Legal Atlas

What Legal Atlas does

Legal Atlas is a private, Missoula-based (US, LLC) legal intelligence firm operating as a fully remote team of 11-50 people, founded in 2011 by Maria Pascual and James Wingard. The company builds and maintains the Legal Atlas® Platform, a specialized web-based tool that reorganizes national and international laws by topic — such as wildlife trade, climate change, biodiversity, freshwater, zoonotic disease, and women's rights — rather than by traditional legal library subjects, enabling rapid comparative analysis across jurisdictions. Underlying platform modules include Dynamic Topics, Data from Law, Mapping the Law, and Visualizing the Law, supported by features such as a Compare Database, Gap/Conflict Monitor, Configurable Research Desk, and Quick Reference Maps; the firm has compiled legal frameworks for 196 countries covering more than 7,600 laws and regulations.

Legal Atlas generates revenue through a hybrid model: subscription access to the Legal Atlas® Platform combined with project-based professional services. The services arm delivers comparative legal gap analyses, legislative review and development support, treaty compliance assessments, field investigations, and direct training for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal staff. The customer base is concentrated in the global conservation and international development ecosystem — including WWF, TRAFFIC, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN Environment, UNEP-WCMC, UK DEFRA, Pew Charitable Trusts, Arcus Foundation, Zoological Society of London, FAO, and CITES — and is reached through content-driven marketing (publications and ResearchGate-indexed reports), industry recognition (Top 100 Most Influential Legal Tech Firms Globally by Planet Compliance Legal Tech 500), and partner referrals. The company has trained over 100 professionals in more than 15 countries and operates with no disclosed external institutional investors or parent company.

Name

Legal Atlas

Legal name

Legal Atlas, LLC

Website

https://legal-atlas.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Legal Atlas is a remote, US-based legal intelligence firm that builds a proprietary platform organizing laws by topic across 196 countries, serving conservation NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, and governments with comparative legal research, consulting, and training services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal Intelligence Software

NAICS

Legal Services (5411), Other Legal Services (54119)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYMPAJACAA

Legal & Regulatory Publishing (Case Law, Statutes, Treatises)

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Publishing (Books, News, Magazines)/Professional & Legal Publishing (Standards, Compliance, Reference)

SECONDARYEDAGAGAB

Legal Reference (Statutes, Case Law, Practice Guides)

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Professional & Technical Reference Publishing

SECONDARYEDABADAF

Information Governance, Records Management & eDiscovery Compliance

Education/Corporate Training & Professional Development/Compliance, Ethics & Regulatory Training

SECONDARYEDAGANAK

Legal & Governance Professional Development

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Professional Development & Training Materials

Keywords

• Legal intelligence platform
• Comparative legal analysis
• Wildlife trade law
• Environmental law research
• Legal consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Missoula

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Legal Intelligence Platform Subscription: Access to the Legal Atlas® platform providing legal intelligence, comparative analysis tools, and research capabilities.
2. Consulting Services: Project-based consulting engagements including comparative legal gap analyses, legislative review and development, training of legal professionals, project design and implementation, and field investigations.
3. Legal Training: Direct training services to judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal staff on legal assessments, judicial management practices, and development procedures.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Legal Atlas builds and operates a proprietary legal intelligence platform that reorganizes national and international law by topic rather than by traditional legal subject headings, enabling comparative legal analysis across jurisdictions. The platform is complemented by project-based legal consulting, gap/conflict analyses, legislative review and development support, and direct training services delivered to legal professionals and conservation organizations globally.

Product overview

Legal Atlas operates as a platform-plus-services model built around its core Legal Atlas® Platform. The platform provides global legal intelligence through a suite of interconnected modules: Dynamic Topics organizes legal content by issue; Data from Law enables comparative analysis; Mapping the Law provides geographic visualization; and Visualizing the Law delivers graphical summaries. Supporting features include the Compare Database, Gap/Conflict Monitor, Research Desk, and Quick Reference Maps. The company complements its platform with professional services including Legal Assessments, Legal Consulting, and Legal Training. Together, these components enable users to transform overwhelming amounts of legal information into accessible, comparable, and actionable legal intelligence across multiple jurisdictions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Legal Atlas® Platform: A comprehensive legal intelligence platform providing global legal research, analytics, and comparative analysis tools

Products and services

• Legal Atlas® Platform Web-based legal intelligence platform providing continuously researched, topic-organized access to national and international laws across 196 countries, with comparative analysis tools, visual analytics, mapping, and gap/conflict monitoring for legal professionals, conservation organizations, and government clients.
• Legal Assessments Project-based service providing comparative legal gap analyses and best practice development at national, regional, and international scales for governments, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations.
• Legal Consulting Legal consulting service offering gap analyses, treaty compliance assessments, and legal best practices recommendations to organizations operating in conservation, wildlife trade, and international development contexts.
• Legal Training Direct training service delivered to judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal staff on comparative legal assessments, judicial management, and legal development procedures, including country-specific illegal wildlife trade training programs.

