Overview
Lex Machina is a legal analytics platform that analyzes millions of court documents to reveal patterns in litigation, including judge behavior, case timelines, and outcomes. It helps law firms, corporate counsel, and government users craft data-driven strategies, manage risk, and win business by showing how similar cases have played out across federal and state courts.
Pricing
Enterprise Licensing
- Typical starting price is reported around 75,000 USD per year for firmwide access, with some listings showing per-user equivalents (about 1,320 USD per user per year) on certain deployments.
- Actual contracts are usually custom, based on firm size, practice areas, and coverage (federal only vs broader state courts and practice modules).
Practice Area & Court Coverage
- Lex Machina offers modules covering 20+ federal civil practice areas (e.g., patent, antitrust, securities, employment) plus enhanced analytics for 100+ state courts and data for over 1,300 state courts.
- Pricing increases as firms add more practice areas, jurisdictions, and seats.
Public Interest Access
- Qualifying public-interest organizations can obtain access to Lex Machina free of charge.
- Designed to support research and public-interest litigation where budgets are limited.
Key Features
- Judge, court, and party analytics – Insights into how specific judges, courts, parties, and law firms behave, including win rates and time to key milestones.
- Outcome & damages analytics – Data on resolutions, findings, remedies, and damages to benchmark risk and potential recovery.
- Motion & timing metrics – Motion grant/deny rates, time to trial, and time to termination across jurisdictions and judges.
- Matter and portfolio analysis – Tools to evaluate firm performance, client exposure, and opposing counsel track records.
- AI + human-reviewed data – Proprietary AI plus attorney review to clean, tag, and structure docket data and filings.
Best Use Cases
- Litigation strategy & forum selection – Choose where to file and how to frame strategy based on judge and court analytics.
- Outside counsel selection & RFPs – Corporate legal teams compare law firm performance and experience for specific matter types.
- Client development & pitches – Law firms use analytics in pitches to demonstrate experience and predict outcomes.lexisnexis.
- Risk assessment & reserving – Quantify litigation risk, likely timelines, and damages to inform business and insurance decisions.
- Policy, research & academia – Researchers and policymakers study litigation trends and judicial behavior.law.
Pros
- ✅ Rich, litigation-focused data – Deep coverage of federal and many state courts with structured, attorney-verified analytics.
- ✅ Proven adoption by top players – Used by 80%+ of AmLaw 100 firms and major corporates like Meta, Nike, and Microsoft.
- ✅ Powerful for strategy & business development – Transforms raw dockets into clear visuals and metrics for pitches and strategy sessions.
- ✅ Continuously expanding coverage – Ongoing additions of practice areas and state courts broaden usefulness over time.
Cons
- ❌ High cost for smaller firms – Six-figure starting ranges and enterprise-oriented pricing are difficult for solos and small practices.
- ❌ US litigation-centric – Focused mostly on U.S. federal and state civil litigation; less useful for other jurisdictions or non-litigation work.
- ❌ Learning curve & data overload – Volume of analytics can be overwhelming without training and internal champions.
Official Website
Lex Machina – Official product page via LexisNexis: https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/lex-machina.page
Release Date: Originated as a Stanford Law School project; company spun out around 2010 and was acquired by LexisNexis in 2015.
Last Updated: December 2025