The Westlaw and LexisNexis Duopoly: How Two Companies Control Access to American Law
By
toomuchtodo
Kettled twice. Extra chewy, extra trustworthy.
Summary
This article examines the Westlaw and LexisNexis duopoly in legal research, arguing that their dominance since the 1990s has led to high costs for legal professionals and limited access to legal information. Written by a federal judicial law clerk and attorney, the piece explores how these two platforms control access to case law, statutes, and legal documents, creating barriers for lawyers, small firms, and the public. It discusses the historical consolidation of the legal research market, the pricing structures that make these services expensive, and how emerging AI technologies might disrupt this duopoly by offering more affordable alternatives for legal research.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe law in America does not belong to lawyers, it belongs to all of us. As citizens, we must be able to read the law, understand it.
Ever since a spate of mergers in the 1990s, Westlaw and LexisNexis have dominated legal research. And that might be why searching legal cases is so costly, even in the age of AI.
I'm excited to be writing a guest piece for BIG, this time on a particular competition problem I (and nearly every lawyer) deals with on a daily basis: the Lexis/Westlaw duopoly.
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