Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Rachel Reeves risks hurting small business owners and damaging investor confidence in the UK if she goes ahead with proposals to increase taxes on dividends in this month’s Budget, wealth managers and bankers have warned.
The chancellor is considering raising dividend taxes on November 26, in a move that the Resolution Foundation think-tank has said would raise £1.5bn, according to people familiar with the situation.
The deliberations come as the Treasury looks to fill a fiscal hole estimated at between £20bn and £30bn in the Budget, with a wide range of tax rises under consideration.
Individuals who earn dividends from a wide range of stocks and shares pay a tax on those earnings according to income bands. At present, basic rate taxpayers are charged 8.75 per cent, with higher rate taxpayers paying 33.75 per cent and additional rate payers charged 39.35 per cent.
In a report in September, the Resolution Foundation said the basic rate of dividend tax was “too low” compared with other UK taxes such as capital gains — at 18 per cent for basic rate — and rates set by international peers.
The influential think-tank called for the basic rate of dividend tax to rise to 16.5 per cent, which would generate an extra £1.5bn for the Treasury.
The Treasury declined to comment. People familiar with the matter said Reeves was considering an increase smaller than the rise to 16.5 per cent urged by the think-tank.
But Jason Hollands, managing director at wealth manager Evelyn Partners, said increasing dividend tax rates would “clobber small business owners” because many took a large portion of their pay through dividends.
“This will be seen as a kick in the teeth to people who take a risk by running their own businesses,” he added.
In addition to business owners, the potential changes would hit investors holding stocks outside of tax-free wrappers such as Isas and pensions.
Emma Wall, chief investment strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the prospect of higher dividend taxes “seems counter to the government’s great initiatives to encourage retail flows, and in turn, domestic investment to spur economic growth”.
Any move to increase dividend taxes would be another blow to investors after the previous Conservative government cut the annual tax-free dividend allowance to £500 from April 2024, down from £1,000 the year before and from £5,000 in 2017-18.
Steven Fine, chief executive of investment bank and broker Peel Hunt, said higher dividend taxes would “be a sure fire way of raising less tax”, with companies able to pare back dividend payouts and instead use excess capital to buy back their own shares.
Ministers have sought to encourage pension funds and retail investors to back British companies in a bid to revive the UK’s moribund capital markets, with Reeves exploring in recent months a cut in the cash Isa allowance in order to funnel more money into stocks.
But Sanjiv Tumkur, head of equities at wealth manager Rathbones, said higher dividend taxes “could discourage investment in income stocks” that were “well represented in the UK market”.
“If investors begin shifting away from income stocks, they may turn to growth stocks instead . . . This could result in capital flowing out of the UK market in search of better growth opportunities abroad,” he added.
TAMPA, Fla. — Spain’s Sateliot announced plans Nov. 10 to develop upgraded satellites from newly expanded facilities in Barcelona, aiming to move beyond connecting sensors and machines to provide voice, video and data links directly to smartphones.
The first 16 150-kilogram satellites are slated to launch in 2027 to demonstrate the capability in certain areas for a few minutes at a time, a spokesperson told SpaceNews, before scaling to provide real-time coverage by 2030.
Sateliot aims to first deploy five more 15-kilogram spacecraft in 2026, bolstering a connectivity service for Internet of Things (IoT) devices using global 5G standards known as 3GPP.
The startup said last month it had achieved a narrowband connection for the first time between one of its four operational low Earth orbit satellites, provided by Bulgaria’s EnduroSat, and a commercial IoT device operating under Release 17 of this standard.
“The ultimate goal is to build a global network of hundreds of satellites to deliver 5G IoT and New Radio (NR) connectivity for real time, low latency dual-use (civil and defense) applications,” the spokesperson said via email.
Sateliot has lodged plans with international regulators to deploy up to 500 satellites.
The upgraded satellites, called Tritó, would be built at the venture’s newly opened European 5G Satellite Development Center at its Barcelona headquarters, which includes a 100-square-meter clean room.
Announcing the center’s inauguration Nov. 10, Sateliot, which counts the Spanish government among its investors, said the start of its industrial phase reinforces Europe’s leadership and technological sovereignty in 5G IoT connectivity from space.
The venture also reaffirmed a goal to reach one billion euros ($1.16 billion) in annual revenue by 2030, following the start of commercial services next year, after signing recurring contracts worth 250 million euros with more than 450 customers across 50 countries.
