NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Asset manager Blackstone

has invested $50 million in Norm Ai, a legal and

compliance technology startup that also said on Thursday that it

is launching an independent law firm that will offer "AI-native

legal services."

Lawyers at the new New York-based firm, Norm Law LLP, will use

Norm Ai's artificial intelligence technology to do legal work

for Blackstone and other financial services clients, said Norm

Ai founder and CEO John Nay.

The technology startup says it has created AI agents that

help corporate in-house legal and compliance teams automate

regulatory reviews.

Blackstone has backed the technology company in two prior

funding rounds alongside other investors, including Coatue and

Bain Capital. Norm Ai has raised more than $140 million since

its 2023 launch.

The asset manager will work closely with the new law firm

"to identify legal services that Blackstone procures that could

benefit from an AI-native approach," John Stecher, Blackstone's

chief technology officer, said in emailed comments.

Norm Law will be owned independently from Norm Ai, hewing to

professional rules that generally bar non-lawyers from owning

law firms or providing legal services. The firm will generate

revenue from its own clients and pay the AI company for use of

its technology, Nay said.

The AI company's customers were "using a lot of outside

counsel work that was adjacent to, but relevant to, the work we

were doing," so it made sense to be able to provide legal advice

through an affiliated entity, he said.

The law firm plans to hire senior associates and partners in

the coming months, Nay said. There are "just a handful" of

lawyers working there now, he said, declining to identify them.

An advisory committee that will guide the law firm on its

buildout includes two former U.S. Securities and Exchange

Commission officials, including former commissioner Troy Paredes

and former general counsel Dan Berkovitz. Ben Lawsky, former

superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services,

is also on the committee alongside Tom Glocer, a former chief

executive of Reuters' parent company Thomson Reuters.

Other legal technology companies have opened affiliated law

firms. Eudia, a venture capital-backed startup that makes an

AI-powered platform for corporate legal teams, in September

launched what it called an "AI-augmented" law firm subsidiary in

Arizona under loosened ownership rules in the state.

(Reporting by Sara Merken in New York)