Artificial intelligence is reshaping work globally, even in the legal sector, from research and drafting to case management and billing. In Nigeria, where access to structured legal data is limited, the transition is slower and more complicated, with many law firms still relying on manual processes.
While general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT have found their way into legal workflows, their tendency to hallucinate, i.e., produce unverifiable citations, poses a serious risk in a profession where accuracy is non-negotiable. In courtrooms, every argument must be backed by real authorities, verifiable judgments, statutes, and precedents.
“In law, grounded facts are really important,” Abiola Ogodo, Co-founder of Modulaw AI, explains. “Recently, I heard of a law firm that got fined for hallucinated results from ChatGPT or Claude.”
This is where Modulaw AI emerged, positioning itself as a legal-focused AI platform designed not just to assist lawyers with research, but to run the operational backbone of their firms.
What Modulaw AI is and how it works
Modulaw AI is an AI-powered legal operations platform that combines legal research, case management, client collaboration, and workflow automation into a single system.
The startup initially launched with a research product but has since expanded into a broader suite that enables law firms to manage their entire workflow from a single interface.
At the centre of the platform is its legal research tool, which uses a conversational interface similar to other AI chat tools. However, instead of relying on general internet knowledge, Modulaw AI queries a database of approximately 10,000 Nigerian Appeal Court and Supreme Court judgments embedded into its system.
When a lawyer searches for a legal issue, the platform retrieves relevant cases, provides summaries, outlines legal issues, and attaches confidence scores to indicate the reliability of each result. This approach is designed to reduce the risk of hallucinated legal citations.
The system is built on a retriever-augmented generation (RAG) architecture, meaning the AI retrieves information from its legal database before generating responses.
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Beyond research, the platform functions as a case management system. Law firms can assign tasks to team members, track cases, manage legal documents, log billable hours, schedule meetings, generate invoices, and receive payments.
The product also includes workflow automation. For example, after a client fills out an intake form, the system can automatically organise case details, assign tasks, and notify relevant team members.
Instead of navigating multiple dashboards, lawyers can instruct the system through a chat interface to perform operational tasks, such as generating invoices or retrieving case updates.
The startup has released three parts of its product: research, case management, and client collaboration, and is currently developing a contract management suite.
Since launching commercially in August 2025, the company has onboarded 28 law firms. Before introducing paid plans, it had about 1,000 users on its free version.
Its primary market is Nigeria, although at least one US-based law firm is already using the platform.
The inspiration for the business
The idea for Modulaw AI began at home. The founder grew up watching his father, a lawyer, struggle with legal research. The process was manual, time-consuming, and often inefficient, involving physical books and extensive effort to locate relevant authorities.
“I saw my dad struggle with legal research, and it was a serious issue. Sometimes, we would have to run after him when he forgot his books and other materials,” Ogodo recalls
As AI tools became more accessible, he saw an opportunity to utilise the technology to solve a problem he had witnessed firsthand. His initial goal was to build a tool that could help his father conduct legal research faster and more efficiently.
That early product focused solely on research. But as development progressed, he realised that law firms faced broader operational inefficiencies beyond research alone. This insight led to expanding the product’s scope into a full legal operations platform.
Modulaw AI’s business model
Modulaw AI generates revenue through three primary channels: subscriptions, usage-based credit, and payment facilitation fees.
The startup operates a tiered subscription model with three plans: student, essential, and professional. These subscriptions are billed monthly or annually and include a default allocation of usage credits. Each plan also limits the number of team members, with higher-tier plans supporting larger teams.
Whenever users query the system, generate workflows, or automate tasks, credits are deducted from their balance. If firms exhaust their allocated credits, they would need to purchase additional credits.
The platform also earns revenue when law firms receive payments through its invoicing system. It charges ₦250 for invoices below ₦500,000, and ₦500 for invoices above ₦500,000.
Since launching its paid product in August 2025, the company says it has generated over ₦4 million in revenue. The startup is currently bootstrapped and has not raised external funding.
Competitive advantage
Nigeria’s legal tech ecosystem includes platforms such as Case Radar and NextCounsel, which focus on specific parts of legal workflows, such as research or case management.
Modulaw AI’s strategy is different. Rather than specialising in a single function, it combines multiple tools into one system. Law firms can conduct research, manage cases, collaborate with clients, automate workflows, and handle billing within the same platform.
The founder also points to its AI agent system as a differentiator. Instead of relying entirely on manual navigation, lawyers can instruct the AI to perform tasks in a conversational manner. This allows firms to automate operational processes without switching between multiple software tools.
The challenges of building legal tech in Nigeria
Despite early traction, building Modulaw AI has come with obstacles. One major challenge is access to legal data. Many Nigerian court judgments are not readily available online, forcing the company to source data through third parties.
Adoption has also been slow. Law firms are cautious about introducing new technology into their workflows, particularly AI-powered tools. The founder says product demos have been necessary to help firms understand and trust the platform.
“It took a lot of time for lawyers to trust the product. So, instead of just getting people to sign up and hoping that they use it, we began offering demos, and it has been working really well.”
Collaboration with legal publishers has also been difficult, limiting access to additional law reports. Funding presents another hurdle.
The startup founder says raising venture funding has been challenging, partly because legal tech is still an emerging sector in Nigeria. The company is also working toward System and Organisation Controls (SOC) compliance, which is costly but necessary for scaling globally.
The future outlook
Modulaw AI’s long-term ambition is to become a full legal operating system.
The next major product release will be its contract lifecycle management suite, designed to help firms manage contracts from creation to completion.
The company also plans to expand beyond Nigeria into other African markets and the United States.
Interestingly, adoption may not be limited to law firms. According to the founder, a shipping company is already using the platform for project management — an unexpected use case that suggests broader enterprise applications.
Ultimately, the startup’s goal is to build a system that handles every aspect of legal work, from research to operations. If successful, Modulaw AI could become part of a new wave of African startups using artificial intelligence to modernise traditionally conservative industries.