Last week, U.S.-based direct-to-device rival AST SpaceMobile said it had registered plans for a European sovereign network in partnership with U.K.-based telecoms giant Vodafone.
Innovation in Action is a podcast series hosted by the ACC Innovation Program aimed at exploring innovations shaping care delivery.
In this episode, ACC Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Ami Bhatt and Dr. Sanket Dhruva explore how wearables are shaping the future of personalized care. They discuss how wearables impact clinical workflows and clinician-patient relationships and highlight key considerations for clinicians when supporting patients.
Clinical Topics:
Cardiovascular Care Team, Arrhythmias and Clinical EP, Prevention
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings (S&P) upgraded the credit rating of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) from “AA” to “AA+.” This result marks the fourth positive action in CABEI’s credit rating this year by rating agencies and the second issued by S&P.
According to S&P’s official statement, the upgrade follows the agency’s revision of its methodology for multilateral institutions, which reflects a significant improvement in CABEI’s financial strength, supported by the continued backing of its member countries and sustained efforts to optimize its capital position and increase the diversification of its loan portfolio.
S&P also highlighted the execution of two exposure exchange agreements (EEAs) in 2025, totaling US$1.15 billion: one with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and another with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). These transactions have significantly strengthened portfolio diversification and consolidated the Bank’s Stand-Alone Credit Profile (SACP), which has been upgraded twice in 2025 and was raised to “AA+” in this review. Along the same lines, CABEI has signed an agreement to move forward with the execution of a third EEA with the Financial Fund for the Development of the River Plate Basin (FONPLATA).
Additionally, the rating agency highlighted CABEI’s impeccable track record in Preferred Creditor Treatment (PCT) over the last decade, as well as the strong support of its member countries. It also positively assessed the progress toward a potential general capital increase aimed at strengthening the Bank’s capital base and incorporating new highly rated members.
S&P further acknowledged the Bank’s solid liquidity position and successful funding strategy, which reflects growing diversification in terms of markets and currencies, along with a greater presence in benchmark markets, maintaining a strong focus on sustainability (99% ESG-labeled by 2025).
“This upgrade to ‘AA+’ is a historic milestone that confirms our financial strength and the full confidence of our members. This is excellent news for the 15 countries that comprise CABEI, as it will enable us to channel resources under more favorable conditions and translate those benefits into tangible savings for the national budgets of our borrowing countries, thereby strengthening our capacity to be the engine of positive transformation in our countries. It also demonstrates that ethics, transparency, technical rigor, and excellence in everything we do are yielding concrete results,” said Gisela Sánchez, Executive President of CABEI.
The stable outlook reflects S&P’s expectation that CABEI member countries will continue to provide their support and uphold preferred creditor treatment, while the Bank maintains prudent capital management and a high-quality liquidity portfolio.
With the AA+ rating assigned by S&P, CABEI now stands at the same credit rating level as countries such as the United States, Austria, New Zealand, and its member, the Republic of China (Taiwan), economies recognized worldwide for their financial stability and discipline. This milestone reaffirms CABEI’s position as one of the strongest multilateral financial institutions in the world, underscoring its ability to maintain prudent, transparent, and sustainable management that inspires confidence among investors and international partners.
Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) surged by a remarkable 8.23 percent in Q3 2025, the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia, prompting major financial institutions to revise their forecasts upward.
In Q3 2025, Vietnam’s economy grew by 8.23 percent, lifting the nine-month year-on-year expansion to 7.85 percent. Following this performance, several international research institutions have upgraded their economic forecasts for Vietnam.
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised its 2025 GDP projection for Vietnam from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent, while forecasting a possible moderation to six percent in 2026. Likewise, United Overseas Bank (UOB) has upgraded its 2025 estimate for Vietnam to 7.7 percent, citing sustained recovery in manufacturing and exports as key growth drivers.
Despite global uncertainties and recent natural disasters, Vietnam’s economy continued to demonstrate resilient and broad-based growth through the third quarter of 2025.
Vietnam’s GDP growth performance
According to the Ministry of Finance, Vietnam’s GDP grew by 8.23 percent in Q3 2025, bringing nine-month growth to 7.85 percent year-on-year, closely tracking the government’s full-year target of around 8 percent. Positive growth across all three main sectors contributed to the robust GDP growth of Vietnam in both Q3 and the first nine months of 2025
Among them, industrial output, particularly manufacturing and processing, remained the primary growth driver, expanding 10 percent in Q3 and nearly 9.9 percent over the nine-month period, in line with growth targets.
