# West Publishing

> West Publishing is the Minnesota legal publisher behind the National Reporter System, West Key Number System and Westlaw. Now part of Thomson Reuters, its legacy combines published legal authorities, attorney-written editorial material, citation checking and subscription research software used by law firms, courts, government agencies and law students.

- **Founded:** 1876
- **Headquarters:** Eagan, United States
- **Founders:** John Briggs West (Founder), Horatio West (Early partner and co-founder)
- **Products:** National Reporter System, West Key Number System, Westlaw, KeyCite, Westlaw Brief Builder
- **Notable:** Built a nationwide regional reporter network by 1887., Introduced the Key Number System in 1908., Launched Westlaw in 1975.

## Products & services

- **National Reporter System** — Regional and federal court-reporting publications that collect decisions and add editorial research aids.
- **West Key Number System** — A classification system linking legal issues across cases, now covering more than 400 topics and over 100,000 subdivisions.
- **Westlaw** — Subscription legal research combining primary law, secondary analysis, editorial navigation and research tools.
- **KeyCite** — Citation checking and citing references for assessing subsequent treatment of legal authorities.
- **Westlaw Brief Builder** — A Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal capability drawing on Westlaw Deep Research, KeyCite and Practical Law to support first-draft briefs.

## Achievements

- Built a nationwide regional reporter network by 1887.
- Introduced the Key Number System in 1908.
- Launched Westlaw in 1975.
- Acquired by Thomson in 1996 for approximately $3.4 billion.
- Westlaw remains a widely used subscription research platform under Thomson Reuters.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Thomson Reuters announced general availability of next-generation CoCounsel Legal, including Westlaw Brief Builder.
- **2026-10** — The Global Print majority-stake sale to KKR-advised accounts closed October 1; the business operates as Westbridge Print.
- **2026-10** — On October 19, Thomson Reuters disclosed that Westbridge Print pays a royalty equal to 20% of its Professional revenue for the exclusive print and ProView content license.

## Links

- Website: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/westlaw
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/west-publishing-corporation
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Westlaw
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thomsonreuters
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomsonreuters/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomsonreuters

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/west-publishing
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-23