John B. West founded West Publishing more than 135 years ago to support the needs of legal professionals. This foundation remains an integral component and a driving force behind Thomson West today.
In June 1996, The Thomson Corporation, a leading provider of integrated information solutions to business and professional markets worldwide, brought together the well-known imprints of Thomson Legal Publishing and the highly respected West Publishing Co. This merger resulted in the formation of Thomson West, the foremost provider of integrated information solutions to the U.S. legal market.
Following are some milestones in Thomson West's history:
2008: Thomson receives regulatory approval to acquire
Reuters, a global information company known for its international multimedia news agency and financial information services products. The combined company, Thomson Reuters, will be a global leader in providing essential information to business and professional customers around the world.
West acquires
Contact Networks, adding a powerful social networking dimension to its portfolio of client and relationship management products and services.
2007: West acquires
Baker Robbins & Company, a leading provider of technology and information management consulting to law firms and corporate law departments.
2006: Thomson Legal & Regulatory becomes
Thomson Legal. Under this umbrella, West and its neighboring brands form the
Thomson North American Legal (TNAL) segment.
West acquires
LiveNote
[link: www.livenote.com], the leading provider of real-time transcript, document, and evidence management software and services.
2005: West acquires
Global Securities Information, Inc. (GSI),
Netscan iPublishing and
Hildebrandt International.
2003: West acquires
Elite, a premier provider of financial, practice, and business intelligence software to the legal industry and other professional services markets.
2001: West acquires
FindLaw, the leader in free online legal information and services and the highest-trafficked legal Web site. and ProLaw, which provides front-office/back-office software applications for law firms.
1998: West launches westlaw.com, providing Web access to Westlaw. Within a few years, the majority of Westlaw searches are conducted through the Westlaw Web interface.
1996: Thomson acquires West Publishing Company, integrating Thomson Legal Publishing and West Publishing to form West Group.
1995: Thomson creates Thomson Legal Publishing, integrating Bancroft-Whitney, Clark Boardman Callaghan, and Lawyers Cooperative Publishing.
1994: West Publishing joins forces with The Rutter Group, which began its legal publishing efforts with the California Practice Guide and has been recognized as one of the premier providers of continuing legal education.
1993: West Publishing acquires Banks-Baldwin. Banks Law Publishing Co., organized in 1804, is the earliest forbearer of West and the oldest law publishing company in America. Originally called Gould and Banks, the firm was based in New York City with offices on Wall Street.
West Publishing moves its headquarters from St. Paul to Eagan, Minnesota.
1991: Callaghan and Clark Boardman companies merge. Thomson acquired Callaghan in 1979 and Clark Boardman in 1980. Callaghan & Company was founded in Chicago in 1864; the Clark Boardman Company was established in 1916 in New York City.
1989: Thomson purchases Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (LCP); it becomes the flagship of the Thomson Legal Publishing Group, which specializes in analytical legal research materials. LCP was founded in 1882 in Newark, New York; the company moved to Rochester, New York, in 1885.
1987: Thomson acquires legal publishing businesses in the U.K. (
Sweet & Maxwell), Canada (
Carswell), and Australia (The Law Book Company).
1975: West Publishing launches Westlaw, which is now the premier online legal research service.
1940: West Publishing acquires Foundation Press, established in the 1930s as a publisher of law school textbooks, which continues to be a leader in legal textbooks today.
1929: West responds to practitioners' need for faster access to the changing body of law with pocket parts. Pocket parts remain essential to the modern lawyer's law library.
1919: Bancroft-Whitney becomes a subsidiary of Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, later purchased by The Thomson Corporation. Bancroft began publishing law books in San Francisco in 1857 and was joined by Sumner Whitney, another law publishing firm, in 1886.
1887: Building on the success of the North Western Reporter, West creates The National Reporter System, providing Reporters for every area of the nation.
1882: Just six months after the first Syllabi is published, West publishes the North Western Reporter, with opinions from both Minnesota and Wisconsin courts. It also introduces another innovation: editorial enhancements, summarizing and classifying key points of law in court opinions.
With Charles W. Ames and Peyton Boyle, the West brothers incorporate the company. West Publishing's first product is The Syllabi, a weekly record of excerpts from Minnesota courts.
1872: John B. West and his brother, Horatio, establish West Publishing in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
1870: John B. West arrives in St. Paul, Minnesota. He works as a traveling salesman for D.D. Merrill bookstore. West is the first salesperson for West Publishing and the first full-time law book salesperson in Minnesota, traveling throughout the upper Midwest by train, horse-drawn carriage, and sleigh.