UnitedLex Advances Suite of Digital Offerings with Acquisition of Paul Hastings’ Groundbreaking Data Science Team and Unique AI-Driven Capabilities

June 12, 2020

First-of-its-Kind Acquisition a Natural Evolution for Both Firms

UnitedLex announced today the acquisition of Paul Hastings’ multi award-winning Data Science, Analysis, and Investigations (DSAI) team and its AI-empowered technology services group. The move recognizes the strengths of both companies that collectively create an unparalleled market offering: Paul Hastings’ world-leading innovations in data science, AI and the application in Law, combined with UnitedLex’s preeminence in Digital Legal Transformation, litigation, investigations, and data management, extraction, and analysis.

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UnitedLex will add economies of knowledge and scale to further expand the value Paul Hastings lawyers provide their clients, while bolstering its own long-established data and AI capabilities. The acquisition also enables the DSAI offering to be brought to markets beyond Paul Hastings’ own lawyers and clients, taking advantage of UnitedLex’s world-class development team and global reach, along with its legal domain expertise and significant investment potential. The transformative combination will make an imprint on the legal industry as a whole.

Under the terms of the agreement, UnitedLex will broaden and deepen the technology options available to Paul Hastings’ lawyers and clients via significant additional technology investment and execution of aggressive development roadmaps. As a result, UnitedLex will further its competitive advantage in the areas of advanced analytics and AI as applied to a broad range of legal areas across its Litigation, Investigation, Regulatory and Compliance, Contracting, and Intellectual Property businesses.

As part of the DSAI acquisition, UnitedLex will gain an elite team of legal, mathematical, and data science experts, along with the underlying technology platform developed by the group.

Tom Barnett, who established the DSAI team with the support of Paul Hastings’ management six years ago, will continue to lead the team as Senior Vice President and Divisional General Counsel at UnitedLex.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to realize the full potential of what we started during a time when most law firms were not even thinking about—let alone developing—AI and machine learning technology to solve legal problems. We will now be in a position to expand the model to serve legal departments and law firms worldwide,” said Barnett. “The incubation and development of the team would not have been possible without the extraordinarily bold vision of Paul Hastings’ leadership.”

Mr. Barnett, who has founded and led other successful legal technology service groups and companies, is considered one of the world’s leading legal experts in advanced data analytics as well as AI and machine learning. By virtue of Tom’s work and leadership, Paul Hastings received the Financial Times North America Innovative Lawyers Award and the Recorder’s Incubator Award in 2015. Most recently, the firm was named the 2020 National Law Journal’s Washington, DC White Collar Litigation Department of the Year.

“This acquisition is rooted in the same spirit for which DSAI was founded—innovation,” said Greg Nitzkowski, a Managing Partner of Paul Hastings. “We view this as a partnership that will allow the further development of cutting-edge solutions that will benefit both our clients and the legal field as a whole.”

Both firms cited the acquisition a “natural fit” with a combined talent and ability to develop technology-centric products and services that add new value for clients.

“Paul Hastings has been consistently ahead of the curve,” said Dave Deppe, President of UnitedLex. “They have incubated something so unique in Law and taken it to a level ripe for acceleration. What they bring to the table will be accretive to who UnitedLex is and will strengthen us from day one. We are excited, together, to take this technology to the next level.”

About UnitedLex

UnitedLex is a technology and legal services company committed to delivering full-scale Digital Legal Transformation. The world’s most forward-thinking law departments and law firms rely on the company’s expertise in over 25 global jurisdictions. Founded in 2006, the team includes 3,000 legal, engineering, and technology professionals with major operations in 18 countries.

About Paul Hastings

At Paul Hastings, our purpose is clear — to help our clients and people navigate new paths to growth. With a strong presence throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., Paul Hastings is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative global law firms