Leon Johnson, a former partner at Goodwin and Kirkland & Ellis, is joining Zurich-based Omnilex as managing partner to lead its US business. He previously helped build Kirkland’s Salt Lake City office to more than 100 lawyers and handled transactional work at Goodwin. Johnson told Artificial Lawyer he no longer believes the traditional Big Law pyramid model has a long-term future and wants to build an alternative in the United States, with the UK mentioned as a possible future market.

Omnilex began in Switzerland as a legal technology platform for lawyers, then moved into legal services while retaining its AI platform. The firm says its AI agents use each client’s contracts, deals and past matters to flag problems and opportunities; in-house legal teams can also use the platform for research and drafting. The US operation is structured as a management services organization (MSO), linking a technology company and a regulated law firm through a licensing agreement. Johnson said a small US team is already in place and will grow.

Omnilex’s founders are CEO Marco Henri, COO Ismael Seck and CTO Etienne Salimbeni. The company raised a $4.5 million seed round in November 2025 led by Founderful, with Plug and Play, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company and Angel Invest also participating. It has about 20 people and serves approximately 100 legal teams, including Bayer, Randstad, Deloitte, Swatch and BDO. Its focus includes financial and insurance businesses, private equity and venture capital clients.

Johnson said he left Goodwin after seeing AI’s potential for clients and viewing it as at odds with Big Law’s billable-hour model and pyramid staffing structure. He said clients want legal outcomes, such as contract reviews, venture financings or M&A transactions, at a set price rather than billed hours. In his view, an AI-native firm can provide those outcomes at a fixed price, with lawyers responsible for reviewing the work and its accuracy.

Omnilex plans to begin with venture financings, startup governance and commercial contracts, areas aligned with Johnson’s previous corporate law work, which included private equity M&A, general corporate M&A, venture and growth equity financings, and startup representation. Johnson said a venture financing term sheet can take 24 to 48 hours to become draft documents at a traditional firm, passing from a junior associate to a mid-level lawyer and then a partner, with billable hours accumulating. At Omnilex, he said, AI can draft the documents in two minutes; a senior lawyer must still review and approve them. He said the firm has procedures for lawyer review under California ethics rules, and described its expected turnaround as a couple of hours with senior review and without several rounds of revisions.

Asked whether AI-native firms can handle large M&A deals, Johnson said major transactions require coordinating many specialists. He said an antitrust specialist may need 20 to 30 M&A matters at a time to stay busy and engaged. The available interview transcript ends while he is explaining the challenge for AI-native firms, so it gives no complete answer about how far Omnilex expects to move up the complexity curve.

Leon Johnson, a former partner at Goodwin and Kirkland & Ellis, is joining Zurich-based Omnilex as managing partner to lead its US business. He previously helped build Kirkland’s Salt Lake City office to more than 100 lawyers and handled transactional work at Goodwin. Johnson told Artificial Lawyer he no longer believes the traditional Big Law pyramid model has a long-term future and wants to build an alternative in the United States, with the UK mentioned as a possible future market.

Omnilex began in Switzerland as a legal technology platform for lawyers, then moved into legal services while retaining its AI platform. The firm says its AI agents use each client’s contracts, deals and past matters to flag problems and opportunities; in-house legal teams can also use the platform for research and drafting. The US operation is structured as a management services organization (MSO), linking a technology company and a regulated law firm through a licensing agreement. Johnson said a small US team is already in place and will grow.

Omnilex’s founders are CEO Marco Henri, COO Ismael Seck and CTO Etienne Salimbeni. The company raised a $4.5 million seed round in November 2025 led by Founderful, with Plug and Play, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company and Angel Invest also participating. It has about 20 people and serves approximately 100 legal teams, including Bayer, Randstad, Deloitte, Swatch and BDO. Its focus includes financial and insurance businesses, private equity and venture capital clients.

Johnson said he left Goodwin after seeing AI’s potential for clients and viewing it as at odds with Big Law’s billable-hour model and pyramid staffing structure. He said clients want legal outcomes, such as contract reviews, venture financings or M&A transactions, at a set price rather than billed hours. In his view, an AI-native firm can provide those outcomes at a fixed price, with lawyers responsible for reviewing the work and its accuracy.

Omnilex plans to begin with venture financings, startup governance and commercial contracts, areas aligned with Johnson’s previous corporate law work, which included private equity M&A, general corporate M&A, venture and growth equity financings, and startup representation. Johnson said a venture financing term sheet can take 24 to 48 hours to become draft documents at a traditional firm, passing from a junior associate to a mid-level lawyer and then a partner, with billable hours accumulating. At Omnilex, he said, AI can draft the documents in two minutes; a senior lawyer must still review and approve them. He said the firm has procedures for lawyer review under California ethics rules, and described its expected turnaround as a couple of hours with senior review and without several rounds of revisions.

Asked whether AI-native firms can handle large M&A deals, Johnson said major transactions require coordinating many specialists. He said an antitrust specialist may need 20 to 30 M&A matters at a time to stay busy and engaged. The available interview transcript ends while he is explaining the challenge for AI-native firms, so it gives no complete answer about how far Omnilex expects to move up the complexity curve.