Robert Ambrogi Blog
Over the past few years, there have been a few twists and turns in the competition among legal research platforms to be the preferred partner of state and local bar associations.
Once, that competition was almost exclusively between Fastcase and Casemaker. That changed when Fastcase acquired Casemaker in 2021. Then, in 2023, Fastcase merged with international legal research company vLex, and two years later, Clio acquired vLex in a $1 billion deal and rebranded the legal research service as Clio Library.
Meanwhile, back in 2021, soon after Fastcase acquired Casemaker, establishing a virtual monopoly over the bar association business, RELX, the parent company of LexisNexis, quietly launched the legal research service Decisis, hoping to get a share of that pie.
As I have noted before, although Decisis was developed as a subsidiary of RELX under the corporate name Legal InQuery Solutions Inc., its website makes no mention of either LexisNexis or RELX.
Even so, by 2025, the gambit seemed to be working, as Decisis had expanded to 20 bar partnerships, including 14 state bar associations.
But now, the Maine State Bar Association, which had previously signed on with Decisis, and which had originally had an affiliate relationship with Casemaker, has, as of Oct. 1, moved to Clio Library.
In a press release posted Sept. 17, the MSBA said it was “impressed with the breadth of resources available through Clio Library.”
In a message to its members, the MSBA said:
“We believe the new platform will provide a more robust legal research experience and, for members who use Clio’s practice management software, greater integration within the Clio ecosystem. The new platform will also integrate with Clio Work, an AI-powered legal platform that we plan to introduce as an additional MSBA member benefit in November.”
The partnership provides MSBA members with free access to Clio Library. In addition, they get four months of free access to Clio Work, after which they have access to a limited version unless they choose to subscribe.
“This new partnership significantly reduces the Association’s cost of providing online legal research — saving more than $50,000 annually — while creating additional opportunities to generate non-dues revenue,” the bar said in its message to members. “These savings will help us continue providing valuable member benefits while limiting pressure on membership dues.”
But for those keeping score, that is not the end of the story. Even as Maine leaves Decisis, one other state beyond those I listed in 2025 has left Fastcase for Decisis: Oregon, which made the move in the latter half of 2025.
Thus, while Decisis has lost Maine, its count of state bar partnerships remains at 14. Meanwhile, by my count, Clio Library has partnerships with 36 state bars.
So the competition continues.