Named customers12 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint development of WWF Risk Filter Suite methods for assessing regulatory deficiency risk in freshwater and biodiversity. Collaborated on Law of the Tiger comparative study of tiger trafficking laws.
• TRAFFICcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint publication with WWF and TRAFFIC on Law of the Tiger - comparative study of laws governing tiger trafficking in 12 tiger range states.
• Asian Development Bank (ADB)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEngaged in development projects involving legal frameworks for various ADB initiatives.
• Zoological Society of London (ZSL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Silent Steppe II project investigating wildlife trade trends in Mongolia, including legal review and amendment drafting.
• Pew Charitable TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on legal analysis of IUU fishing and related legislation, including development of visual analytics.
• Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeveloped online wildlife marketing monitoring tools and policy briefs on digital dangers and wildlife cybercrime.
• UK Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFunded legal intelligence projects for cheetah illicit trade and Silent Steppe II wildlife trade research.
• Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in DEFRA-funded legal intelligence project for cheetah illicit trade.
• International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsulting partner for wildlife trade legal framework projects.
• Lancaster UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in wildlife trade and legal research.
• University of KentminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner including co-authorship on chimpanzee conservation publications with DICE.
• UN EnvironmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDeveloped visual analytics for UN Environment including ocean law treaty summaries.
• UNEP-WCMCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReport on governance of areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) for biodiversity conservation as part of GEF program.
• Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Mongolia wildlife trade studies and EU Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for Central Asia.
• West Coast Environmental LawminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerProduced visual analytics for Guide to Coastal and Ocean Protection Law in British Columbia.
• Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on CMS-IGAD harmonizing IWT and TFCA laws, and linear infrastructure guidelines for mammals in Central Asia.
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-authored reports on sustainable wildlife management laws with FAO Legal Officer for Western and Central Asia.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• LexisNexis: Global legal information and analytics platform with deep case law, statutes, and regulatory content. Comparable as a comparative legal intelligence provider to enterprise legal and government customers, though far broader in scope than Legal Atlas's topical approach.
• Westlaw: Premier legal research platform owned by Thomson Reuters with extensive cross-jurisdictional coverage. Comparable as a legal intelligence platform serving lawyers and government regulators, though oriented to traditional litigation and transactional research rather than topical comparative analysis.
• Wolters Kluwer: Large professional information and legal regulatory publisher serving legal, tax, and compliance professionals globally. Comparable through its legal and regulatory compliance content lines, especially in environmental and trade compliance where Legal Atlas also operates.
• IUCN: International authority on biodiversity and natural resource conservation, including significant work on environmental law and policy. Comparable as an institutional partner and consumer of comparative environmental legal analysis, especially through the IUCN Environmental Law Centre.

Direct peers

• vLex: AI-powered global legal intelligence platform spanning multiple jurisdictions, with visual and comparative analytics for lawyers and organizations. Direct comparable given shared emphasis on cross-border legal content, AI-driven research, and visual analytics.
• Ecolex: Joint UNEP/FAO/IUCN database of environmental law covering treaties, national legislation, and jurisprudence globally. Directly comparable as a comparative environmental legal information resource, though with a more traditional database structure than Legal Atlas's topical platform.

Emerging players

• TRAFFIC: Wildlife trade monitoring network producing reports and analyses on illegal wildlife trade regulation and enforcement. Comparable as a partner and content collaborator on wildlife trade legal frameworks, though primarily an NGO program rather than a commercial platform.
• TRALAC: Trade Law Centre providing research, analysis, and training on trade law across African jurisdictions. Comparable in offering topical comparative legal analysis and capacity building for legal professionals in a specific subject area.

Regional players

• ClientEarth: Environmental law NGO using legal analysis and strategic litigation to enforce and develop environmental law globally. Comparable in the use of comparative legal research and environmental regulatory expertise, though operating as a legal advocacy organization rather than a software platform.

Others

• FAIR360 (formerly Ethisphere): Compliance, ethics, and regulatory benchmarking organization. Tangentially comparable as a buyer and developer of comparative regulatory intelligence for corporate ESG and compliance programs, though operating in a different category.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/legal-atlas
• Xx.com/LegalAtlas
• Facebookfacebook.com/LegalAtlas

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Legal Atlas