Why Legal AI Only Works with a Platform-First Approach

When Collen Steffen, our Founder and CEO, was practicing M&A in 2020 and 2021, he saw the same pattern repeat itself across deal after deal:

• Pure chaos—hundreds of contracts, leases, diligence reports, and drafts flying back and forth over email.

• Disjointed workflows—every client team worked differently, so attorneys had to reinvent the wheel each time.

• Fragmented tech—closing checklists in Excel, documents in shared drives, communications in email threads, precedent buried in folders.

• Lost knowledge—even when the firm had seen similar issues before, nothing was structured in a way that could be reused.

The result? Brilliant attorneys spending hours chasing down documents, duplicating work, and managing chaos rather than strategy.

There had to be a better way.

Building the Platform

The answer wasn’t “just add AI.” AI without structure only makes the noise louder.

The real solution was platform-first architecture—a single system to organize matters, structure data, and integrate the tools firms already use.

That’s why Collen partnered with Salesforce to build Project Fortress:

• A matter management platform designed for law firms, corporate legal departments, and C-suites with lean teams.

• Native integrations with iManage, NetDocs, Microsoft 365, Slack, and Chatter—so work happens in one place, not across a dozen disconnected apps.

• A single source of truth where every matter looks the same, creating consistency across practice groups and client teams.

With Fortress, knowledge is created organically as work gets done. Drafts, diligence findings, precedent, and checklists aren’t lost—they’re structured and connected in the platform, ready for the next deal or case. Over time, the effect compounds. The system itself becomes a living knowledge base.

Adding Intelligence

Once the platform was in place, the next step was obvious: layer AI on top of structured workflows and firm data.

That’s where Fortress AI comes in. It isn’t a generic chatbot—it’s an agentic framework of AI agents that tap directly into the Fortress platform:

• Deal studies and market analysis powered by structured matter terms.

• Issues list generators that turn 100-page redlines into actionable reports with client-specific context.

• Precedent finders that surface firm knowledge instantly.

• Diligence hubs that convert raw data room uploads into charts, memos, and analysis.

• Litigation strategy hubs that break down opposing briefs, generate rebuttals, draft discovery, and evaluate case merits from a judge’s perspective.

Because the AI is grounded in the Fortress platform, hallucinations are reduced and outputs feel less like a generic model—and more like an associate who knows your firm’s playbook.

Why Platform + AI Matters

The lesson from Fortress’s journey is simple: AI only works if it’s plugged into your mainframe.

• One platform → less chaos, fewer silos, more proactive workflows.

• Structured data → consistent matters, reusable knowledge, real-time insights.

• Integrated AI → usable intelligence that looks and feels like your organization.

This is the future of legal ops: platform-first architecture + practice-aware AI.

At Fortress, that’s not just theory. It’s the system we’ve built—and the system that’s already powering hundreds of users across M&A, real estate, funds, venture capital, litigation, energy, IP, and beyond.