Norm Law, an AI native law firm serving global institutional clients, has appointed longtime Sidley Austin leader Mike Schmidtberger as Chairman, Partner, and Head of its Investment Funds and Regulatory practice, a move the firm framed as a marker of how it intends to combine senior legal judgment with an integrated AI platform and engineering-driven workflows.
Schmidtberger joins after 35 years at Sidley Austin, where he previously co-led the investment funds practice and served as managing partner of the New York office. From 2018 through April 2025, he was Chair of Sidley’s Executive Committee, a period during which the firm said Sidley doubled annual revenue from about $2 billion to $4 billion. At Norm Law, he is expected to work closely with institutional clients, as well as legal engineers and AI engineers, while helping shape long-term strategy.
The firm also added two partners with leadership roles across core private capital practices. David Sorin was named Partner and Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital, bringing a career spanning venture financings, private equity, and M&A. Sorin previously served as a partner at WilmerHale, founded SorinRand and later merged it into McCarter and English in 2014, where he became managing partner of the East Brunswick office and head of the VC and early stage practice. In 2022, he and his team moved to Brown Rudnick, where he served as global co-chair of the technology group, before departing last year to focus on new client service models shaped by AI and related technologies, a path he said led him to Norm Law.
Mike Rupe was named Partner and Head of Private Credit and Business Development, with responsibility for expanding relationships with asset managers and alternative investment platforms. Rupe brings more than 25 years advising private credit funds, financial institutions, and alternative capital providers in complex transactions and special situations. He previously led the financial restructuring practice at King and Spalding, where he built and scaled a global team and served as the primary legal relationship partner for major private credit platforms. In 2022, he joined Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft to lead its special situations practice before moving to Norm Law.
Norm Law positioned the leadership hires in the context of Norm Ai’s broader push to build AI-enabled legal capabilities. The firm noted that the additions follow Blackstone’s recent $50 million investment in Norm Ai to support an initiative aimed at building Legal AGI. Norm Law describes its operating model as “AI native,” centered on “Legal Engineering,” which it says Norm Ai pioneered as a discipline in which lawyers develop legal AI agents that can help deliver faster and more consistent work product for institutional clients.
KEY QUOTES
“For the past decade, I’ve been a major believer in knowledge management, data, and AI as drivers of improving legal services. It became clear recently that in order for AI to truly add value, AI systems would need to align more closely with the context of the client and the granular workflows of the attorneys,” said Schmidtberger. “When I saw Norm Law’s approach of seamlessly integrating Norm Ai’s AI agent platform, legal engineers, AI engineers, and attorneys, I knew this was the ideal approach and incredibly unique.”
Mike Schmidtberger, Chairman, Partner, and Head of Investment Funds and Regulatory, Norm Law
“These appointments mark a defining moment for Norm Law. Schmidtberger, Sorin, and Rupe bring distinguished senior leadership to the firm. Norm Law is built from the ground up combining a powerful AI platform, the practice of legal engineering that we pioneered, and seasoned expert legal judgment. This is a fundamentally better legal services model for clients, built from first principles in the age of AI.”
John Nay, Founder and CEO, Norm Ai