Vietnam’s GDP Growth by Sector, Q3 2025
Sector
Growth in Q3 2025 (%)
Growth in first 9 months 2025 (%)
Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
3.7
3.8
Industry and construction
9.4
8.6
Services
8.5
8.4
Overall
8.23
7.85
Inflation
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Inflation remained under control. Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) increased by 3.27 percent over the first 10 months of 2025 compared to the previous year, according to data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) released on Thursday.
In October, the CPI grew by 0.2 percent from September and was up 2.82 percent from December 2024, with a year-on-year increase of 3.25 percent. The NSO also noted that core inflation rose by 3.2 percent during this period.
CPI Movements of Key Goods and Services, October 2025
Category
Monthly change (%)
Notes/Drivers
Food and catering services
+0.59
Contributed +0.20 ppts to total CPI
Education
+0.51
Higher tuition fees at some private schools and universities (2025–26 year)
Household equipment and appliances
+0.20
General price increases
Clothing, hats, and footwear
+0.18
Higher seasonal demand as weather cooled
Beverages and tobacco
+0.12
–
Culture, entertainment, and tourism
+0.06
Higher hotel, venue, and entertainment costs
Housing, utilities, and construction materials
+0.01
Slight uptick
Transport
–0.81
Lower domestic fuel prices; dragged CPI by –0.08 ppts
Credit growth
Bank credit in Vietnam has kept climbing this year, rising faster than the same period in 2024 and maintaining a steady upward trend. According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), as of September 29, the country’s bank credit increased by 13.37 percent compared to the end of 2024, the majority directed toward the production and business sectors.
Approximately 78 percent of Vietnam’s outstanding loans during this period supported production and business activities, aligning with the broader economic structure as follows:
Vietnam’s Bank Credit Distribution by Priority Sector
Priority sector
Share (%)
Agriculture (priority classification)
22.76
Small & medium enterprises (SMEs)
19.04
Supporting industries (growth rate)
23.14
High-tech application enterprises (growth rate)
25.02
Source: SBV
Foreign direct investment
Vietnam attracted US$31.52 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) during the first 10 months of 2025, marking a 15.6 percent year-on-year increase. FDI disbursements reached US$21.3 billion in the first 10 months, an 8.8 percent increase year-on-year.
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Existing investors added US$12.11 billion to 1,206 projects, up 45 percent in capital injections. Combining new and adjusted capital, manufacturing and processing accounted for US$16.37 billion, or 62.5 percent of total FDI. Real estate attracted US$5.32 billion (20.3 percent).
Meanwhile, capital contributions and share purchases surged 45.1 percent to US$5.34 billion through 2,918 transactions.
Strong momentum in new projects
Vietnam attracted US$14.07 billion in newly registered capital across 3,321 projects, marking a 21.1 percent increase in project count, though total capital value fell 7.6 percent year-on-year.
Notably, manufacturing and processing dominated, accounting for 55.9 percent of new capital at US$5.61 billion, followed by real estate at US$2.75 billion (19.5 percent).
Top Sources of Newly Registered Capital, Jan–Oct 2025
Country/Territory
Newly registered capital (US$ million)
Singapore
3,760
Mainland China
3,210
Hong Kong (China)
1,380
Japan
1,170
Sweden
1,000
Chinese Taipei
901.2
South Korea
627
Trade
Vietnam posted US$762.44 billion in total trade turnover during January–October 2025. The country recorded a US$19.56 billion trade surplus, compared with US$23.18 billion in the same period last year. The domestic sector registered a US$22.83 billion deficit, while the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) maintained a robust US$42.39 billion surplus.
Export
Vietnam’s exports in October were estimated at US$42.05 billion, down 1.5 percent month-on-month but up 17.5 percent year-on-year. Over the first 10 months of 2025, exports rose 16.2 percent to US$391 billion, including:
Domestic sector: US$94.17 billion (24.1 percent of total); and
A total of 36 export commodities exceeded US$1 billion, accounting for 94.1 percent of export turnover. Of these, seven items exceeded US$10 billion, accounting for 67.9 percent of total exports.
