Trellis Research

Trellis Research, Inc. is a legal technology company that operates an AI-powered research and analytics platform built on state trial court data. Through a single Smart Search interface, users can query rulings, dockets, filed documents and verdicts using keywords and Boolean operators, and filter results by party, counsel, court or matter type. Coverage includes California tentative rulings, non-California rulings, and California and New York jury verdicts, bench trial verdicts, arbitration awards and settlements, each linked to the underlying case docket.

The platform's analytics products include Judge Reports, which analyze court data to show how a specific judge rules on significant pre-trial motions and where that judge is an outlier; judge biographies covering career history, political affiliation and articles by and about the judge; and counsel, party and corporation research showing how opposing counsel has previously framed arguments and which parties and lawyers are involved in litigation. A Motion & Issues Library and Motions & Issues Directory provide treatises and primers on how common motions and legal issues are handled at the trial court level, alongside a State Rules Library of statutes, codes, rules and regulations linked to the docket and document database. Additional features include configurable alerts on topics, cases, parties, judges and law firms, in-app document sharing via Envelopes, bulk document download, Law Firm Intelligence and company reports.

Trellis AI components cover attorney analysis reports and document chat, and the company has extended programmatic and agentic access to its dataset through an MCP connector for Claude as well as ChatGPT and Trellis Chat integrations.

Founding story

Nicole Clark, a business litigation and labor and employment attorney who practiced in both state and federal courts, built Trellis to serve her own research needs as a litigator in Los Angeles. She began collecting state court data in 2016 and described herself as the product's first customer, saying she used the data for two years and won every motion during that period. The company was founded in 2018, and in February 2020 Alon Shwartz — co-founder of Docstoc and founder of unGlue, and previously an advisor to Trellis — joined as technical co-founder and chief product officer.

Business model

Trellis sells subscription access to its state trial court research and analytics platform on a B2B basis, serving individual litigators through enterprise law firm and legal department contracts. A freemium layer exposes state trial decisions and filings through organic search, while paid tiers unlock full access to filing documents and the ability to download, print and analyze them. Individual user pricing was reported at $100, with enterprise contracts negotiated; the platform also sells court documents for purchase, including a deferred billing add-on for enterprise large-firm customers.

Subscription SaaS with usage-based elements and data-as-a-service characteristics: recurring individual and enterprise subscriptions determine included content views and document access, while additional court documents can be purchased individually, with deferred billing available to enterprise large-firm customers.

Traction

Trellis reported aggregating data from 362 trial courts across twelve states by October 2021, after starting with what it described as the largest database of California Superior Court records and judicial analytics. It states that it serves some of the largest law firms and legal departments; secondary-market data lists an employee range of about 60 and customer additions including Susman Godfrey LLP as of late 2025.

Latest developments

Trellis has extended agentic access to its state trial court dataset through ChatGPT and Trellis Chat, building on an earlier Claude MCP connector. Its knowledge base documents Trellis AI capabilities including attorney analysis reports and document chat, plus Law Firm Intelligence, company reports and MCP support. Secondary-market firmographic tracking reported additions of new customers, including Susman Godfrey LLP, in November 2025.