Today LexisNexis reveals the first five participants in its new Silicon Valley legal tech accelerator program that was created to give startups a in the rapidly expanding legal tech industry. In line with LexisNexis' broader vision to transform the way law is practiced, each of the accelerator participants is uniquely innovating in distinct areas of the law. After a thorough evaluation process, the five finalists – Visabot, TagDox, Separate.us, Ping, and JuriLytics – were selected from a list of 40+ promising startups for the interesting nature of their businesses and their innovative use of technology. 

Based in the Menlo Park, CA offices of Lex Machina, the program will leverage the vast content resources,  deep expertise in legal, technology, and startup domains, and industry-leading market positions of LexisNexis and Lex Machina to guide and mentor program participants. The program will be led by Lex Machina CEO Josh Becker with support from LexisNexis' Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Reihl, Chief Product Officer, Jamie Buckley, Vice President of US Product Management, Jeff Pfeifer, and Lex Machina Chief Evangelist, Owen Byrd.

"We're very excited to kick off our tech accelerator with five incredible and promising startups – Visabot, TagDox, Separate.us, Ping, and JuriLytics – and look forward to providing them with the practical guidance and industry expertise they need to advance their businesses," said Jeff Pfeifer. "The goal of our tech accelerator program is to identify some of the best and brightest legal tech startups, contribute to their early success, and then watch as their innovative technologies and vision transform the business and practice of law."

The five charter members of the LexisNexis legal tech accelerator program are:

• Visabot: An "immigration robot" powered by artificial intelligence that helps customers complete U.S. visa applications, including locating relevant open data about an applicant, guiding applicants in the process of gathering supporting documents, ensuring forms are filled out accurately, and drafting appropriate language to tell the applicant's story. 
• TagDox: A legal document analysis tool that creates tags, allowing users to identify and structure information in a variety of document types, improving both the speed and the quality of the document review process; "tag results" can transform documents into easily readable summaries, checklists, database feeds or approval overviews. 
• Separate.us: A web-based application that automates legal document preparation for divorces and provides access to relevant professionals at affordable fixed rates, deploying a business model that targets both B2B and B2C customers. 
• Ping: An automated timekeeping application that collects all of a lawyer's billable hours, capturing missed time and money (an estimated 20% across the industry), and operating entirely in the background in concert with standard legal billing software. 
• JuriLytics: An expert witness peer review service that attorneys can use to challenge their opponent's experts with previously unobtainable credibility and bullet-proof their own expert's work through vetting from the world's top researchers (in any field of expertise).

Throughout the rigorous, 12-week curriculum, tech accelerator participants will gain knowledge and expertise in a variety of topics including technology and product development; running an agile product development organization; building a strong company culture; selling to legal departments and law firms; leveraging legal data; and best practices in customer success, marketing and fundraising. In addition, they will have access to a vast collection of enriched legal data and cutting-edge tools and technologies from LexisNexis, and will be able to leverage the company's established relationships with Stanford University and other leading Bay Area schools, businesses, VCs and influencers to grow their companies.

"The LexisNexis legal tech accelerator is a promising initiative," said Miriam Rivera, Managing Partner at Ulu Ventures and an advisor at the Venture Capital Director's College, a part of The Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. "As a legal tech investor and former Deputy GC of Google responsible for expanding the use of legal technology throughout the department, I am convinced the LexisNexis tech accelerator will not only foster innovation but also encourage new companies to thrive with sound business practices."