Trellis Research today announced the public release of its powerful decision engine, and $2M in Seed funding. Trellis empowers attorneys to make smarter decisions in a fraction of the time, with the largest and most comprehensive database of California court records available, including detailed analysis of each judge’s decision and ruling history. Trellis is quickly establishing itself as the must-have research tool for the industry’s fiercest litigators.
With its powerful database of +5M state trial court records that aren’t accessible anywhere else, Trellis enables litigators to make data-backed decisions at the state trial court level. Despite presiding over more than 99 percent of the nation’s litigation, the state court system is highly fragmented, and this has historically made it impossible for attorneys to gain access to comprehensive records and public data. Trellis’ decision engine and smart search technology changes that. Trellis radically elevates the standard of care for the legal profession, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to help attorneys research issues and judges, prepare motions targeted to their trial judge’s preferences, and predict settlement ranges and class member payouts.
Trellis was created by CEO and co-founder Nicole Clark, a career litigator who developed the idea for the tool for her own use while litigating at an AM100 law firm in Los Angeles. “Trellis, which was then my secret weapon, gave me such an obvious competitive advantage that it immediately validated my belief in what I had built,” says Clark. Trellis is already in use at several AM100 firms in California. “Client expectations are changing, along with technology, and attorneys have a duty to perform exhaustive research with all available tools,” says Clark. “If data is available to opposing counsel, and you’re not accessing it, you’re at a competitive disadvantage and may be performing below the standard of care.”
In the US the legal services market is valued at more than $600 billion annually. Legal research juggernauts like LexisNexis and Westlaw rake in a combined $10B in revenue annually. Currently 99.7 percent of litigation is taking place at the state trial court level, the very court system that is entirely ignored by LexisNexis and Westlaw, who focus on appellate court data. When Trellis launches in New York in late 2019, the platform will be available to 25 percent of the nation’s 3 million lawyers.
“Attorneys and firms that embrace technology will have more time to focus on the meaningful aspects of practice, and bringing in new business, which is why we see investor dollars surging into the legal industry,” says Jeff Bocan, whose firm Okapi Venture Capital led Trellis’ Seed round. “Business opportunities this massive, and this scaleable, don’t come around often.”
About Trellis
Trellis helps litigants win motions and win cases by creating the first and only database of California state court records, with more than 5.1 million records and counting. Trellis makes available practical judicial biographies and career insights, as well as actionable analytics on individual judges, and strategy reports to prepare your filings and oral arguments. Trellis was founded by Nicole Clark, a career litigator. Trellis has received $2M in Seed funding from well known institutional investors including Okapi Venture Capital, Craft Ventures and Sequoia Scout, Revel Ventures and Intrepid Ventures. Angel investors who participated in the round include Earthlink founder and CEO Sky Dalton, former Federal Communications Commissioner Julius Genachowski, Clutter CEO Brian Thomas, and Wayne Cheng, who sold Crashalytics to Google. Trellis is a graduate of Techstars LA 2018.