In less than six months, two of the remaining independent and reasonably priced legal research providers Fastcase and Casetext have been acquired or are in the process of being acquired.
Fastcase, which itself had acquired the analytics platform Docket Alarm has been absorbed into vLex, an interesting and innovative European start-up, which has been
Thomson Reuters’ deal to purchase Casetext has driven the legal tech hype cycle to a fever pitch. Don’t get me wrong. I am a big fan of Casetext. I have been an admirer for over a decade. More than once, I have watched them not just beat the market, but redirect the market and invent whole new categories of legal research products. I have spent a lot of time over the past few years musing about innovation, new product categories and market advantage.
When Casetext created the “brief analysis” tool CARA, it was three years before even one of the largest legal information companies launched a brief analyzer and it was four years before all three,; Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis and Bloomberg Law, had a brief analyzer on the market.
Note: vLex (Fastcase) launched the Vincent “brief checker” in the international market in 2018., two years after the launch of CARA. The above graphic was focused on the U. S. market.
Similarly, with Compose, Casetext introduced “parallel search” and a new category of concept searching was born. Or as Casetext co-founder Pablo Arredondo likes to exclaim “parallel search freed lawyers from the prison of the keyword.” This time The market responded in less than two years. LexisNexis launched “Fact and issue Finder” which leveraged extractive AI technology built on a highly tailored version of Google’s BERT to present insights to researchers. Westlaw responded with Westlaw Precision built with a large editorial team to help with machine learning. The response time in the market is growing shorter.
Industry Insiders’ Perspectives I have spoken to several legal tech industry insiders and the consensus seems to be that within 6 to 12 months, Thomson Reuters’ competitors Lexis, Bloomberg Law, and vLex (formerly Fastcase) are likely to have developed capabilities which can compete with CoCounsel. No one is starting from scratch. According to Ed Walters, Chief Strategy Officer at vLex, “we already have global AI products in the labs. We don’t release vaporware, but these products are coming no matter who owns Casetext.”Continue Reading Thomson Reuters $650M Bet on Casetext CoCounsel. Did They Buy Market Dominance or Just Time?
This week Casemaker and vLex announced an innovative partnership with the Kentucky Bar Association making the AI 
enabled research Assistant Vincent available to every lawyer in Kentucky. I wrote about the launch of the Vincent AI assistant in October 2018. Casemaker provides the primary law underpinning the vLex US collection. Vincent is the only Artificial Intelligence tool that can analyze legal documents in two languages (English and Spanish) and across 10 countries.
Under the new agreement all Kentucky Bar members will have access to vLex and Vincent through either the Casemaker or vLex Platform. Kentucky Bar Association members have had access to Casemaker since 2005. Kentucky Bar Association President summarized the significance of this alliance as a great equalizer for members. “We are thrilled to continue our valued relationship with Casemaker, and now to build upon that by offering cutting-edge AI capabilities to our members,” said John Meyers, Executive Director of the KBA. “For smaller firms, in particular, this will be a great equalizer, enabling them to tap into technology previously only available to the very largest firms in the country.”
Additional vLex Developments vLex recently entered into an arrangement with the Alberta Law Libraries to provide
Continue Reading Casemaker, vLex & Kentucky Bar Association Enter Innovative Alliance — KBA Members Meet AI Assistant Vincent
Today Casemaker is announcing an expanded relationship with vLex a global legal research provider. Members of the Casemaker Bar Association Consortium will have an opportunity to get access to vLex intelligent legal research assistant, Vincent. Several months ago I wrote about the very unique functionality in vLex’s Vincent. It is the only legal research product