The legal tech industry is entering a consolidation phase, as early winners in the space begin acquiring smaller startups to strengthen their platforms and expand their capabilities. This trend is already underway, with major players like Harvey and Filevine making strategic acquisitions. Harvey, a $8 billion legal software company, recently acquired Hexus, a sales technology startup founded by former Google and Twitter engineers. Meanwhile, Filevine, a Utah-based legal tech leader, acquired Pincites, a four-person startup founded by sisters Sona and Mariam Sulakian, which developed an AI-powered Word plug-in for contract redlining. Pincites, launched in 2023, was born out of a simple but critical insight: lawyers negotiate contracts in Microsoft Word, yet most AI tools operated in isolation. The Sulakians built a seamless integration that quickly gained traction with clients like Redis, Glean, and Vercel. Backed by prominent investors including Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub, and Daniel Gross, now at Meta’s superintelligence team, Pincites attracted multiple acquisition offers. Despite initial hesitation, the sisters ultimately chose Filevine after the company became a customer and demonstrated strong internal adoption of their tool. Filevine, founded in 2014, now manages over 13 million active legal matters and serves law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies, including Kroger, Goodwill, the Utah Jazz, and five state attorneys general. With over $600 million in funding and a $3 billion valuation, the company was looking to enhance its contract management offerings. The acquisition of Pincites fills a key gap, enabling Filevine to deliver a unified experience—what CEO Ryan Anderson calls a “single pane of glass” for drafting, editing, context retrieval, and billing. For the Sulakians, the decision wasn’t driven by financial distress but by the reality of market maturity. They had strong ideas but limited capacity to scale. Joining a larger platform offered faster growth and broader impact. “We would have been fine no matter what,” Mariam Sulakian said. “We sold because the market is maturing.” This shift reflects a broader industry trend. After years of fragmented, single-purpose tools, legal teams are seeking simplicity and integration. Managing dozens of apps has become costly and inefficient, especially for smaller firms. As a result, there’s growing pressure to consolidate. Omar Haroun, CEO of legal tech company Eudia, predicts a “shakeout of point solutions,” where only platforms deeply embedded in daily workflows and tied to real outcomes will survive. This mirrors the evolution of mobile apps, where early innovation gave way to consolidation as users tired of app sprawl. Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. Google bought Waze. Now, legal tech is following a similar path. With over $4 billion invested in legal tech startups in 2023—nearly double the previous year—capital is concentrating in a few dominant players. Harvey, Filevine, and Clio alone attracted more than a third of all funding. Clio’s $1 billion acquisition of vLex underscores the push to become the central system for small and midsize law firms. As the market matures, the pressure to execute grows. The biggest platforms must deploy capital effectively, while smaller startups face a growing challenge to stand out. For many, the most viable path forward may be to sell before the window closes. The era of endless fragmentation is ending. The winners will be the ones that can unify, integrate, and deliver real value across the legal workflow.