Legal AI startup Spellbook hired a new CMO — and she has strong opinions on avoiding 'creepy' AI marketing

Meltem Kuran-Berkowitz has joined Spellbook as its chief marketing officer.

Meltem Kuran Berkowitz Legal AI startup Spellbook has appointed Meltem Kuran-Berkowitz as its CMO.

Kuran-Berkowitz wants Spellbook's marketing to help it hit the $100 million mark.

Spellbook is embracing AI, but she draws the line at using it to impersonate human communication.

The new CMO of a legal tech startup has a message for marketers: Stop using AI to pretend to be human.

Spellbook, which offers AI tools for drafting and analyzing legal contracts, exclusively told CMO Insider that it had appointed Meltem Kuran-Berkowitz as its chief marketing officer.

She is taking the top marketing role full time after a brief stint freelancing for the company.

Kuran-Berkowitz previously spent five and a half years as head of growth at the payroll and workforce platform Deel, overseeing the company's growth to $1 billion in annual recurring revenue.

Kuran-Berkowitz joins Spellbook as it, too, is leveling up.

In October 2025, the company raised $50 million in Series B funding at a $350 million valuation, led by Khosla Ventures.

In March, the company secured a $40 million debt facility, which it said it would put toward acquiring rival generative AI companies.

The legal tech space is booming.

Investors poured $2 billion into startups building for the legal sector in the first half of this year, per the market research firm Crunchbase, as AI has transformed one of Silicon Valley's sleepier corners into one of its hottest.

Legal AI specialists like Harvey and Legora are competing alongside tech giants like OpenAI as law firms and corporate legal teams race to adopt tools that promise to automate grunt work.