Vietnam’s Export Structure by Goods Category, Jan–Oct 2025
Category
Export value (US$ billion)
Share (%)
Processed & manufactured goods
346.73
88.7
Agricultural & forestry products
32.62
8.3
Aquatic products
9.33
2.4
Fuels & minerals
2.32
0.6
Import
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Imports reached US$39.45 billion in October, down one percent month-on-month but up 16.8 percent compared to last year. For the January–October period, imports climbed 18.6 percent to US$371.44 billion, which includes:
Domestic sector: US$117 billion, up 2.8 percent; and
Foreign-invested sector: US$254.44 billion, up 27.6 percent
Vietnam imported 47 product categories valued at over US$1 billion each, accounting for 93.9 percent of the total import value. Among these, four categories exceeded US$10 billion, representing 52.7 percent of the total.
Vietnam’s import structure in the first 10 months of 2025 is as follows:
Additionally, China remained Vietnam’s largest supplier, providing goods worth US$150.9 billion.
Takeaway
Vietnam’s economic performance in 2025 has been robust, with a notable GDP growth of 8.23 percent in Q3, primarily driven by strong industrial output and manufacturing. Business sentiment in the country appears positive, as its FDI grew significantly to $31.52 billion in the first 10 months.
Overall, despite global challenges, Vietnam continues to demonstrate resilience and promising growth prospects across various sectors.
See also: Reshaping Vietnam’s Socio-Economic Zones: A Post-Merger Outlook
About Us
Vietnam Briefing is one of five regional publications under the Asia Briefing brand. It is supported by Dezan Shira & Associates, a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm that assists foreign investors throughout Asia, including through offices in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang in Vietnam. Dezan Shira & Associates also maintains offices or has alliance partners assisting foreign investors in China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Dubai (UAE),Japan, South Korea, Nepal, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Bangladesh, Australia, United States, and United Kingdom and Ireland.
For a complimentary subscription to Vietnam Briefing’s content products, please click here. For support with establishing a business in Vietnam or for assistance in analyzing and entering markets, please contact the firm at vietnam@dezshira.com or visit us at www.dezshira.com
Earlier this year, Aston Martin Aramco announced Atlas Air Worldwide as the team’s Official Logistics Partner. Atlas CEO Michael Steen was pivotal in making the partnership a reality. A veteran of the aviation industry, he joined Atlas as Chief Commercial Officer in 2007, before moving into the role of CEO in 2023. During his tenure, he’s helped make Atlas one of the leaders in global airfreight and passenger charter services. Here, he explains Atlas’ plans for continued growth and why a partnership with Aston Martin Aramco was the logical next step for two brands with so much in common.
The capacity to support modern F1
“For several years, Atlas has had a direct involvement with F1 as one of the main companies chosen by Formula One Management and DHL to transport the cars and equipment of all 10 teams around the world.
“With 16 of this year’s 24 races taking place outside Europe as flyaways, it’s a huge job, involving up to 10 aircraft travelling between venues, and we’re well-qualified for the complex task.
“Today, we’re the world’s largest air freight company. We have 15 per cent market share flying wide body freighters, and we have grown significantly. We had 25 aircraft when I joined, and we’re at 118 today, so there’s been a massive expansion over that period.
“We have the largest 747 fleet in the world. We have 59 on the freighter side, and then we have some passenger aircraft too. And we took delivery of the very last 747 ever built, which is pretty cool!
“F1 leans on Atlas because we have the long-term strategic focus and the scale and size of the fleet, and we also have some of the most flexible and most agile traffic rights in the world. That’s very important. The airline industry is highly regulated, so you have to have the ability to operate from point A to point B.
“And the service quality that we provide is the highest standard. So, that’s how we got acquainted to the sport.”
Running an airline is one of the most difficult logistical challenges that you can imagine – it’s not too different to what we see in the paddock around an F1 team.
Taking the next logical step with Aston Martin Aramco
“Having been so immersed in the world of F1 for so long, we decided that a partnership with a team would be the logical next step.
“We looked at the similarities between the infrastructure of F1, how the teams work, and how we work as a company as well.
“Running an airline is one of the most difficult logistical challenges that you can imagine – it’s not too different to what we see in the paddock around an F1 team. That’s why we started to think there could be opportunities to engage in a different way.
“For us as a B2B business, there are unique drivers for a partnership like this. We went through a deep process as well, first of all defining what we wanted to get out of the relationship.
