Fried Frank
Build and wall-off. Proprietary, internally-built AI for its asset management / private equity funds practice rather than an off-the-shelf platform.
- FundAssist
Proprietary, internally-built platform (running on OpenAI models) for the firm's PE funds practice. Generates first drafts of long-form fund-formation documents at the click of a button, lets users query across fund documents and answer in a client's preferred language, and includes client-specific precedent libraries, search and drafting tools. Integrates with the firm's DMS; a multi-agent drafting tool is in testing. ~2 years in development; announced May 2026.
- ·Second US elite firm in a single fortnight (after Kirkland & Ellis) to choose build-and-wall-off over buying a third-party platform.
- ·Focused on a single high-value, document-heavy practice (PE fund formation / asset management) rather than a firm-wide horizontal rollout.
A narrower, practice-specific cousin of the Kirkland build: rather than a $500m firm-wide platform, a proprietary tool aimed squarely at the fund-formation drafting workflow. Together the two May 2026 announcements turn 'build your own' from a Kirkland outlier into an emerging pattern among US elite firms.