Norton Rose’s Feud Heats Up With Ex-Partners’ Legal Tech Outfit

Norton Rose Fulbright is fighting its former partners’ legal tech company in two separate lawsuits over a failed plan to sell software to the firm’s clients.

NMBL Technologies sued Norton Rose on Aug. 8 in Chicago, seeking $15 million in damages. The company, whose founders include former Norton Rose partners Daniel Farris and Christopher Hines, alleges the firm balked on an agreement to promote Proxy, a workflow management platform for in-house legal departments.

The complaint came nearly two months after Norton Rose sued NMBL in Houston, claiming the software’s “poor market image and lack of customer appeal” was the root of the problems in the relationship. NMBL also refused to release Norton Rose client data for weeks after the firm’s agreement with the company expired at the end of last year, according to the complaint.

The lawsuits shine a light on the internal dynamics at play as the massive law firm sought to gain a foothold in the Midwest and enhance its legal tech capabilities. Jeff Cody, Norton Rose’s US Managing Partner, brought in NMBL to try to make good on his pitch to emphasize “innovation, modernization, technology adoption,” which the company alleges had sputtered after he gained the leadership role.

NMBL was founded in 2018 with a team that included Farris and Hines, who were working as partners at Fox Rothschild at the time. The pair later moved to K&L Gates before joining Norton Rose in April 2022 to help launch its Chicago office.

“Cody communicated to Farris that he saw a NMBL-NRF deal for Proxy” and the establishment of “an ‘innovation hub’ office in Chicago, led by technology-focused attorneys” as “the first tangible step towards Cody’s goal of modernizing NRF’s US operations and practices,” the company said in the complaint.

Norton Rose agreed to promote Proxy when it brought over Farris and Hines, according to the complaint. Farris in return allegedly agreed to take $700,000 less in compensation. NMBL claims Norton Rose didn’t follow through on its pledge to push the platform to its global clientele, which was supposed to including funding a subsidiary focused on legal tech. That company, LX Studio, was a “sham entity,” according to NMBL.

Norton Rose says clients simply were not interested in Proxy.

An “e-mail campaign for a free trial of Proxy was a failure,” the firm said in the Houston lawsuit. “Not a single NRFUS client reached out in response to the campaign to sign up for a free trial.”

Farris left in May for Foley & Lardner, where he co-leads the firm’s data center and digital infrastructure team. Hines, who also left, continues his patent and technology law practice, according to the NMBL website.

The cases are NMBL Technologies, Inc. v. Norton Rose Fullbright US LLP, Ill. Cir. Ct., No. 2025L010079, 8/8/25 and Norton Rose Fullbright US LLP v. NMBL Technologies Inc., Tex. Dist. Ct., No,. 2025-41615, 6/13/25