“This is not only about entertaining customers or having the brand recognition. It’s much, much more than that.
“We were contacted by many of the teams. We looked at who has the best affinity and alignment with our brand strategy, our core values as a company. And Aston Martin is one of the world’s most renowned brands and stands for top quality. The team has an ambition to win, which is what we also aim to do in our business.
“And then we dug deeper into it and looked at the commonalities and best practices between the two organisations. In F1, the teams try to shave off a tenth of a second, and I can shave off two hours of flight time by using the same best practices. So, it was a very broad spectrum of different areas that can add value to the engagement.
“The opportunity to work with Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll was also part of the appeal of joining forces with Aston Martin Aramco.
“It’s his ambition with the business, the investment that he’s making, such as Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey coming on board.
“We’re doing the same thing; we’re the leader in our industry. Our ambition doesn’t stop there. We need to continue to invest. And that’s where you have commonalities with what Aston Martin Aramco is doing. So that’s exciting.”
Strategy and similarity
“We have a strategy called One Atlas that has four pillars to it. The first is creating a thriving culture. If you think about us as a company, we have 5,000 employees, and 3,000 of those are pilots. And those pilots are in 80 countries and 300 destinations at any given time, and don’t necessarily connect back to the mothership as a home base.
“So, I need to make sure that they understand what our objectives are, our values, and how we communicate and engage. There is an affinity there as well with how Aston Martin Aramco functions and communicates as a team.
“Then it’s about performance excellence – financially, but also service quality. And that’s about making sure you can deliver a really good product at the end of the day. It’s first of all understanding how we can push innovation and automation and really drive the product further in an aligned fashion.
“The next pillar is about winning the market, and it’s synonymous with winning points and titles. And then the last one is about creating a sustainable company for the future.
“And that is really interesting. I was talking to Aston Martin Aramco Head of F1 Academy and Driver Ambassador Jessica Hawkins about this, because today, only four per cent of our pilots are female, which mirrors the industry average as well. We’d like to attract more women entering the workforce to come into our industry, to become passionate about engineering, and to become pilots as well.
“And then how can we also create a contribution back to society, which we’re doing through sustainability, for example.”
Harnessing the power of the Aston Martin Aramco partner network
“One of the great benefits for Atlas of a direct involvement with Aston Martin Aramco is the networking opportunity that a presence in the paddock provides, and the chance to work with other partners of the team.
“We have a project together with Cognizant, and we look forward to exploring opportunities with Aramco, with Valvoline, and other partners as well.
“If I can interact with my peers, with other companies, the engagement is totally different. You can talk about joint ventures and partnership in a different way. And then bringing our partners and customers to the track and being able to share the experience is fantastic.”
We can become better, faster, more agile, more dynamic, more innovative by learning from Aston Martin Aramco.
What’s next
“I can’t wait for us to grow and develop this partnership in the years to come.
“I think it’s important for both of us to learn. We bring the experience of having sponsorships with NFL teams, as we fly five teams on the US passenger side. Yet we have a very open mindset coming into this partnership as it is our first one on the F1 front.
“Everything we do must come back and resonate with the One Atlas strategy, so we can see developments when it comes to our internal culture, so we can become better, faster, more agile, more dynamic, more innovative by learning from Aston Martin Aramco. And then we can provide, of course, some best practices back as well.
“Both the internal and external aspects are so important. Whether we are working to inspire and engage our team, or working with customers, business partners or other sponsors on shared growth opportunities.
“If you think about any sponsorship, you ask yourself the question, what is the return on investment? What are the tangibles, and what are the non-tangibles that we can start building from? There are so many different touch points and opportunities to create value.
“I’m really excited about it, and the rest of the company is as well. And Aston Martin Aramco is too. Let’s see where it takes us!”
To learn more about Atlas Air, click here.
