Mass tort attorney Mikal Watts is creating proprietary AI with the goal of partnering with private equity to sell it to personal injury firms. Watts said he has been in conversations with Wall Street investors acquiring back-office functions of personal injury firms through management service organizations, or MSOs. After the investors group firms together and streamline processes, his goal is to "plug in Watts AI." The plan shows how a high-profile trial attorney is jumping into the AI transformation across the legal industry and how MSOs can be utilized to bring technology to law firms. Separately, Burford Capital CEO Christopher Bogart said on the company’s second quarter earnings call that after the YPF court loss earlier this year, it streamlined functions and encouraged retirements to save about $10 million in operating expenses. It also won’t declare an interim dividend this year. In March, an appeals court reversed a ruling that ordered Argentina to pay $16.1 billion to investors. Bogart noted some case wins, including an arbitration result in a mining case against Cameroon that could bring the firm $200 million. The Financial Times reported that big law firms Paul Weiss, Quinn Emanuel and Proskauer have had conversations with private equity groups and bankers about taking outside capital through MSOs. Brown Rudnick announced it is poaching 34 lawyers from HSF Kramer’s intellectual property practice group.