New Leitrim AI startup set to change how Ireland accesses legal advice

On Friday, Leitrim-based startup LegalMoov launched its first AI Legal tool “Donna,” the first of its kind in Ireland.

Joana Frivet, a lawyer specialising in war crimes and the founder and CEO of LegalMoov, officially launched the company’s flagship AI tool, Donna, on Friday. The platform is the first of its kind in Ireland: an AI trained exclusively on Irish law to help people understand their legal rights, compare costs, and connect with lawyers.

Originally from Mauritius, Frivet was teaching at the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston when she met an Irishman. A decade later, the couple moved to Ireland and, somewhat unexpectedly, chose to settle in rural Leitrim.

“The community really welcomed us here and I think I've really taken to the life in the countryside, to be honest,” she says. “Whenever I do have to travel—I was in Washington two months ago—I couldn't wait to come back home, really.”

Now working from that quiet Leitrim base, Frivet has launched the first AI platform of its kind in Ireland. LegalMoov allows users to ask legal questions and receive answers generated by an AI chatbot named Donna, trained specifically on Irish law. The tool can also suggest lawyers and offer price comparisons for people seeking legal advice.

READ MORE: UPDATE: Some items recovered following Ballinamore robbery of steel and shuttering yard

Building LegalMoov

The idea came a year ago when Joana was away and her husband needed legal information. He turned to ChatGPT.

“He proudly told me over the phone, ‘Oh, ChatGPT said that.’ And I said, okay, can you ask it what’s the law it’s quoting? And I used the law, and I went and I researched it, and it didn’t exist.”

It wasn’t an isolated incident, with many people now using general AI tools like ChatGPT or DeepSeek for legal queries—despite the fact that these chatbots aren’t designed to handle legal information.

“If you take ChatGPT, for instance, the problem with the inaccuracy in the information you get is that it cannot prioritise in the hierarchy of sources between an article of the Daily Mail or a law from the Parliament,” says Joana.

So she decided to build something better.

Without a tech background herself, Joana assembled a team of specialist developers with legal-tech experience from Ireland and abroad. One member, for example, is a legal automation expert who previously worked at the law firm responsible for developing systems to process Volkswagen emissions claims and later at Flightright, a leading EU company that helps air passengers claim compensation for delays or cancellations. There are seven members of the start-up, three in Ireland four abroad.

“We’ve built a data set that is made up of the laws of Ireland and the case law of Ireland. So that’s our only data set, and we update this every day,” says Joana.

LegalMoov is designed to explain legal concepts in plain English—without losing their meaning. “The law is public. Today, you could go and figure it out, but it’s way too complex for you to actually understand what you’re reading, which is why our AI is there to simplify the language without losing the meaning.”

Users can search a wide range of topics—tax, immigration, car accidents, child custody, inheritance law, and more—essentially anything legislated and regulated by the Irish government. While the tool doesn’t provide legal advice, it can match users with registered lawyers and includes a source check to show where its information comes from.

READ MORE: Dramatic evening as Fenagh & St Mary's secure Division 1 spot while north Leitrim duo are relegated

Connecting Users with Lawyers

“There’s 557,000 cases go to court every year in Ireland. And people choose their lawyers by three ways: By word of mouth, on Google, or on the Law Society website.”

But none of those options provide price transparency. LegalMoov gives users the ability to compare legal costs before they commit—something currently missing in Ireland.

The platform charges lawyers a subscription fee to appear on the site. In return, it brings potential clients directly to them, offering something especially valuable in a country where solicitors are not permitted to advertise.

“We’re offering a platform to lawyers to get new clients. And imagine this—if they’re paying a subscription fee to be on our platform. And even if they get one appointment... we’re not selling leads, we’re selling actual appointments.”

Starting Up in Leitrim

“I never even asked myself if I should set up in Dublin because things would be easier there. It just grew organically.”

But starting a global tech company in Leitrim was not without its challenges. Being based in a rural county—far from the tech community—meant it was difficult to find people with specialist knowledge willing to relocate.

“Then I really started to have a feeling like, oh, well, you know, maybe I should have thought about this better.”

It meant more travel and more effort to coordinate with the team online, but staying in Leitrim also meant they had the support of the Local Enterprise Office, which gave them a vital grant and connected them with experienced mentors. Joana also received mentoring support from Enterprise Ireland through a female startup programme.

Now that the AI is built, LegalMoov can expand quickly. The platform will go live in the UK by January, and the team plans to roll it out across 28 European countries by the end of 2026.

Scaling Up

As LegalMoov prepares for expansion, Joana remains grounded in the company’s core purpose: making legal information accessible to people when they need it.

“We really wish that you have a good day, that you don’t need us, right? And most days you’re going to wake up, the sun’s going to shine, you’re going to be a good person and meet good people and you’re not going to have any issue. But there will be one day in the year when you’re going to wake up and things are not going to be right … that’s when you need to know the law. And that’s when LegalMoov is going to be there for you.”