Lex Machina is a company that provides lawyers with insights on which to base opinions – an essential element of good lawyering. Through Lex Machina, lawyers can now predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce and craft successful strategies to win cases and close business. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lex Machina General Manager and Head of Product Carla Rydholm to learn more about the company.
Role At The Company
Could you tell me more about your background and how you came into your current role? Rydholm said:
“I joined Lex Machina in 2010 as one of the original employees after it spun out of Stanford and have been along for the ride ever since— including our journey as a venture-backed startup through various rounds of funding, our acquisition by LexisNexis in 2015, and the subsequent expansion to bring Legal Analytics to more and more areas of the law.”
“My early contributions allowed me to work alongside data scientists and engineers as a legal analyst and product manager, leading to my current role as General Manager and Head of Product. Working on integrated teams of technologists and legal domain experts has been incredibly rewarding as we seek to create the most valuable and meaningful datasets and analytics for our customers.”
Primary Responsibilities At The Company
What are your primary responsibilities within the company? Rydholm shared:
“I lead the overall business strategy and operations, including setting the product roadmap. My responsibilities include meeting our commercial goals and supporting the team in bringing the most trusted source of litigation data and analytics to our customers.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and key features? Rydholm explained:
“Our focus at Lex Machina is legal data and analytics. Using artificial intelligence and technology-assisted attorney review, we deliver comprehensive data & visualizations for motion outcomes, case resolutions, damage awards, remedies, legal findings on the merits, timing to key milestones, and more for millions of civil cases in US state & federal courts. Users may filter to the analytics that are relevant to their case & compare key experience metrics as they pertain to each party, attorney, law firm, court, and judge involved.”
“Lawyers using Lex Machina enhance the accuracy and precision of their strategic recommendations and marketing claims, thereby using data in both the practice of law and the business of law.”
Recent Innovations
What recent innovation has your team delivered, and what inspired its development? Rydholm explained:
“Protégé in Lex Machina makes it even easier for our users to uncover relevant analytics for the issues, parties, firms, attorneys, courts, and judges involved in their cases. Released on April 8, 2025, Protégé in Lex Machina empowers users to input questions, statements, or prompts and receive instant analytics to address common pain points in legal research, such as time-consuming manual searches and difficulty navigating complex data. Now, users of all experience levels can easily type a query and get immediate, high-quality analytics, simplifying legal research and decision-making.”
“We’ve designed Protégé in Lex Machina with the goal of simplifying user access to critical legal insights. The breadth of capabilities within Lex Machina can be daunting to new or occasional users. By eliminating the need to navigate manually through complex data facets, Protégé in Lex Machina offers an intuitive and efficient way for new & experienced users alike to find leading litigation intelligence relevant to their needs.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones so far? Rydholm cited:
“In 2010, Lex Machina was launched as a venture-backed startup from a public interest project at Stanford Law School (‘Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse’). We originally focused on coding outcome analytics for IP cases filed in federal district courts. Over time, we’ve created outcome analytics to empower data-driven lawyering for more and more jurisdictions and areas. We now cover all commercially relevant civil litigation in federal district courts, appellate courts, bankruptcy courts, patent-related administrative proceedings, and over 100 state courts.”
“LexisNexis acquired Lex Machina in 2015, enabling us to grow our platform using the best court coverage in the industry and become an industry-leading source of litigation intelligence that users enjoy today. And there’s so much more to come. Just this month, we launched Protégé in Lex Machina, which includes a generative AI search that makes our highly structured database even more intuitive to access.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates your company from competitors in the space? Rydholm affirmed:
“We’re the only company that can create datasets far beyond the docket. We invest in documents, have created proprietary technology to utilize those documents, and incorporate attorney review to create comprehensive and constantly updated outcome analytics. We also create entity analytics for judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties that are unique in their completeness and accuracy.”
“We’ve tackled datasets that are high-value but incredibly difficult to create unless you have the underlying content, including documents, use the appropriate technology, and have an integrated team of technologists and domain experts that work collaboratively. For example, our class action analytics and appellate analytics are incredibly valuable and unrivaled. Creating denominators that attorneys should trust is a lot of work and innovation!”
Additional Thoughts
Are there any other topics or insights you’d like to share with our audience? Rydholm concluded:
“Legal technology is in an exciting phase of innovation and participation coming from across the industry – from established titans like LexisNexis to startups as well as academic institutes, law firms, and companies from adjacent industries. There are loads of opportunities to get involved. Anyone interested in chatting should feel free to reach out.
