OpenAI launches Astra for Law with legal search and firm controls

OpenAI has introduced Astra for Law, a version of GPT-6 Astra configured for professional legal work and for legal technology companies building on OpenAI models.

The product pairs GPT-6 Astra with custom instructions for legal analysis and writing, plus a legal search index covering U.S. case law, statutes, regulations, court rules and administrative decisions across more than 230 million URLs. OpenAI says work with Free Law Project brings CourtListener’s coverage of more than 99.9% of published U.S. precedential case law into the research experience.

OpenAI says the full Astra for Law setup passed 54.0% of questions on Vals AI’s Legal Research Bench private validation set, compared with 38.7% for GPT-6 Astra using web search alone at the same highest reasoning effort. The company also claims better case retrieval and more relevant passages from court opinions.

The rollout is aimed at law firms that need both capability and governance. Astra for Law will initially be available to selected firms through Trusted Access in ChatGPT and Codex, with API access planned under the model name gpt-6-astra-law. Eligible firms get Zero Data Retention on the API, and ChatGPT Enterprise usage is excluded from human review by default.

OpenAI is also launching legal plugins and firm workflows around the model, including integrations with tools such as Relativity, Clio and iManage. The broader signal is that frontier labs are moving from general assistants into regulated professional verticals where search, permissions and auditability matter as much as model quality.