Los Angeles-headquartered state court data and analytics provider Trellis has raised $14.1 million Series A round led by Headline. Some of the legal industry’s heaviest hitters participated in the Series A as angel investors, including Colin Stretch, former general counsel of Facebook; Julius Genachowski, the former FCC Chairman; David Hantman, former head of public policy at Airbnb; Eddie Lazarus, EVP of Sonos; and Matt Mazza, general counsel at Appfolio. This latest financing brings Trellis’ total fundraising to $20 million.
Launched in 2018, Trellis is a searchable database of state trial court data. While this data is in the public domain, it has previously been difficult to access remotely. Trellis is acquiring the unstructured data across different states. Aggregated via Trellis’s two products — Smart Search and Judge Analytics — users are able to find past rulings, search opposing counsel’s dockets, review court documents such as past motions, and understand a judge’s ruling tendencies and biographical information including evidentiary rules.
Trellis uses machine learning in order to surface information and provide insights across 362 trial courts, with plans to expand further.
“The opacity of the state court system is unacceptable.” said Nicole Clark, co-founder and CEO of Trellis. “By creating a way to aggregate data, and providing legal teams with a streamlined way to access critical case-making insights, we are modernizing the world’s largest court system. Harnessing digitally-accessible data to create successful litigation strategies will be the new baseline for the legal industry.”
Trellis currently aggregates data from courts across 12 of the most litigious states in the nation. At the end of 2020, it expanded its coverage to trial courts throughout Delaware and Cook County, Illinois. To see its full coverage, click here: https://trellis.law/coverage
“Accessing state court data is a major pain point in today’s legal process,” said Jett Fein, partner at Headline. “Nicole, Alon, and the Trellis team built a platform that completely transformed a decades-old process, and in turn, democratized access to legal insights for litigators and others across the United States. We look forward to being a part of Trellis’ continued momentum as they bring greater access and transparency to state court data.”
The latest funding will be used to fuel product expansion and hiring efforts as the company seeks to extend its reach.
The round also saw participation from Calibrate Ventures, Okapi Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Revel Partners.