AI law firm LEXcelerate launches with aim to cut remortgaging timelines

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Specialist AI venture capital firm Yorkshire AI Labs has launched AI law firm LEXcelerate, with the aim of significantly accelerating the remortgaging process by automating the majority of administrative work.

LEXcelerate will be led by former DLA Piper UK LLP managing partner Paul Firth and is targeting a model in which just 15 minutes of fee earner time is required per transaction. Under the approach, remortgages would be completed in around two weeks – down from the typical six to eight. The firm plans to automate approximately 90% of administrative tasks and aims to give clients the ability to track their transaction in real time.

Firth stated that “conveyancing has become dominated by administration rather than judgement”. LEXcelerate argues that legal expertise should be focused where it adds value.

Firth added: “Technology now allows us to automate the repetitive elements and give clients clarity, speed and certainty. 

“That inevitably changes the structure of the workforce, but it also improves quality and consistency.”

The firm was co-founded by Mark Hewitt, who has more than 30 years’ experience helping organisations transform their operations through automation, AI and workflow optimisation across the manufacturing, legal, insurance and property sectors.

Hewitt said: “We have built LEXcelerate from scratch as a technology-first business. Traditional firms bolt technology onto paper-based processes. We redesigned the process itself. When you automate at that level, you do not just go faster. You operate differently.”

Meanwhile, founder of Yorkshire AI Labs, David Richards MBE, said: “Over the next decade, AI will remove entire layers of manual professional work. The question is not whether that happens. It is who builds the new model. In Sheffield, we have decided to build it.”