eDiscovery and data intelligence giant Relativity has submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which is the first step in listing its shares publicly in an initial public offering (IPO). The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The proposed IPO remains subject to the completion of the SEC review process, as well as market and other conditions.
The listing will be watched with interest by other high value, high growth legal tech companies, including Clio, which achieved a $500m Series G funding in 2025 and is valued at $5bn. Other ‘unicorn’ companies (valued at $1bn or more) that have received significant investment and/or are regarded as possible IPO candidates include Harvey, Ironclad, Filevine, EvenUp, Legora and Everlaw.
There have been very few listings of legal technology companies, and the ones that have, have suffered mixed fortunes. 2021 saw three legal tech companies list: Disco, Intapp and LegalZoom. Relativity rival Disco suffered a very rocky period that saw major redundancies and the departure of founder Kiwi Camara. Intapp’s stock price has been fairly volatile, but like Disco, investors are looking with interest at developments around new AI products. LegalZoom’s performance has been strong but more recently it has been under pressure due to competition and AI related threats.
Key challenges faced by listed legal tech companies include the slow sales cycle of law firms, which have traditionally been slow to adopt new technology. While investors have traditionally been quite cautious towards legal tech, the wave of AI transformation looks likely to change that.
Relativity’s expected IPO has been widely anticipated given its scale, profitability trajectory and position as core infrastructure for large-scale investigations and disputes. The listing could serve as an important test of public-market appetite for platform-scale legal technology providers and may help establish valuation benchmarks for the next generation of sector exits.
Whether Relativity’s move ultimately catalyses further listings remains uncertain, but the outcome is likely to influence strategic planning across the upper tier of privately held legal tech companies.
The post Relativity files for IPO – Will it pave the way for others? appeared first on Legal IT Insider.