Legal Services Acquisitions in California

Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) has acquired Signature Resolution, a Los Angeles-based provider of high-complexity private dispute resolution services, partnering with the company's founders who will retain significant equity. LLCP will support Signature's plans to expand geographically beyond California, invest in platform capabilities, and broaden equity participation among its network of approximately 100 affiliated mediators and arbitrators. Signature will continue to be led by co-founder and CEO Dario Higuchi and the company's existing leadership team.

Scale LLP has merged with San Francisco-based Fathom Law, adding six attorneys and strengthening Scale's corporate and emerging companies/venture capital (EC/VC) practice. The deal expands Scale's national bench to roughly 80 attorneys and deepens its capabilities to serve startups and venture-backed companies across financing and M&A matters.

IMS Consulting & Expert Witness Services (dba IMS Legal Strategies) has acquired Southern California-based MMR Strategy Group to expand its litigation support and marketing research capabilities. MMR brings PhD-level expertise in litigation surveys, advertising claim substantiation, and expert testimony; terms were not disclosed.

Magna Legal Services has acquired e-Legal, an independent service-of-process firm based in California, effective April 8, 2025. The acquisition expands Magna's litigation support capabilities and national footprint, with e-Legal founders Lisa Huey and Steve Hill continuing in leadership roles.

Blumberg and Attorneys Corporation Service, Inc. (ACS) have completed a merger, with the combined business operating under the Blumberg Legal Automation name. The deal brings ACS's business formation, filing and registered-agent capabilities into Blumberg's legacy legal forms and automation offering to expand product scope and customer services.

Counsel Press, the Align Capital Partners-backed outsourced legal services platform, has acquired Case Anywhere, a cloud-based case management, eService and collaboration platform. The deal expands Counsel Press’s capabilities into trial court and ADR markets, strengthens its West Coast presence, and creates cross-selling opportunities with its existing appellate services.

Aurora Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based middle-market private equity firm, has acquired First Legal, the largest independent provider of outsourced litigation support services in the United States. The deal, terms not disclosed, positions Aurora to support First Legal's growth and product capability expansion across court filing, eFiling, service of process, court reporting, eDiscovery, record retrieval and trial support services nationwide.

CyEx, a provider of data breach response solutions, has acquired Simpluris Inc., a class action settlement administrator. The acquisition will allow CyEx to add settlement administration capabilities and deliver data breach restitution services to a broader set of clients while Simpluris will continue to operate as a standalone business under its existing leadership.

Elevate has acquired The CJK Group (CJK), a multilingual document review and eDiscovery support provider serving law firms and corporate legal teams across Asia and North America. Arbor Ridge Partners served as exclusive advisor to CJK on the transaction; Elevate said CJK’s Chinese, Japanese and Korean language capabilities will strengthen its global eDiscovery and document review offerings.

Lexitas, a national provider of technology-enabled legal support services and a portfolio company of funds advised by Apax Partners, has acquired Kopy Kat, a long-standing record retrieval and litigation support provider headquartered in Brea, California. The acquisition expands Lexitas' record retrieval and litigation support capabilities and brings Kopy Kat's team and resources into Lexitas' national platform.

Array, a nationwide litigation support firm, has acquired Alliance Imaging, LLC, a Los Angeles–based provider of litigation support services. The acquisition expands Array’s geographic footprint in Southern California and enhances its eDiscovery, document processing, and trial-preparation capabilities for law firms and in-house legal teams.

Total Lender Solutions (TLS), a San Diego-based nonjudicial foreclosure processor, has acquired the assets of Sacramento-based Mortgage Lender Services and its sister company Sunrise Assessment. The deal expands TLS's geographic footprint in Northern California and Nevada, consolidates foreclosure and assessment processing capabilities, and follows Mortgage Lender Services President Marsha Townsend's planned retirement.

Dallas-based FBFK Law Firm and Orange County-based Stephens Friedland LLP have merged, with Stephens Friedland partners John Stephens and Todd Friedland joining FBFK to expand the firm’s commercial litigation and M&A capabilities in Southern California. The combination strengthens FBFK’s transactional and litigation bench across Texas and California and is intended to better serve cross-state corporate clients.

Magna Legal Services, LLC acquired City Record Services (CRS), a San Diego-based record retrieval firm, in a transaction completed October 18, 2023. The deal expands Magna's record retrieval capabilities across California and the West Coast and integrates CRS's team under Magna's Record Retrieval division while CRS founders will remain in leadership roles.

Boundless Immigration acquired Bridge on August 22, 2023, combining Bridge’s purpose-built visa application software and legal expertise with Boundless’s consumer and employer immigration platform. The deal creates a tech-driven, end-to-end immigration solution for both businesses and individual families, enabling customers to manage corporate immigration programs and personal immigration journeys in one offering.

Lexitas, a portfolio company of funds advised by Apax, has acquired Kusar Court Reporters, a Long Beach, California-based court reporting and litigation support firm founded in 1983. The acquisition expands Lexitas' presence in the Western U.S. and adds Kusar's realtime court reporting capabilities to Lexitas' technology-enabled litigation services platform.

Fennemore announced it expanded into Orange County, California by adding lawyers and legal professionals from Rynn & Janowsky, LLP, bolstering the firm’s agribusiness, employment, and business law capabilities. The move increases Fennemore’s West Coast headcount (to 500+ team members and ~250 attorneys) and establishes a new Orange County office effective October 1, 2022.

California law firm Weintraub Tobin merged with boutique healthcare law firm Salem & Green effective January 1, 2022, expanding Weintraub's corporate and healthcare capabilities. Three Salem & Green attorneys — Julie E. Green, Christopher F. Anderson, and Jeanne L. Vance — joined Weintraub's Corporate Group to broaden its healthcare M&A, regulatory and transactional practices.

Lexitas, a portfolio company of funds advised by Apax, has acquired Imber Court Reporters, a Valencia, California-based court reporting firm specializing in workers' compensation matters. The deal expands Lexitas' presence in the California market and broadens its outsourced litigation services offering to law firms, TPAs, insurance companies and corporate clients.

Lexitas, a portfolio company of funds advised by Apax Partners, has acquired CD Photocopy, a California-based records and document retrieval firm focused on defense-side workers' compensation and civil liability matters. The deal expands Lexitas' presence in Southern California (Tustin and Riverside) and strengthens relationships with major third-party administrators to support national growth of its records and litigation support services.

Fastcase acquired the legal technology assets and team of Judicata to integrate Judicata's California-focused legal research, analytics, and workflow tools into Fastcase and Docket Alarm, and to scale those capabilities nationwide. The Judicata team, including its CTO, joined Fastcase to help build the next generation of Fastcase research tools.

InfoTrack US has acquired One Legal, a Petaluma-based provider of litigation support and eFiling SaaS, to expand InfoTrack's presence and services in the California legal market. The acquisition aims to deepen end-to-end workflow integration for law firms, leveraging One Legal's connections to California courts and its established client base of legal firms.

Litigation Services LLC, a Las Vegas–based litigation support and court reporting firm, has acquired Verbatim Reporting Services of Santa Rosa, California. The acquisition expands Litigation Services' local court-reporting capacity and coverage in Sonoma and Marin counties; Verbatim's partners Denise Veirs and Roseanna Spinale will remain on the team.

Los Angeles-based law company Elevate secured a $25 million minority growth investment from Kayne Partners to scale operations, support continued acquisitions, and enhance its Cael enterprise legal management software. The capital will help Elevate meet increasing customer demand and accelerate product and service expansion to corporate legal departments and global law firms.