Ravel Law bought by LexisNexis

LexisNexis has issued a press release announcing their acquisition of Ravel Law, " a legal search, analytics, and visualization platform that aims to turn lawyers into data analysts." Ravel was started in 2012 by law student Daniel Lewis et al in a dorm room at Stanford. According to the email announcement that Daniel sent out, "Simultaneously, we will begin work on integration with LexisNexis. You can expect that Ravel's analytics offerings will continue to expand and be fully integrated into Lexis Litigation Profile Suite. Additionally, Ravel's search visualization will be integrated into Lexis Advance. Finally, Ravel's Harvard caselaw content will enrich the already expansive caselaw collection available from LexisNexis. We hope to complete integration with LexisNexis by early 2018, at which time we will ensure a seamless transition for our customers."
News of the acquisition has been widely reported as an indication that data analysis is of increasing importance to the practice of lawyering and conducting legal research.  The Wall Street Journal reported the acquisition as "When it comes to the future of lawyering, LexisNexis is doubling down on big data." SLAW says that "LexisNexis Seeks to Turn Lawyers into Data Analysts." The ABA Journal says that "LexisNexis Legal and Professional has acquired legal research and litigation analytics firm Ravel Law, and will integrate Ravel's data visualization and profiling technology into LexisNexis services."