Lex Machina

What It Does

Lex Machina is a legal analytics product that mines US litigation data to surface patterns about judges, lawyers, parties, courts and case outcomes. It covers federal district courts, courts of appeal, the PTAB, specialty venues and a set of state courts, and is used by litigators to inform case strategy, predict timelines and benchmark counsel. It is part of LexisNexis, which acquired the company in 2015.

What We Found

Lex Machina began in 2006 as a public-interest project at Stanford University (the IP Litigation Clearinghouse), led by Professor Mark Lemley with co-founders. It was incorporated in 2008 and launched as a startup in Menlo Park, California, originally focused on intellectual property litigation before broadening to other practice areas. The platform now covers a wide range of federal civil litigation; LawSites reported in November 2024 that Lex Machina had added roughly 500,000 federal district court cases to reach near-complete coverage of US federal district civil cases.

What We Haven’t Verified

• Specific dataset volumes (case, judge and counsel counts) are drawn from LexisNexis/Lex Machina marketing material and not independently checked.
• Pricing — not publicly published; LexisNexis sells via sales/demo.
• Current headcount as a standalone unit (operates inside LexisNexis).

Company Info

• Founded: 2008 (project started 2006 at Stanford)
• HQ: Menlo Park, California, United States
• Parent: LexisNexis (acquired 2015)
• Last updated: 2026-06-16