The intersection of legal practice and artificial intelligence has long been plagued by a subtle but significant issue: the 'domain gap.' Too often, software developers build tools for legal professionals without having deep, daily experience in the actual stresses and repetitive workflows that define a lawyer's life. Orbital, a firm specializing in legal and property technology, is attempting to bridge this divide in a bold and unconventional way. By launching their own residential real estate law firm, named Farringdon, the company is effectively turning itself into its own primary user. This is not merely an expansion into a new market; it is a strategy to ensure their software is stress-tested in a high-stakes, real-world environment before it ever reaches their external clients.

This structural move represents a core component of what is being called the 'NewMod' approach—a hybrid business model that treats the software provider and the service provider as a singular, recursive entity. Rather than building a product in a vacuum and hoping it fits the market, Orbital is creating the market itself. By embedding human lawyers alongside 'Conveyancing Engineers'—specialists tasked with capturing workflow bottlenecks and mapping them into the code—the team can iterate on their products with unprecedented speed. Every time an AI agent helps a lawyer draft a deed or verify a property title at Farringdon, that specific interaction provides data that can be used to refine the underlying system for every other client.

For students of AI strategy, this is a fascinating study in vertical integration. Typically, software companies act as arms-length suppliers to law firms. They provide the tools and walk away. However, by taking on the regulatory and operational burdens of running a law firm, Orbital gains a critical asset: a clean, high-fidelity feedback loop. This loop allows the company to see exactly where their AI struggles—perhaps in complex document reconciliation or in specific, nuanced communication tasks—and adjust their logic models immediately. It transforms the development cycle from a slow, feedback-dependent external process into an internal, continuous improvement loop.

This approach raises interesting questions about the future of professional services, particularly in fields that are currently high-touch and manual, like law, accounting, or architecture. If this model proves successful, we may see more 'tech-enabled services' rather than pure software companies. In this world, the distinction between 'the company building the tool' and 'the company doing the work' begins to blur. This shift could lead to more robust, tailored AI solutions, as the developers are forced to eat their own cooking, so to speak, every single day.

Ultimately, the launch of Farringdon serves as a proof-of-concept for how specialized AI can be effectively deployed. By controlling the entire stack—from the legal workflows at the front end to the software infrastructure at the back end—Orbital is positioned to create a competitive moat that purely software-based competitors may find difficult to replicate. It turns the practice of law into a data-gathering exercise, effectively using the professional services industry as a laboratory for advanced automation. For the wider legal sector, this is a signal that the era of 'AI as a separate tool' is ending; the future belongs to those who embed intelligence directly into the service layer.

The intersection of legal practice and artificial intelligence has long been plagued by a subtle but significant issue: the 'domain gap.' Too often, software developers build tools for legal professionals without having deep, daily experience in the actual stresses and repetitive workflows that define a lawyer's life. Orbital, a firm specializing in legal and property technology, is attempting to bridge this divide in a bold and unconventional way. By launching their own residential real estate law firm, named Farringdon, the company is effectively turning itself into its own primary user. This is not merely an expansion into a new market; it is a strategy to ensure their software is stress-tested in a high-stakes, real-world environment before it ever reaches their external clients.

This structural move represents a core component of what is being called the 'NewMod' approach—a hybrid business model that treats the software provider and the service provider as a singular, recursive entity. Rather than building a product in a vacuum and hoping it fits the market, Orbital is creating the market itself. By embedding human lawyers alongside 'Conveyancing Engineers'—specialists tasked with capturing workflow bottlenecks and mapping them into the code—the team can iterate on their products with unprecedented speed. Every time an AI agent helps a lawyer draft a deed or verify a property title at Farringdon, that specific interaction provides data that can be used to refine the underlying system for every other client.

For students of AI strategy, this is a fascinating study in vertical integration. Typically, software companies act as arms-length suppliers to law firms. They provide the tools and walk away. However, by taking on the regulatory and operational burdens of running a law firm, Orbital gains a critical asset: a clean, high-fidelity feedback loop. This loop allows the company to see exactly where their AI struggles—perhaps in complex document reconciliation or in specific, nuanced communication tasks—and adjust their logic models immediately. It transforms the development cycle from a slow, feedback-dependent external process into an internal, continuous improvement loop.

This approach raises interesting questions about the future of professional services, particularly in fields that are currently high-touch and manual, like law, accounting, or architecture. If this model proves successful, we may see more 'tech-enabled services' rather than pure software companies. In this world, the distinction between 'the company building the tool' and 'the company doing the work' begins to blur. This shift could lead to more robust, tailored AI solutions, as the developers are forced to eat their own cooking, so to speak, every single day.

Ultimately, the launch of Farringdon serves as a proof-of-concept for how specialized AI can be effectively deployed. By controlling the entire stack—from the legal workflows at the front end to the software infrastructure at the back end—Orbital is positioned to create a competitive moat that purely software-based competitors may find difficult to replicate. It turns the practice of law into a data-gathering exercise, effectively using the professional services industry as a laboratory for advanced automation. For the wider legal sector, this is a signal that the era of 'AI as a separate tool' is ending; the future belongs to those who embed intelligence directly into the service layer.