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We’re making three trades on Monday. We’re selling 200 shares of Cisco Systems at roughly $71 each, leaving Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust with 1,000 shares of CSCO and decreasing its weighting to about 2.1% from 2.28%. We’re buying 80 shares of Corning at roughly $87. After the trade, the Trust will own 520 shares of GLW, increasing its weighting to about 1.2% from about 1%. We’re also buying 10 shares of Meta Platforms at roughly $631, increasing our position to 250 shares of META and its portfolio weighting to about 4.15% from about 4%. Ahead of Wednesday evening’s earnings, we’re locking in profits on Cisco Systems with a small trim and downgrading it to our 2 rating. After falling to about $66 per share in the days after its previous earnings release , the stock of this networking and security company has rebounded to nearly $72. CSCO YTD mountain Cisco Systems YTD We’re still upbeat about Cisco’s artificial intelligence infrastructure opportunities with hyperscaler, enterprise, and sovereign customers, but the last quarter had some hair on it, with security revenue missing big due to weakness in its U.S. federal government business. We’re taking a little off here, just in case security turns into a multi-quarter problem. Also, management has a history of practicing UPOD — or under-promising and over-delivering — which we like, but sometimes that causes the stock to get dinged on conservative guidance. From this sale, we’ll realize a small gain of about 6% on stock purchased in July 2025. GLW YTD mountain Corning YTD We’re taking the cash proceeds from the Cisco sale to add to our positions in Corning and Meta Platforms. Corning reported a great quarter on Oct. 28. The stock actually fell about 7% in premarket trading to $83 that morning after not beating “lofty expectations” and delivering a revenue miss in its key optical communications segment. We immediately pointed out when we bought shares that the miss was due to sluggish sales to telecom customers and not from enterprise customers. Sales to enterprise customers were up 58% year over year, and we think that momentum will continue as data center operators increase their use of fiber connections instead of copper to connect AI nodes. META YTD mountain Meta Platforms YTD As for Meta Platforms, shares have pulled back by about 20% since reporting earnings on Oct. 30. The stock was hit hard over concerns that management is spending too aggressively to expand its AI infrastructure. While there’s always a risk that those investments won’t pay off, we continue to have confidence in CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The recent selloff has lowered Meta’s price-to-earnings multiple on 2026 estimates to about 21 times, which is actually cheaper than the broader S & P 500 . It’s our first Meta buy since June 2022, which was around the time when shares were sliding due to concerns about overspending on the metaverse. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CSCO, GLW, META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Under resource strain and rising demand, Lone Star Legal Aid built Juris, an AI-enabled tool, to centralize trusted knowledge and share a replicable model with a goal to serve more clients in need of legal assistance
Key takeaways:
Legal aid is leading on AI adoption — Legal aid organizations are leading the way in leveraging AI with 74% using AI in their work, driven by the need to serve millions of citizens who lack legal help.
Lone Star Legal Aid creates Juris — A new AI-powered tool Juris from Lone Star Legal Aid improves accuracy and trust through retrieval-augmented generation, source-cited answers, and a secure Azure-based architecture with an integrated citation viewer.
Keeping costs low — A phased, two-year build-and-test process kept costs low (at about $2,000 a year in infrastructure costs, plus about 300 staff hours) and produced dependable results.
A new study finds that under-resourced legal aid nonprofits are adopting AI at nearly twice the rate of the broader legal field because of the urgency of the need to serve millions of Americans who may lack legal help. The study shows that almost three-quarters (74%) of legal aid organizations already use AI in their work, compared with a 37% adoption rate for generative AI (GenAI) across the wider legal profession. Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA), a legal aid non-profit serving easter Texas, is one of early adopters of AI.
According to LSLA, its attorneys were spending too much time and money hunting for answers across pricey platforms and scattered PDFs. Key materials lived in research databases, internal drives, and static repositories, while individual worker-vetted documents were not centrally accessible. Without a single, trusted hub, staff experienced slower research time that affected clients through duplicated effort and delays.
These strains are not unique to LSLA. In fact, court help centers and self‑help portals face the same fragmentation, licensing costs, and uneven access to authoritative guidance. A verifiable, consolidated knowledge hub that could stabilize quality while reducing spending would be a needed solution.
To solve this problem, LSLA turned to AI to create a legal tool called Juris built to return fast, source‑cited answers. Juris was designed to centralize high‑value legal materials, cut reliance on expensive third‑party platforms, and lay a flexible foundation that the organization could reuse beyond legal research for internal operations and future client tools.
Multifaceted approach to ensuring accuracy and reliability
There were several aspects of Juris that designers used to help its mission to increase access to justice, including:
Design methods fuel trustworthy output — Juris was built to ensure accuracy using a number of methods, such as a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline to ensure the chatbot delivers fact-based, source-cited answers. It also uses semantic chunking, a process that breaks a document into natural, meaning‑based sections (for example, a heading plus the paragraphs that belong to it) so the original context stays together.
