By Aku Nikkola & Antti Innanen, Legit AI Oy. Press release, published 20 May 2026.
A Finnish company takes on the Americans: an “AI law firm” released as open source
Helsinki-based Legit (https://www.wearelegit.ai/) today released Lavern, an open-source legal AI system. Lavern comprises 67 specialist agents. The AI agents talk to each other, challenge one another, draft documents, check the results, and collaborate in the same way a modern law firm does.
The system is the first of its kind in the world.
Lavern has been released as open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, which means companies and individuals are free to use it, modify it, commercialise it, or build new business on top of it.
The best-known example of an open-source solution is the Linux operating system, released by Finland’s Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux today runs a large share of the world’s servers, Android phones, and supercomputers. Its openness has made it one of the most significant systems in the history of technology.
A new direction for law
Anthropic recently released “Claude for Legal,” with which the world’s most closely watched AI company announced itself directly into the legal market. The release drew wide attention across the profession.
According to Innanen, Lavern is built from a different starting point. Instead of a single AI assistant, Lavern’s architecture resembles a modern law firm. Some agents specialise in legal analysis. Others focus on plain language, negotiation strategy, or risk assessment.
Innanen says Lavern took its inspiration from the work lawyers actually do.
He knows the legal field from the inside. He is one of the founders of the law firm Dottir and served as its CEO for five years before founding, in 2020, a new company focused on AI and legal service design. From May 2026 he also serves as Professor of Practice at the Faculty of Law at the University of Turku, leading the development of an AI laboratory being established there.
Why is Legit releasing Lavern for free?
According to Innanen, the legal field is entering an era of open knowledge, in which keeping everything to yourself is not worth it.
Innanen also sees open source as a competitive advantage.
Like Linux, Lavern is not a standalone tool but a foundation others can build on. Innanen hopes others will take the code, adapt it to their own needs, and build new and better systems on top of it.
The full source code is now available at github.com/AnttiHero/lavern. More information about the system is at www.lavern.ai.
About Legit AI Oy
Legit AI Oy is a Helsinki-based company that builds custom AI tools for businesses. Legit specialises in solutions for the legal sector. The company was founded by Antti Innanen and Aku Nikkola.
Media contacts
Antti Innanen
+358 45 603 8602
