On Tuesday, U.K.-based legal tech startup Lawhive announced a £9.5 million seed round investment (approximately $11.8 million) with funding from Google Ventures and Episode 1 Ventures. Founded in 2021 by the former co-founders and chief data scientist of fintech startup Statys, Lawhive offers an online network of on-demand lawyers and focuses on the staffing needs of small and solo firms.

In addition to its lawyer network, Lawhive has also developed an “AI Paralegal,” essentially an AI Assistant, named Lawrence that is smart enough to pass the U.K.’s Solicitors Qualification Exam. According to TechCrunch, Lawhive built its AI Assistant using its own large language model, which it also combines with proprietary LLMs from OpenAI, Anthropic and others.