Today’s Mitratech Minutes provided interesting insight in a LinkedIn post entitled, “The Digital Supply Chain as the New Frontline: What 2025 Revealed and How Risk Leaders Should Prepare for 2026.” Mitratech reports that in 2025, third-party exposure became one of the most reliable predictors of business-impacting cyber events, adding that a clear shift has emerged: attackers increasingly pursuing access through vendors, integrations, and shared platforms because it scales. The article is definitely worth a read by all legal technologists. It is available here.
2025 Holiday Greeting
Every year GLE makes a donation to World Central Kitchen. WCK is an extremely worthy and beneficial global organization focused solely on providing food in areas that have been stricken by natural or other disasters impacting the availability of food. We love this organization and applaud their mission.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Mitratech Parent, Obtains New Financing
Reuters reported last February (see post) that Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan was seeking a buyer for Mitratech. It was reported today, however, that Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has obtained $2B financing from a group of credit investors led by Blackstone and including Antares Capital, replacing its old lender group that included Golub Capital, UBS, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank that provided $780M of financing allowing for the majority acquisition in 2021 by OTPP from HG. See here for information on this current financing deal. With financing like that, I predict more system acquisitions by Mitratech are coming.
Onit Acquires LawBase
Today Onit announced its acquisition of the case management system LawBase. This follows the early 2025 acquisition of Legal Files, another case management system, and deepens Onit’s commitment and foothold in the SLED market.
Priori Adds Ebilling Functionality
Priori, a legal technology platform for outside counsel decision-making, has launched a flexible ebilling integration and Next Steps Flow within its Panel Management and RFP platform. This new functionality provides post-RFP accountability and budget oversight without limiting which ebilling provider is used by Priori clients.
Acquisition of Elite
Bob Ambrogi reports that Elite has been acquired by Francisco Partners, a global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses from its current owners, TPG Capital and Thomson Reuters. Our best wishes to our friends at Elite in this new iteration of the company.
New Ebilling-Specific Conference in Planning Stage
Inemesit Edet, the principal at Smart eBilling Team, announced recently that she is putting together a legal ebilling-only conference in 2026 called Smart eBill Con. This will be the first legal ebilling only conference ever, which is surprising since our industry is now 30 years old, and it is desperately needed to increase not only law firm skills, but also law department awareness.
Most interestingly, the conference will offer both on-site and virtual registration for attendees.
I worked with Inemesit on the LEDES Oversight Committee Board of Directors and really got to know her when we manned the LEDES booth together at the ILTA Educational Conference in August 2024. She is really smart and an influential voice in our industry.
When I saw the first notice about the intended conference on LinkedIn, I reached out to her and asked how I could help. In addition to assisting however I can with the planning, I will be speaking at the conference in 3 sessions: one on the rise of Jurisdictional Tax Authority Systems (generally referred to as “CTC Systems”); another on the CTC requirements and the impact on legal ebilling; and another on the LEDES XML formats (why, what and how).
Look for more posts on this conference as planning progresses. Learn more about Smart eBill Con.
Brightflag Acquired by Wolters Kluwer
Just read that Wolters Kluwer has acquired ELM vendor Brightflag for $480M. See here for more on the acquisition.
As ever, the legal ebilling world continues to amaze with acquisitions in this space. One can only wonder what else is in store…
Bottomline Legal Spend Management Acquired by Sedgwick
It was announced today that Sedgwick TPA has acquired Bottomline’s Legal Spend Management Division, including the Legal-X and Legal eXchange platforms. Bottomline’s legal spend products are leading solutions in the insurance industry and include TPA features for managing claims, so this looks like a good fit. The acquisition combines Bottomline’s legal spend platforms with other Sedgwick claims and bill review solutions, allowing for a full suite of solutions under a new Sedgwick Legal Spend Management division.
Mitratech For Sale?
Reuters reported today that Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan was exploring a $4B sale of Mitratech. For more information, see their posting here.