LawLytics, a legal technology management software company based in Tucson, has been acquired by the Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group, a global legal practice management and legal search technology company.
The goal is that LawLytics will expand the offerings of Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group, as well as help the group become more firmly established in the United States.
LawLytics provides easy-to-use website management software for small law firms and solo practitioners. The platform is designed to help attorneys by providing the easiest and most efficient way to start, improve and maintain a successful law firm website.
Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group consists of an international network of legal technology companies that collaborate and share technologies and products between them to design solutions for attorneys and law firms.
“We were acquired by essentially the largest legal technology company in the world,” LawLytics founder and CEO Dan Jaffe told AZ Tech Beat.
Details of the deal remain undisclosed, but Jaffe did say his company was purchased for a “big, fair amount.” The deal was a reverse merger, where LawLytics remains intact and Jaffe stays at the helm. In fact, Jaffe said he’s signed a long term contract to stay on as CEO.
“LawLytics will continue to operate as a company and as a brand,” Jaffe said.
LawLytics will no longer have to operate as a startup. Instead of worrying about how much more runway his company has, Jaffe and his team have the financial and strategic backing to keep improving their product.
Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group was founded by Australian entrepreneur Christian Beck. Beck has been called a “legal technology pioneer” and is building his company by acquiring some of the best legal technology companies in the world. While Beck allows the companies to continue to run themselves, he is involved in the strategy of each company and the network as a whole.
Beck said in a statement that he believes LawLytics will provide an important contribution to his company’s mission.
“LawLytics has built a unique platform to deliver world-class websites to small law firms, at scale,” Beck said. “Its software has emerged as the strongest leader in the very large and competitive U.S. market and is the future of legal marketing. We’re excited to partner with Dan and the LawLytics team.”
Jaffe founded LawLytics in 2011. Jaffe started his career as a criminal defense attorney. He practiced law for 10 years and then started a legal directory, which he sold in a 7-figure deal. He realized he loved working in tech and decided to start another legal technology company. Using some of the money from the sale of his previous company, he decided to build legal technology software to help lawyers struggling with their websites.
“I knew what was bugging me when I was practicing,” said Jaffe.
LawLytics has grown in size and success since then. Earlier this year, Jaffe was fielding multiple requests to sell. It wasn’t until he connected with Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group five months ago that selling actually made sense to him.
“What I saw in Christian was a person who was doing this at an extremely high level and believed in the vision of LawLytics,” Jaffe said.
LawLytics now has 27 full-time employees and has plans to expand rapidly. According to Jaffe, one of the company’s main priorities is hypergrowth. He said LawLytics is about to go on a “hiring spree” over the next year. While Jaffe didn’t give an exact number, he anticipates adding between 15-20 new employees that he hopes will come from Arizona.
Jaffe is excited to continue to fully dedicate himself to building LawLytics, and he has faith in the company’s future.
“My stance is that LawLytics has unicorn potential and worldwide potential,” he said. “I’m super excited to be growing it here in Arizona.”