When a user asks a question, Juris retrieves only the most relevant of these sections. Limiting the AI to evidence from those passages improves accuracy and reduces hallucinations because the model is not guessing from memory. Instead, it is grounding answers in the text it just accessed.
Solid technical architecture helps reliability — Juris’s technical architecture also ensures reliable results because it combines Azure OpenAI for secure, stateless access to AI models to better handle document ingestion, processing, and vector storage. Users interact through a custom internal web interface that integrates a PDF viewer alongside the chat experience that enables seamless citation and document navigation. The platform is securely hosted on Azure App Service with continuous deployment orchestrated through GitHub, which provides reliable operations and streamlined updates.
Phased approach to building and testing yielded dependability — Also to ensure trustworthy results, LSLA developed Juris by following a structured, phased approach over two years. It began with a concept phase that was focused on clearly identifying the problem, followed by a platform evaluation that compared open-source and commercial solutions. A prototype was then created and demonstrated as proof of concept.
In addition, internal testing included adversarial exercises, hallucination detection, and rigorous validation of citation reliability. Based on these findings, the team implemented enhancements, such as moving from size-based to semantic chunking, improving the interface, and expanding the set of source materials. Juris is now in pilot preparation and undergoing final refinements before its release to a select group of subject matter experts.
Efficient resourcing and sharing learnings
LSLA’s phased method to building and testing also made sure that sustainability was built in from the beginning. Indeed, ongoing maintenance is minimal, and Microsoft’s nonprofit Azure credits keep infrastructure costs around $2,000 per year.
The most significant cost was in staff time. Development so far totals roughly 300 staff hours (or about 0.5 full-time equivalent, plus 0.3 FTE over two years). Once Juris enters phase two, which has been funded by a Legal Services Corporation (LSC) technology initiative grant, expected benefits will include faster, more consistent research and reduced workload for frontline and administrative staff, plus a modular framework that others can adapt.
Other legal service organizations that face similar challenges can learn from the Juris development, testing, and implementation as well as other related case studies. These recurring lessons include:
beginning with a small, manageable scope
inviting end users in from the start, and
carving out protected time so staff can innovate alongside daily duties.
Looking ahead, the LSLA team will continue to roll Juris out in phases, while building sister tools. LSLA also plans to share lessons learned through LSC’s AI Peer Learning Labs to help other organizations replicate the model.
Real change at scale, such as this, will only come from collaborating across organizations to share playbooks, pool datasets, and co‑design tools that lift quality while lowering cost. It is only with such partnership and sharing lessons from early adopters of AI that peers can adapt the model and, together, scale solutions that narrow the justice gap.
Angela Tripp, Program Officer for Technology for the Legal Services Corporation contributed to this article.
Washington, DC, November 10, 2025 – Global law firm Clyde & Co today announced the appointment of Kirsten Wilkerson as a partner in its Washington, DC, office. Her arrival marks a strategic expansion of the firm’s North American Trial & Defense practice, reinforcing Clyde & Co’s position as a leading legal advisor to the insurance sector and deepening its litigation capabilities in a key market.
Kirsten Wilkerson is a seasoned litigator with 25 years of experience defending complex, high-value, and emerging tort claims. Her practice spans personal injury, mass torts, toxic exposure, and premises liability, among other areas. She also has extensive mediation experience, having negotiated structured settlements in complex cases across the country.
Eileen King Bower, Partner and Chair of Clyde & Co’s North American Board commented: “Kirsten brings a proven ability to craft and execute litigation strategies in some of the most complex and high-stakes cases. Her appointment reflects our ongoing commitment to expanding our insurance capabilities across the US and will further enhance our ability to deliver outstanding service and results for our clients.”
Kirsten Wilkerson commented: “Joining Clyde & Co offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to its highly respected Trial & Defense practice. My experience handling complex tort claims, from environmental and toxic exposure to premises liability, aligns closely with the firm’s strategic focus. I’m looking forward to working alongside talented colleagues across the firm and helping clients navigate the challenges of high-stakes litigation.”
Clyde & Co is a leading global law firm with a robust North American practice that offers clients industry-leading advisory and dispute resolution services. The firm opened its first North American office in New York in 2006. Since then, the firm has grown to 19 offices with more than 400 attorneys across the US and Canada, including more than 100 partners.
