Image [cc] Giulia Forsythe

There are very few legal research and analytic platforms that are truly unique, ground-breaking, advantage-giving resources. One of the newer products out there that does seem to fit this category is Lex Machina. Although I’m still not sure the proper pronunciation of the “Machina” (is it “Mah-CHEE-Na” or “Mak-IN-ah” or “Mah-KEEN-ah”?? ), it is one of the few products where I’ve heard lawyers from multiple firms say it is a “must have” as part of their IP litigation arsenal. In fact, when talking with an IP Lawyer at a conference once, that lawyer said “I was tired of getting my ___ kicked by a firm that was using it, so we had to bring it into our firm to level the playing field.”

[Note: the folks at Lex Machina set me straight, it’s pronounced “Mah-Kee-Nah”]

Products like Lex Machina, and Neota Logic are really just scratching the surface of what data analytics and logic-based processing can do to help better position attorneys in understanding, planning, and overall strategy of handling legal matters. 

Lex Machina is launching a new tool, and is presenting a webinar today at 2:00 PM Eastern, that describes the Legal Analytics platform and how law firm and in-house counsel can use this in their strategy of protecting and defending their IP resources. If you haven’t had a chance to look at Lex Machina before, this webinar might be a great place to start. I’ve put the webinar information and press release below.

Whether you call something like this big data analytics, or computer-based mining and logic, or adaptive learning resources, products like Lex Machina are the wave of the future. Leveraging huge amounts of data, computer processing, analytics, advanced algorithms, and human interaction is slowly creeping into the legal research market. What is really interesting is that these advancements are coming from the smaller companies, not the big ones. Now, whether they get acquired by the big players is yet to be seen, but probably inevitable. Not to worry, though. I’m sure there are others at Stanford, MIT, and in basements and garages that are working on the next big advancement in legal research and analytics. I, for one, look forward to seeing what’s next.   

Lex Machina Launches Custom Insights: Personalized Analytics for Unprecedented Insights into Cases, Motions, and Trends
New capabilities enable lawyers to design their own approach to crafting winning IP strategy

Menlo Park, November 12, 2014 – Lex Machina, creator of Legal Analytics®, today raises the bar for legal technology by introducing Custom Insights with the new release of its Legal Analytics platform. With traditional legal research tools, it’s difficult not only to find relevant cases, but also to glean key strategic insights, unless attorneys are willing to drill into each and every case. This is where Lex Machina gets started. Custom Insights helps attorneys surface strategic information from only those cases or motions they care about, quickly and easily. 

To mark the launch of these exciting new capabilities, Lex Machina will be hosting a webcast on November 13 to demonstrate how in-house and law firm counsel can leverage Custom Insights in their workflow.

“Since launching our platform in October last year, our engineers have worked closely with Lex Machina’s customers to take Legal Analytics to the next level,” said Josh Becker, CEO, Lex Machina.  “More than predefined charts and graphs, our customers wanted the flexibility to apply analytics to the cases and motions that matter to them. With Custom Insights we are delivering a groundbreaking capability that changes the business and practice of law.”

Lex Machina is introducing these new capabilities that provide attorneys with Custom Insights:

Case List Analyzer

The new Case List Analyzer puts lawyers in the driver’s seat by enabling them to select cases based on specific criteria and filter the results by case type, date range, court, judge, patent findings, and more. Available on every case list page, Case List Analyzer helps lawyers uncover strategic information and visualize trends – from how to approach a case, to how to litigate, or how to defend against legal action. With one click they can see trends and gain actionable insights across their case selection.

Case List Analyzer allows me to quickly compare judges, law firms, parties and patents, using the criteria I care about.  I can find a judge’s tendency to award damages of a specific type,” said Scott Hauser, Deputy GC Ruckus Wireless.  “Custom Insights enables me to craft winning IP strategy.”

Motion Metrics

This new feature identifies the docket events and documents connected to a specific motion, and offers Custom Insights into all activity that led to a court’s grant or denial of that motion. With Motion Metrics, attorneys can get Custom Insights for each motion chain within a case to analyze the performance of judges, or opposing counsel, and also compare motions across districts, judges, parties, and law firms. Attorneys are able to compare motion outcomes and select the strategy that has the highest probability of producing the desired results.  

Motion Metrics may reveal that a judge almost never grants a motion for summary judgment,” said Miriam Rivera, former Deputy GC at Google.  “The ability to see this information in an instant, not only saves a tremendous amount of time, but also helps me for the first time to quantify my ROI.”

About Lex Machina

Lex Machina is defining Legal Analytics, a new category of legal technology that revolutionizes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. Delivered as Software-as a-Service, Lex Machina creates structured data sets covering districts, judges, law firms, lawyers, parties, and patents, out of millions of pages of legal information. Legal Analytics allows law firms and companies, for the first time ever, to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.

Lex Machina is used by companies such as Microsoft, Google, and eBay, and law firms like Wilson Sonsini, Fish & Richardson, and Fenwick & West. The company was created by experts at Stanford’s Computer Science Department and Law School. In 2014, Lex Machina was named one of the “Best New Legal Services” by readers of The Recorder, American Lawyer Media’s San Francisco newspaper.