Lanterns — AI advisory for law firms

Lanterns provides professional advisory services to firms preparing for the future ahead.

We sit down with firms, show them what the frontier looks like, and help them build for what comes next.

Lanterns.
scroll

What we do

Two people in conversation, the city skyline beyond
Our mission

To help firms prepare for the future ahead.

We work with law firms and professional services groups at the moment when the frontier of AI starts to reshape how their work gets done.

Our role is to make sense of what's changing, where it lands inside your practice, and what to do about it.

Hands at work on a laptop in warm light
Our approach

The work is technical. The welcome is not.

Warm, considered, and completely confidential — a room with the lamps on.

A grand, warm reading room lined with books
Our services

Bespoke. Quietly delivered.

Bespoke work for a single firm — briefings, demonstrations, and working sessions, all completely confidential.

Our team

Three co-founders. Decades inside the work.

Conner Brown, Co-founder of Lanterns
Conner Brown
Stanford Law logoStanford Law

Former Cravath and Sidley Austin attorney, now Managing Director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

Zack Shapiro, Co-founder of Lanterns
Zack Shapiro
Yale Law logoYale Law

Former Davis Polk attorney; Managing Partner of Rains LLP and author of “The Claude-Native Law Firm.”

Michael Showalter, Co-founder of Lanterns
Michael Showalter
Yale Law logoYale Law

Former Gibson Dunn lawyer and principal of Showalter PLLC; author of the SEC v. Jarkesy amicus.

Who we've briefed

Briefings and working sessions delivered to

  • The White House
  • The Treasury Department
  • The Department of War
  • The Department of Commerce
  • The Senate Banking Committee
  • The Senate Commerce Committee
  • The House Select Committee on the CCP
  • The U.S. Intelligence Community
  • The United Nations
  • The House of Lords
  • Multiple AmLaw 100 firms

Where confidentiality requires, firms are listed as anonymized descriptors.

Insights

Notes from the frontier.

EssayFebruary 2026

The Claude-Native Law Firm

How I actually practice law with AI in 2026.

The night before a client's acquisition was set to close, the buyer's counsel sent a letter demanding that several key deal terms be reopened.

By Zack Shapiro

Free, confidential, no commitment.

Contact us to learn more