--- title: "Trellis opens 2.5 billion court records to Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude" description: "Trellis's state trial-court data, which covers the 98% of US cases that never reach appeal, is now reachable inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude. In the legal AI land-grab, the Los Angeles firm licenses the same proprietary dataset into every rival camp." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Applications" published: 2026-10-28T19:09:15.738Z modified: 2026-10-28T19:09:15.738Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/trellis-opens-2-5-billion-court-records-to-microsoft-copilot-chatgpt-and-claude language: en keywords: "Legal Tech, Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft, Data Licensing, Courts" --- # Trellis opens 2.5 billion court records to Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude > Trellis's state trial-court data, which covers the 98% of US cases that never reach appeal, is now reachable inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude. In the legal AI land-grab, the Los Angeles firm licenses the same proprietary dataset into every rival camp. ## A trial-court archive lands inside Word Trellis, a Los Angeles legal-research company co-founded by chief executive Nicole Clark and chief operating officer Alon Shwartz, [switched on a connector to Microsoft 365 Copilot on October 15, 2026](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trellis-brings-state-trial-court-research-to-microsoft-365-copilot-302909458.html) [1]. A lawyer drafting a motion in Word can now pull briefs that won before the same judge, against the same opposing counsel, without leaving the document [1]. Trellis also sells that litigation intelligence directly, as judge analytics and daily filings reports [2]. ## The 98% of cases legal research never covered The asset underneath is scale. Trellis says it holds more than 2.5 billion state trial-court records across 45 states, 3,000 courts and 30,000 judges [1]. The National Center for State Courts [counts 70 million cases filed in state courts each year](https://econotimes.com/Trellis-Adds-State-Trial-Court-Research-to-Microsoft-365-Copilot-1755141), and puts the share of US cases handled there, never reaching appeal, at 98% [3]. Traditional legal research was built on published appellate opinions, the 2% remainder that gets appealed [1]. ## Microsoft raises the bar; Trellis rents to every camp [Microsoft](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/microsoft)'s Copilot for Legal initiative ships more than 20 purpose-built legal skills, plugins from [Harvey](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/harvey), [Legora](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/legora) and DeepJudge, and a [research partner list that seats Trellis beside Bloomberg Law](https://www.globallegalpost.com/news/microsoft-targets-legal-ai-market-with-launch-of-specialist-copilot-tools-311025839) [4]. Distribution is Microsoft's edge: the International Legal Technology Association's 2026 survey puts generative AI use or exploration at 94% of responding firms, up from 80%, with Copilot the most widely used tool at 76% [1]. *Chart: **Copilot already runs in 76% of law firms** Column chart: law firms using or exploring generative AI rose from 80 percent in 2025 to 94 percent in 2026, and Microsoft Copilot is already in use at 76 percent of firms.* *ILTA 2026 Technology Survey, share of responding law firms, as cited in Trellis's October 15, 2026, release. [1]* Clyde & Co director Stephen Allen framed the squeeze on specialists: "what can we do that Microsoft can't" [4]. Trellis's answer is to license the same data into every camp: a Claude connector on May 12, a ChatGPT plugin on July 28, Microsoft 365 Copilot on October 15, 2026 [6]. Microsoft lists Trellis as a [federated connector, fetched live over the Model Context Protocol](https://trellis.law/) under the user's own permissions and kept out of Microsoft's index [3]. ## The record is the moat The platforms are paying for reach. Legora [raised $550 million at an $8.8 billion valuation](https://thenextweb.com/news/legora-series-e-550m-8-8bn-valuation) on October 21, 2026, with annual revenue above $200 million, six weeks after Harvey raised $550 million at $15.5 billion [7]; [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai), [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic) and Google all shipped legal AI offerings this year [4]. On September 29, 2026, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals [upheld Thomson Reuters' copyright win over Ross Intelligence](https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/court-deals-blow-use-copyrighted-works-train-ai/), which had copied Westlaw headnotes to train a rival engine, the first such ruling by a federal appeals court: legal-research data is ownable property, and incumbents will litigate to keep it [8]. Thomson Reuters plays both sides, shipping its HighQ software as a Copilot partner while defending its corpus in court [4]. The limits are real: Microsoft warns Copilot for Legal answers are advisory and can carry inaccurate citations, so a lawyer still signs the work, and Trellis discloses no revenue, valuation or usage figures [3]. Watch the next connector deal and the first takeover bid for a court-record archive: Microsoft owns where lawyers work; Trellis owns the record of what the courts did. ## Takeaway Trellis licenses its 2.5-billion-record state trial-court archive into Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude at once, making the trial-court record, not the model, the scarce asset in legal AI. ## Sources 1. [PR Newswire, Trellis Brings State Trial Court Research to Microsoft 365 Copilot, 15 October 2026](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trellis-brings-state-trial-court-research-to-microsoft-365-copilot-302909458.html) 2. [Trellis product site, trellis.law, accessed 28 October 2026](https://trellis.law/) 3. [EconoTimes, Trellis Adds State Trial-Court Research to Microsoft 365 Copilot, 18 October 2026](https://econotimes.com/Trellis-Adds-State-Trial-Court-Research-to-Microsoft-365-Copilot-1755141) 4. [The Global Legal Post, Microsoft targets legal AI market with launch of specialist Copilot tools, 16 October 2026](https://www.globallegalpost.com/news/microsoft-targets-legal-ai-market-with-launch-of-specialist-copilot-tools-311025839) 6. [PR Newswire, News from Trellis release archive (Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot integrations), accessed 28 October 2026](https://www.prnewswire.com/news/trellis/) 7. [The Next Web, Swedish legal AI firm Legora raises $550M led by Atreides at $8.8B valuation, 21 October 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/legora-series-e-550m-8-8bn-valuation) 8. [PYMNTS, Federal Appeals Court Deals Blow to Use of Copyrighted Works to Train AI, 1 October 2026](https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/court-deals-blow-use-copyrighted-works-train-ai/) --- Trellis opens 2.5 billion court records to Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/trellis-opens-2-5-billion-court-records-to-microsoft-copilot-chatgpt-and-claude