Founder Stories: How LegalMike Combines Law with AI

“The legal world is not known for rapid innovation adoption. Some tools have looked the same for twenty years,” tells Frank te Biesebeek, co-founder of Legal Mike. Nevertheless, in a short time, he was able to train more than 3,000 lawyers, including 1,500 lawyers, in the safe and effective use of AI. Now, with his team, he and his team are on the verge of another milestone: launching a revolutionary research tool for legal professionals. “We developed ChatGPT for legal.”

The legal domain meets AI

At the end of 2022, shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, Frank te Biesebeek immediately saw the enormous impact that generative AI could have on the legal world. “Lawyers mainly work with text in Word and Outlook. Language models do nothing more than transform and analyse texts. That match is perfect”, he explains.

At the same time, he discovered a problem: “Lawyers didn't get anything useful out of AI tools in their own practice. They were unable to give the correct instructions or write “prompts.” And then, of course, there's the GDPR and professional secrecy.”

As a communication trainer who had always worked at the cutting edge of IT and business, Frank saw the opportunity to bridge these worlds. Together with his partners Martijn Doornbos, former lawyer at law firm De Brauw (one of the largest Dutch firms). And Maik Bokx As a seasoned developer leading product development, he first started training legal professionals to use AI safely and effectively.

“We complement each other perfectly,” says Frank. “Martijn brings in-depth legal expertise, Maik takes care of the technical realization and I focus on communication and sales”

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“We have developed a legal brain that is able to provide advice to any legal question or case using the most relevant and current sources of law”

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From trainer to tech entrepreneur

The training sessions provided the team with valuable insights into what lawyers really needed. “We saw that existing legal tools are expensive and that the current AI models are not suitable for specific legal research.”

The idea for LegalMike was born: an AI assistant specifically designed for the legal domain. “We have developed a legal brain that is able to provide advice to any legal question or case using the most relevant and current sources of law”, says Frank.

Developing this tool has not been an easy task. “The legal investigation is incredibly complex. You're looking through millions of sources in various formats, which you still need to interpret. In addition, you are dealing with outdated and new legislation. Most legal tech start-ups don't venture into that.”

Developing together with the market

One reason for LegalMike's success is the close cooperation with the target group. “We developed our product together with the market”, Frank insists. “It wasn't built from the technology, but from the perspective of the lawyer. How does the lawyer want to see it? This makes LegalMike so intuitive that, like Netflix, for example, it can be used immediately.”

This approach has paid off. After more than two years of development, LegalMike went live in April 2025, with a waiting list of thousands of potential customers. The clientele is diverse: from one-man offices to Zuidas lawyers and from municipal lawyers to legal training institutions. “It's really broad actually. Lawyers who sign up work everywhere.”

Bootstrapping in the Northern Netherlands

What is remarkable about LegalMike's story is that the company is fully funded with its own funds. “We bootstrapped everything ourselves, with our own capital. No external funding has been added”, says Frank proudly.

The northern Dutch roots play a modest but important role here.

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“We notice that people from the region are proud of us. But at the end of the day, it's not about where you're from, it's about speaking the language of lawyers.”

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Their location in the north sometimes has surprised reactions. “We actually drive all over the country. Then they sometimes ask: are you going back to Groningen? What an end. But I like it, I love this region. I grew up here. And my partners live in the same neighborhood near Groningen as me. So short lines of communication. And we can use the Onlanden to meet.”

The transformation of a sector

An important feature of LegalMike is the traceability of the information. “All the sources that we use to arrive at the answer can always be traced back. You can always see how the answer came about. The lawyer always wants to be able to return to the source.”

This distinguishes LegalMike from general AI tools such as ChatGPT. “With us, you can use footnotes to see where which source can be found. And at the end, once you've done that research, LegalMike automatically generates a letter or memo for your client in the style you'd like.”

Personal growth as an entrepreneur

For Frank, the creation of LegalMike meant a major personal transformation. As a former learning and development specialist at DUO, he finally entered entrepreneurship in 2023. “I've always been creative and entrepreneurial, and also a free spirit. Someone who likes to color life in their own way.”

The rise of generative AI was the catalyst he needed. “When this technology was launched, I really thought to myself: this is going to be so big. I felt a kind of urge to get started with this.”

Now, after two intensive years, Frank feels an enormous satisfaction. “It feels a bit like you're surfing. And that wave, it's only getting bigger. Every month you think: gosh, what a wave. But here comes the next one again.”

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“I think LegalMike will be the number one legal research tool in the Netherlands in 2027.”

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LegalMike's future

Frank's ambitions for the future are clear: “I think LegalMike will be the number one legal research tool in the Netherlands in 2027. Most lawyers, lawyers and even judges and legal professionals will use LegalMike.”

“The team has now grown to fifteen employees, plus a large group of trainers who provide around 30 to 35 training courses per month throughout the country. These training courses are crucial to allay lawyers' cold feet about AI.”

Although LegalMike is currently focusing on Dutch and European law, international expansion is on the horizon. But Frank stays sober: “We focus primarily on the Dutch market. First, we want to become champions here.”

Advice for starting entrepreneurs

Frank's advice comes from the heart: “I wouldn't become an entrepreneur just because I became an entrepreneur. My advice would be: if you come across something that you feel in your stomach 'it's starting to itch now', start from that topic.”

He emphasises the importance of passion in entrepreneurship: “Doing business takes a lot of energy. That energy can only be muster if you are enthusiastic and when you really focus on the subject. You have to be flexible because no two days are the same. And you're going through a lot of setbacks. That's only possible if you try a different tack.”

With LegalMike, Frank has found just that: a company that comes from genuine passion and a clear mission: making law more accessible to every legal professional. This is how a Groningen entrepreneur with vision and perseverance transforms an ancient profession.

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Interview & tekst by Lars Meijer