Harvey opens Sydney office to expand AI legal services in Asia-Pacific
Harvey, an artificial intelligence company focused on legal and professional services, has opened its first Asia-Pacific office in Sydney as it aims to expand its presence in the region.
The Sydney office will allow Harvey to serve its growing base of Australian customers more closely and act as a base for further expansion into Asia-Pacific markets. The move will also see local hiring efforts, with 15 new staff roles across sales, customer success, and operations targeted by the end of the year, and further recruitment planned for 2026.
Harvey's AI platform is designed specifically for the legal and professional services sectors. The company says it streamlines tasks such as contract analysis, due diligence, compliance, and litigation, embedding expertise in Australian legal frameworks. By using a cascading series of large language models and specialised reasoning tools, Harvey provides what it describes as expert-level analysis on complex legal issues at a faster pace.
According to the company, lawyers using Harvey save about 25-30 hours per month on average, with the most frequent users reporting up to 88 hours saved per month. A global year-long study cited by Harvey found that lawyers using the AI platform saved 15-30 minutes on each legal query.
Local leadership
Ashleigh Whittaker, who previously worked with Harvey in San Francisco and has a background in legal practice, has been appointed as the Country Manager for Australia. Whittaker is returning to Australia from the United States to lead the local operations and regional growth plans.
"Harvey helps law firms transform the way they work and enterprise teams drive tangible productivity outcomes, and we feel fortunate that so many Australian law firms already trust Harvey to deliver secure enterprise AI. Our goal is to help lawyers spend less time on repetitive work and more time on high‐impact, strategic matters.
Whittaker also noted, "With our local hub now open and a growing team, we're ready to capitalise on the strong momentum created by our flagship customers here. In particular, we see significant opportunities for in-house teams and firms alike to deliver greater business value through AI."
Australian market focus
Harvey already counts many of Australia's leading law firms among its customers, including King & Wood Mallesons, Ashurst, Gilbert + Tobin, Clayton Utz, A&O Shearman, and Arnold Bloch Leibler. The company recently rolled out a data processing solution allowing its customers in Australia to store and manage data entirely within national borders, designed to address local privacy and regulatory demands.
This week, Clayton Utz, one of Australia's most prominent law firms, announced a new partnership with Harvey in Australia, adding to the company's established clientele.
Winston Weinberg, Co‐founder and Chief Executive Officer of Harvey, commented on the expansion into Australia:
"Australia is one of the most forward‐thinking legal markets in the world, and our customers here have been incredibly innovative in proving what's possible with AI. We're making a long term commitment to Australia that will allow us to provide customers with on‐the‐ground support and co-develop new solutions together to transform the legal industry."
Global backing and security
Harvey is supported by investors such as Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, GV, OpenAI Startup Fund, and Coatue. The platform is used by over 500 corporate clients across more than 54 countries. The company's position on privacy and security is central, as it claims its AI models are not trained on customer data, that data is not accessible to human reviewers, and all data is protected by a contractual security guarantee. The local office aims to allow more close collaboration with Australian partners to develop jurisdiction-specific innovations and respond more quickly to market needs.
