From Westlaw to Westlaw Advantage: How the Names Tell the Story of Westlaw’s Evolution

With the coming arrival of Westlaw Advantage for students, Westlaw promises “the combined power of agentic AI and industry-leading content.” Beyond the promised changes to the underlying technology, the launch adds yet another name to Westlaw’s long line of rebrands with each one marking how the company has tried to define the future of legal research. From Westlaw to WestlawNext, Westlaw Edge, Westlaw Precision, and now Westlaw Advantage, the shifting titles trace more than product updates, they reflect changing ideas about what it means to find and interpret the law.

Westlaw traces its origins to 1872, when John B. West founded the John B. West Publisher and Book Seller. Incorporated as West Publishing in 1882, the company grew steadily and, in 1908, introduced the Key Number System, a classification framework that continues to structure American case law research.

In 1975, West Publishing launched Westlaw, its first computerized research database. The original system ran on dedicated terminals that provided access to headnotes but not full case texts.

By 1992, Westlaw Is Natural (WIN) introduced natural language searching, allowing users to enter queries in ordinary English rather than Boolean syntax.

After Thomson Corporation acquired West Publishing in 1996, the companies merged to form the West Group. The following year, KeyCite was released as Westlaw’s proprietary citation service.

In 1998, Westlaw.com made the service available through standard web browsers, removing the need for specialized hardware or software.

The next major redesign arrived with WestlawNext in 2010, which incorporated ranking algorithms based on legal content, metadata, and user behavior. Marketing materials at the time emphasized its focus on usability and “human” search, though its core function remained the delivery of case law and secondary sources through a structured interface. WestlawNext became Thomson Reuters Westlaw.