition and was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the organization.

The team is currently focused on thoughtful growth, gathering feedback from early users and seeking partnerships to extend the platform’s reach.

“We’re really just scratching the surface of what this can do,” Aiken said.

Riley agreed, emphasizing that AI isn’t replacing lawyers but redefining how they work. “The attorney of the future is still a human, but it’s a human who’s assisted by tools like this to be incredibly productive.”