Clio has never hesitated to make bold acquisitions over the years: acquiring Lexicata in 2018, CalendarRules and Lawyaw in 2021 and ShareDo in March this year. Today, they made their biggest gamble yet. In June, Clio acquired vLex, the global legal research company behind legal research and case law tools, Fastcase and Vincent AI.
Valued at $1 billion, this acquisition marks a new milestone in law firm management systems and legal AI. Clio brings its clientele of more than 200,000 legal professionals. vLex brings a massive library of legal research, spanning U.S. and international jurisdictions, and cutting-edge law-specific artificial intelligence in the form of Vincent AI. With this move, Clio hopes to “establish a new category of intelligent legal technology at the intersection of business and the practice of law.”
Clio’s acquisition of vLex marks another step in Clio’s maturation into a full-service platform similar to Microsoft 365. Starting with law firm management, they have gradually expanded with modules for customer relationship management (Grow), document automation (Draft), and financial tracking (Accounting). Legal research and advanced AI tailored for law are the newest components. With these additions, Clio positions itself as an all-in-one solution for modern law firms.
Recognized by Am Law 100 firms, courts and bars around the world, vLex not only enhances Clio’s in-house offerings, but also unlocks two key growth opportunities. First, the acquisition further strengthens Clio’s focus on mid-sized and large law firms, building on its purchase of UK-based ShareDo. Second, in the United States, many bar associations offer case law research as a free or discounted benefit to their members, often through Fastcase, a subsidiary of vLex. In 2023, Clio announced that it had established a partnership with all 50 U.S. state bars. In 2024, Clio had more than 100 partner bars and associations around the world. This strategic combination – legal research and practice management – presents the opportunity to offer members of the bar a unique, holistic and integrated law firm solution.
For legal tech enthusiasts with long memories, Clio’s acquisition of vLex could trigger a sense of reverse deja vu, if that’s possible. In the 1990s, deep-pocketed research publishers Thompson and Lexis gobbled up legal software products. Legal technology is now returning the favor.
Clio’s acquisition of vLex represents another step toward the recent vertical integration of legal technology stacks. The first saw practice management system providers integrate electronic payments in-house (For exampleClio created Clio Payments and LawPay bought MyCase). The second, toward AI, a faster-than-ever evolution in legal technology, continues to produce tools that work better the more data and services you use from a single provider or ecosystem. With vLex and its Vincent AI, Clio adds legal research to its portfolio of “single source” offerings.
Years ago, Jack Newton, CEO of Clio, remarked that he would like Clio to be the Microsoft Windows of the legal field, a common foundation on which people build. By acquiring vLex, Clio’s vision expands to become perhaps the Microsoft 365 of legal: a suite of tools that manage what most lawyers need most of the time. As with consumer offerings in our personal lives, bundled services suggest exciting possibilities, particularly when it comes to convenience and cost savings.
Although details remain limited at this time, Newton said: “More detailed information on this transformative change will be shared at ClioCon 2025 in Boston. »
Last updated August 19, 2025
