Hope everybody had a nurturing Thanksgiving holiday. Got lots to talk about re: the last week or so let’s start with the aquisition of Lex Machina Inc. by LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which was announced on Nov. 23).

“Lex Machina, based in Silicon Valley, delivers a Software as a Service platform that helps lawyers predict the behaviors and outcomes of different legal strategies by mining, tagging, categorizing and enhancing millions of Federal court dockets and documents. The technology allows lawyers to make strategic, data-driven decisions and develop winning litigation strategies using competitive intelligence on opposing parties and counsel, track records and key decisions by presiding judges, as well as reveal trends by case outcomes,” states LexisNexis in the press release.

“The technology was initially created by experts at Stanford University’s Law School and Computer Science department,” it notes. [aka CodeX!].

“I think Lex Machina broke the ice, showing the commercial potential of collaboration between the law, business and engineering schools,” said Clint Korver, a partner at Ulu Ventures, in Law Technology News’ 2013 cover story about CodeX, by Tam Harbert. LTN CodeX Cover Story-2013.

“Because LexisNexis recognizes the importance of the leadership and culture at Lex Machina to the creation of innovative Legal Analytics [offerings], it will operate as a stand-alone entity within the North American Research Solutions group within LexisNexis Legal & Professional,” the press release stated.

“We’re proud to have brought transparency to IP litigation with Legal Analytics. The only thing inhibiting our entry into other areas of the law is access to content,” said Josh Becker, CEO of Lex Machina in the press release. “By joining the LexisNexis family, we will accelerate the introduction of Legal Analytics to more practice areas and enhance insights for our customers with the advanced technology of the Lexis Advance platform.”

Mark Lemley, the William H. Neukom Professor of law at Stanford Law School, and the director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology, is a founder and board member of Lex Machina. Lemley is an Affiliated Faculty with CodeX.

REACTION

Among the news media covering the acquisition:

• Above The Law: Sean Doherty
• LawSites: Robert Ambrogi
• Bloomberg Big Law Business: Casey Sullivan
• Computational Legal Studies: Daniel Martin Katz
• Silicon Valley Business Journal: Leia Parker
• Legaltech news: Chris DiMarco
• Global University Venturing: Gregg Bayes-Brown
• TEE Angle Fund: Admin Cool
• www.legaltechnology.com

Disclaimers: Monica Bay is a CodeX fellow and
1) a freelance journalist for Bloomberg Big Law Business.
2) a special consultant at The Cowen Group, on a LexisNexis project re: government e-discovery professionals.
3) retired as editor-in-chief of Law Technology News in February.
Twitter: @MonicaBay. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.