Former Legora founders raise 2.4 million dollars for AI native real estate law firm Athena
Former Legora executives Cem Ucan and Kieran John Keenan have raised 2.4 million dollars in pre seed funding for Athena, an AI native law firm focused on commercial real estate. The round was led by a16z Speedrun, as the pair join a growing number of new legal market entrants seeking to combine legal services with proprietary artificial intelligence systems.
Athena says its AI agents work alongside experienced transactional lawyers at its affiliated law firm to produce complex deal documents in hours and at lower cost than traditional methods. The firm is targeting commercial real estate investors and other market participants for whom speed can materially affect transactions, particularly where clients complete multiple acquisitions each year and need documents turned around quickly.
Ucan said the business has been designed from the outset so that AI and lawyers operate together, with experienced attorneys focusing on judgement and negotiation while the technology handles much of the drafting and review work. He said clients interact with Athena in a way that resembles a traditional law firm, sending documents to their lawyer and receiving legal work back, while the underlying system manages the heavier processing behind the scenes.
The firm said its affiliated law practice advises on commercial real estate acquisitions, sales and financing, including purchase agreements, due diligence, loan documents and closings. When a new agreement arrives, Athena’s agents compare it with the deal terms, identify inconsistencies, prepare redlines and draft client communications. The system also draws on prior transactions to reflect client negotiating preferences, while lawyers review the output, make legal decisions and approve work before it is sent to the client.
Athena said early results include a purchase agreement turned around in under 48 hours on one transaction, which it described as the fastest turnaround the client had experienced. The firm also said attorney corrections and client preferences are fed back into the system so that future matters require less manual review. In its first six weeks, Athena said it reduced attorney review time by more than 70 per cent.
Keenan, who is co founder and chief technology officer, said the key measure of progress is how quickly a lawyer can review an AI agent’s work and stand behind it with confidence. He said a draft produced in minutes can still leave a lawyer with hours of work, and that reducing the time needed for review is central to delivering faster legal services while maintaining the quality clients expect from major law firms.
The launch reflects a wider trend in the legal market towards AI enabled operating models that seek to change not only drafting and diligence, but also pricing and workflow. For law firms and in house teams, the development is likely to add to scrutiny of fixed fee arrangements, turnaround times and the extent to which efficiency gains from legal technology are passed through to clients rather than absorbed within hourly billing structures.