Lex Machina, Inc. is a company that provides legal analytics to legal professionals. It began as an IP litigation research company and is now a division of

LexisNexis LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer info ...

. The company started as a project at Stanford University within the university's law school and computer science department before launching as a

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the so ...

. Lex Machina provides a

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...

product to legal professionals to aid in their practice, research, and business.

History

Lex Machina initially began in 2006 as a public interest project at Stanford University by Professor Mark Lemley and co-founders George Gregory and Joshua Walker. The project was developed within the university's law school and computer science department under the IP Litigation Clearinghouse (IPLC) project. Lex Machina was incorporated in 2008 and launched the following year. The name "Lex Machina" is a Latin phrase meaning "law machine" that Walker had used in a research paper he wrote in 2004. Walker was named the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of the company until venture capitalist Josh Becker took over in 2011. In 2015 the company was acquired by LexisNexis. Former CTO Karl Harris became CEO of Lex Machina in 2018.

Company developments

Lex Machina is based in Menlo Park, just north of

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. While still a public interest project at Stanford, Lex Machina generated approximately $3 million in donations. In 2012, the company reportedly received $2 million in funding led by X/Seed Capital Management. Lex Machina generated another $4.8 million in a Series A round of funding in 2013 led by Cue Ball Capital. LexisNexis acquired Lex Machina in 2015.

Services

Lex Machina is a legal analytics solution that uses natural language processing, machine learning, and technology-assisted human review to deliver case resolutions, damages, remedies, findings, and accurate counsel and party data. Its engineering processes acquire and maintain a constantly updating database of case data and documents necessary to provide accurate data. Lex Machina gathers raw information from cases, including downloading millions of court documents, to present the comprehensive and accurate data. It cleans, tags, codes, enhances, and presents the resulting data in a way that makes it easy for legal professionals to access insights and grasp trends that are relevant to a specific legal matter. Lex Machina currently provides legal analytics on any federal commercially relevant civil court case in 17 practice areas, as well as civil cases in 16 state courts. The services Lex Machina provides can be used within a variety of industries, and the company has clients ranging from law firms (including three-quarters of the AmLaw 100) to companies (including

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, and

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pack ...

). Lex Machina allows qualifying public-interest entities to access its services for free.

References

{{reflist, 30em Law firms established in 2006 American companies established in 2006 2006 establishments in California Law firms based in California