2. Lawyers need information about their judges.
The Problem
Today’s legal research tools were built in the 1970s. Their focus is
on courts of appeal. These are rulings that are used for citations
and precedent.
But every civil case begins in local trial court. 99% of cases are
decided or settled there. Most lawyers will never file an appeal or
deal with an appellate judge. All their work is in front of a local
judge. In a very real sense, convincing a local judge is what most
litigation is all about.
And yet, there is no good source
of information about local trial
court judges, even though
lawyers are always seeking it.
3. Why Local Courts?
California Supreme Court
First
District
Second
District
Third
District
Fourth
District
Fifth
District
Sixth
District
Alameda
Contra
Costa
Del Norte
Humboldt
Lake
Marin
Mendocino
Napa
San
Francisco
San Mateo
Solano
Sonoma
Los
Angeles
San Luis
Obispo
Santa
Barbara
Ventura
Placer
Alpine Plumas
Amador Sacramento
Butte
San
Joaquin
Calaveras Shasta
Colusa Sierra
El Dorado Siskiyou
Glenn Sutter
Lassen Tehama
Modoc Trinity
Mono Yolo
Nevada Yuba
Inyo
Orange
Riverside
San
Bernardino
San Diego
Fresno
Kern
Kings
Madera
Mariposa
Merced
Stanislaus
Tulare
Tuolumne
Monterey
San Benito
Santa Clara
Santa Cruz
4. A new breed of local legal research service, collecting
published writings (tentative rulings) from local trial court judges.
The Solution
Gather tentative rulings
from individual counties
all in one place
Search by judge, county,
and topic to find out exactly
what your judge thinks
Analyze writing in aggregate to
show judge’s temperament,
favorite citations, likelihood of
granting motions, and more
5. Start local in CA, expand to NY, then nationwide.
Combined, CA and NY have ~1/4 of the nation’s attorneys,
providing the biggest bang for the buck.
The Plan
6. 700,000
cases
filed
17 million
cases filed
The Market
1.3 million
lawyers
168,000
lawyers
2 million
cases filed
CA CA + NY
United States
Sources:
1. http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/2017-Court-Statistics-Report.pdf
2. http://nycourts.gov/reports/annual/pdfs/16_UCS-Annual_Report.pdf
3. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/market_research/National%20Lawyer%20Population%20by%20State%202007-2017.authcheckdam.pdf
4. http://www.courtstatistics.org/Other-Pages/StateCourtCaseloadStatistics.aspx (US cases filed in 2010)
5. http://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/reports/annual-reports/relx2016-annual-report.pdf
6. https://annual-report.thomsonreuters.com/financial-performance.html
7. http://wolterskluwer.com/binaries/content/assets/wk/pdf/investors/annual-reports/wolters-kluwer_2016_annual_report.pdf
8. http://legalexecutiveinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/How-Big-is-the-US-Legal-Services-Market.pdf
TAM is huge
$437 Billion in total legal services in the US
$7+ Billion in legal research (Westlaw, Lexis, etc)
Revenue may be per-attorney, per-case, or both
343,000
lawyers
7. $280M
$6.8B
Potential Revenue
$780M
$100M
$800M
CA CA + NY
United States
Sources:
1. http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/2017-Court-Statistics-Report.pdf
2. http://nycourts.gov/reports/annual/pdfs/16_UCS-Annual_Report.pdf
3. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/market_research/National%20Lawyer%20Population%20by%20State%202007-2017.authcheckdam.pdf
4. http://www.courtstatistics.org/Other-Pages/StateCourtCaseloadStatistics.aspx (US cases filed in 2010)
5. http://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/reports/annual-reports/relx2016-annual-report.pdf
6. https://annual-report.thomsonreuters.com/financial-performance.html
7. http://wolterskluwer.com/binaries/content/assets/wk/pdf/investors/annual-reports/wolters-kluwer_2016_annual_report.pdf
8. http://legalexecutiveinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/How-Big-is-the-US-Legal-Services-Market.pdf
Revenue model is TBD, but here’s one option:
$50/mo/attorney — nominal subscription fee
$200 for a judge report (per side!) at start of a case
Judge reports are useful, low-cost, and
support pass-through billing.
$205M
8. Thank You!
Contact us:
Drew’s wide-ranging coding experience includes a
successful startup, launching huge projects at two of the
largest companies in the world, and handling massive
amounts of data for AAA games. He was instrumental in
the launch of the PS4, co-created Mac OS X’s
DiscRecording framework, and most recently worked on a
variety of game and server tech for The Last of Us and
Uncharted.
Nicole is a practicing attorney handling business litigation in
state and federal courts. She’s worked at a variety of law firms
ranging from mid-size litigation boutiques to AM100 firms, and
is licensed to practice law in three states. Her variety of
experience has led to a unique perspective on the common
pain points experienced by lawyers across the industry. She
has an intuitive understanding of technology and is deeply
committed to helping lawyers leverage it to achieve a
competitive advantage.
Drew Thaler
drew@trellis.rocks
Nicole Clark
nicole@trellis.rocks
