LexisNexis® #1 Legal Research Vendor in 2021 among Small Firms in Latest ABA Survey

The small-firm world made a big turn toward LexisNexis and away from Westlaw^® in 2021.

According to the latest ABA Legal Technology Survey Report for Online Research, the combination of Lexis^® and Lexis+^® beat out Westlaw and Westlaw Edge in the Use, Preference and Satisfaction categories among small law firms ranging from one to nine attorneys.

This was the first year Lexis+ was included in the ABA survey and the all-in-one service appeared to make a big impact on respondents.

“Releasing Lexis+ in 2020 made a statement to the legal world, particularly to small firms,” said Paul Speca, Senior VP for the LexisNexis Specialized Law segment. “Attorneys find the simplicity of having otherwise separate tools consolidated into one product a huge innovation that matters. This simplicity has translated into massive value for attorneys.”

“It’s been gratifying to see the positive response from Lexis+ customers in the last year, and now from respondents to this ABA survey also.”

Among solo firms, Lexis and Lexis+ made big advances over last year’s survey results in Use (up by 13 points) to gain a 7-point advantage over Westlaw and Westlaw Edge. Preference for LexisNexis products moved to a 3-point advantage over Westlaw and Westlaw Edge, and Satisfaction increased by 1 point to gain a 3-point advantage over Westlaw products. While the increase in Satisfaction was smaller than the other two categories, it contrasted strongly with the stark drop in Satisfaction (17%) for Westlaw and Westlaw Edge.

Among firms with two to nine attorneys, the results were similar.

Survey respondents in the two-to-nine space sent a clear message about Lexis and Lexis+. Final results showed an 18-point jump over 2020 results in the Use category and 14 points in the Preference category, both of which indicated sharp declines for Westlaw and Westlaw Edge.

Parker Bedsole, Senior Marketing Director for the LexisNexis Specialized Law segment, attributes the success of Lexis+ to the fact that it works the way lawyers work.

“Being an attorney requires an enormous amount of focus,” Bedsole said. “Lexis+ eases the distractions of moving from one task to another by combining multiple services in one product, what we call the pillars of Lexis+ — Legal Research, Brief Analysis, Practical Guidance and Litigation Analytics — all integrated into one very user-friendly interface.”

Lexis+ amplifies legal research effectiveness and efficiency by giving attorneys the most comprehensive case law collection available. Brief Analysis scans attorneys’ legal briefs to spotlight potential concerns uncovered by Shepard’s^® Citations Service and Shepard’s At Risk. Practical Guidance offers in-depth help from 98 of the Am Law 100, along with practice notes, checklists, annotated forms, and drafting tools across 20+ practice areas.

Lexis+ has continued to improve and add new functionality in the months since the survey was taken, with the latest edition releasing in October. Judicial Brief Analysis gives users insights into how their judge might react as they are finalizing their case briefs.

Other features offered via Lexis+ include exclusive legal news content from Law360^®, Mealey’s^® and ALM, in addition to The Wall Street Journal^®, The New York Times^® and more.

Experience the new era of legal research on Lexis+ here.