Understanding Legal Analytics for Civil Rights: A Conversation with Lex Machina Civil Rights Legal Data Expert, Samantha Pallini – Part 1

What is your name and position at Lex Machina?

Sam: My name is Samantha Pallini, and I am the Legal Data Expert for our Civil Rights module. My role is to create, maintain, and oversee the six different Civil Rights modules; part of that involves keeping my finger on the pulse of what is going on in Civil Rights litigation. I also ensure we’re prioritizing data integrity, that important cases are being highlighted, and that I am keeping an eye on trends in the practice area so that our offerings meet the needs of our customers.

How did you become involved in the Civil Rights practice area at Lex Machina?

Sam: My legal career has always been rooted in Civil Rights law, starting with working on 1960s civil rights cold cases as a law student, to working for the United States Attorney’s Office and for a federal judge who oversaw a lot of Section 1983 cases. Professionally, in New York City and Chicago, I litigated federal Civil Rights cases, as well as a few Civil Rights appeals in the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, and then one case we were seeking cert to be granted in the United States Supreme Court. All of this culminated in my interest in joining Lex Machina in its pursuit to grow its Civil Rights offerings, so that our customers could benefit from a greater understanding of the landscape of Civil Rights litigation.

You mentioned that you create, maintain, and oversee the 6 different Civil Rights modules. Can you provide us with more information on these modules?

Sam: Lex Machina has case types and case tags. Civil Rights is the case type, and underneath that case type are six different case tags: the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, Voting, Education (inclusive of Title IX and IDEA), First Amendment (inclusive of the core rights that come explicitly from the Bill of Rights, plus a few extras not in the Bill of Rights), and Police Action (lawsuits brought against law enforcement defendants alleging misconduct).

Each lawsuit gets filed in a Nature of Suit (NOS) code, but part of our job at Lex Machina is to go above and beyond those NOS codes to develop each case tag. In order to make them as accurate and comprehensive as possible, we look at the contents of these lawsuits. Practitioners know that Civil Rights claims cross over into many different practice areas, so the NOS code where these cases are being filed is not the sole factor of importance. This means that the way our team engineers these case tags becomes more of a holistic approach. We look at the pleadings, what claims are being alleged, the NOS code, the parties, and with all of that information, we have designed these modules to provide that fuller and more complete picture of Civil Rights legal analytics across the federal courts.