Trellis is a state trial court legal research and analytics platform with AI-based insights on judges, verdicts, opposing counsel, motions, dockets, and legal issues.
What Is the Background of Trellis?
Trellis was founded by Alon Shwartz and Nicole Clark, who has over a decade of litigation experience specializing in labor and employment law. Her work in state trial courts revealed a significant gap: there was no single centralized source of trial court data. While federal and appellate court information was somewhat readily accessible, the largest court system in the world—state trial courts—lacked an equivalent resource. This realization, coupled with a pivotal experience where access to a judge's prior ruling helped her win a motion, inspired Clark to create Trellis.
What Problem Was Trellis Originally Designed to Solve?
Lawyers often face difficulties obtaining information about judges, opposing counsel, or relevant rulings in similar cases. Trellis consolidates and structures this data, enabling litigators to conduct strategic research, improve efficiency, and gain insights that were previously unattainable.
How Does Trellis Leverage Generative AI?
Trellis recently introduced Trellis AI, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to further streamline litigation processes. Built on its extensive database of state trial court documents, Trellis AI uses generative AI to perform tasks such as motion drafting, case assessment, and legal research. It automates the identification of similar cases, extracts winning arguments, and applies case-specific facts to legal precedents, producing draft work product that saves attorneys significant time.
What Use Cases Are Addressed by Trellis?
Trellis supports a wide range of litigation tasks, including:
-
Strategic Research: Analytics on judges, such as their rulings on specific motions, and insights into opposing counsel's litigation strategies.
-
Motion and Memo Drafting: Attorneys can find prior work product to use as templates or starting points, further enhanced by Trellis AI's automated drafting capabilities.
-
Case Tracking: Monitoring ongoing cases across state trial courts.
-
Case Assessment: Generating comprehensive reports summarizing facts, deadlines, procedural tactics, and discovery needs.
What Are Trellis' Target Demographics and Market Reach?
Trellis is designed specifically for trial court litigators and others involved in state trial court litigation. Its primary users include attorneys, paralegals, and legal researchers who need detailed, jurisdiction-specific insights and analytics. Trellis will also be releasing its comprehensive federal coverage soon.
How Does Trellis Differentiate Itself in a Competitive Market?
Trellis stands out through its unparalleled database of state trial court documents, which spans back to 2005 and includes hundreds of millions of records. Unlike many AI tools that rely on chat-based interfaces, Trellis AI emphasizes outputting actionable work product, eliminating the need for prompt engineering. Its specificity to trial court litigation ensures that its features are deeply tailored to its users' needs, providing solutions that general legal tech tools cannot match.
