24hrs Inside a Silicon Valley Startup Building an AI Law Firm

In this episode, I go behind the scenes with Owen Zhang, Jomana Abdallah and Demetrius Johnson, the founders of Global Citizens, an AI-native immigration law firm in San Francisco. Rather than selling AI software to other law firms, they’re building the technology directly into their own operations. Their system, Loki, coordinates cases, gathers evidence and helps prepare petitions, allowing lawyers to focus more of their time on clients and legal strategy. According to The Business Research Company, the global immigration legal services market is estimated to be worth US$23.3 billion in 2026. Owen has been through immigration three times himself, while Jomana has spent more than eight years helping others navigate the process. Together with Demetrius, they’re building a new model for how immigration law firms operate. Owen estimates that Loki has already made the firm roughly four times more efficient. I get a look at the technology in action, from coordinating active cases and deadlines to compiling more than 70 exhibits into a 394-page petition document. In this episode, I sit in on a live legal strategy meeting, watch the team test a voice-enabled prototype of Loki and see a 1,034-page immigration petition being printed for filing. We also get into the challenges behind building the company, including an early co-founder breakup and why Owen once paid a client’s rent out of his own pocket. Global Citizens is still early in its journey, with Loki’s capabilities continuing to evolve. The ambition is to build a law firm that can serve substantially more clients without growing its workforce at the same rate. Whether the technology can create a lasting advantage over traditional firms adopting AI themselves is the challenge ahead. Inside this episode: - Owen’s personal immigration experience and what led him to start Global Citizens - Jomana and the legal team navigating a complex O-1A visa case - A live demonstration of Loki coordinating cases and preparing petitions - The team’s experiments with a voice-enabled AI assistant - A…