Francisco Partners will acquire Elite, a leading provider of software and integrated payments solutions for the legal industry, from TPG Capital and Thomson Reuters. This acquisition aims to provide Elite with financial support to continue its growth and innovation. Terms were not disclosed.
Since 2023, Elite has advanced its legal tech offerings by modernizing operations, launching a cloud-native platform, expanding its AI and payments features, and increasing its cloud subscriber base. Serving about 2,000 law firms—including most of the Am Law 100 and Global 100—Elite recently enhanced its native payments through acquiring Tranch.
Advisors: Evercore served as the exclusive financial advisor, and Davis Polk & Wardwell served as the legal advisor to Elite and TPG. Centerview Partners served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor to Francisco Partners.
KEY QUOTES:
“With Francisco Partners’ financial support and extensive legal software and payments expertise, we are confident they are the right partner to help us continue to deliver our transformative products to the legal industry. Building on the success we achieved with TPG, this next phase positions Elite to scale faster, deepen our cloud and AI capabilities, and help law firms operate with greater speed, insight, and efficiency.”
Mark Dorman, CEO of Elite
“Elite’s powerful, cloud-based platform for large law firms positions it perfectly for long-term growth.”
Peter Christodoulo, Partner at Francisco Partners
“We are excited to partner with CEO Mark Dorman and the entire Elite team as they continue to drive innovation in the legal technology sector.”
Evan Daar, Partner at Francisco Partners
“We’re proud to have partnered with Mark and the team over the past two years to transform Elite from an innovative solution within a corporation into an independent, cloud-first legal tech provider central to law firms’ operations.”
Tim Millikin, Partner at TPG
“Elite is playing a critical role in the digital transformation of the legal industry, and we’re confident they will continue to succeed in partnership with Francisco Partners.”
Akash Pradhan, Business Unit Partner at TPG
