CRIV CONNECTION

Author: Mary Jenkins, Library and Research Services Manager, Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A.

Introduction

Our readers are aware that ALM, the producer of Law.com and other information and news resources for the legal, financial, real estate, and other markets, announced in July 2024, and at various times since, that it would be expanding the Law.com platform and providing exclusive content. The consolidation of its legal information resources on the revamped Law.com platform removed ALM content from other aggregator services like Lexis and Bloomberg products and introduced new access models, including several packages and levels. Beginning in January 2026, the Law.com archive is available only through the fee-based NewsVault. The aim of this post is to summarize ALM’s legal platform changes and impacts on law libraries and their users.

Background

Considered a core information resource by many legal information professionals, especially in the private or law firm sector, Law.com was launched by ALM via a major platform redesign in 2017 that brought all its legal brands together and accommodated searching across titles while maintaining the option of individual subscriptions and access via other publishers. At that time, ALM announced that the platform would provide for scalable innovation and marketing opportunities going forward. Looking back now, the press release hints at more recent developments.

Impacts

While information professionals are accustomed to vendor models that have the effect of restricting access to some proprietary content or increasing costs, significant modification to Law.com’s access model has potential impacts on users, including:

Affordability: An all-or-nothing pricing model is more costly than an à la carte model if a library generally needs access to only one or two regional or specialty publications. Article reprints are available but an organization’s need for many articles would be cost-prohibitive. These factors can have a significant budgetary impact and have required careful budget planning by customers while the pricing models were still being developed. ALM offers pricing that varies by customer type and appears to be based on full-time equivalent students or attorney counts.

Access: The aggregator model, including licensing agreements between legal publishers, has typically meant that users can find one vendor’s titles on other platforms. The current exclusive ALM model removes access points via Bloomberg Law and Lexis. In addition to familiar legal news sources, Law.com houses surveys and rankings like the Am Law 100, NLJ 200, and the like. Further, ALM has disallowed resource sharing amongst libraries. Information professionals are asking other publishers how they intend to expand or replace content or what they believe is an equivalent resource of their own, including legal news coverage and verdicts and settlements.

Scholarship: Six months of news coverage may be all that many users want but legal scholars and researchers often need access to historical content and issues which are now only accessible via ALM’s proprietary NewsVault, thus monetizing and limiting archives access to those organizations that can afford it and seemingly not offering a comprehensive archive. NewsVault does include National Law Journal, Legal Intelligencer, American Lawyer, Supreme Court Brief, Corporate Counsel, among its 40 titles. Additionally, the model presents significant barriers to preservation and permanent archiving.

Features

Law.com offers personalized tools like alerts and customization of newsfeeds. Subscribers have access to six months’ worth of its publications and can view their search history as is common on legal information platforms. Collaboration tools like annotating and sharing are available, along with customizable folders.

There are other considerations as well, such as AI features, citation formats, and download formats. CRIV continues to monitor developments and Requests for Assistance. Information professionals may continue to speak with ALM representatives about the new product configurations and the user experience.

Related Content

These earlier CRIV Connection posts may be of interest to readers:

CRIV/Bloomberg Law SemiAnnual Update (December 1, 2025, Author: Deanna Barmakian)

Print to Electronic Standing Committee: Vendor Subcommittee Meeting Notes with ALM (May 5, 2025, Author: Carolyn Walters)

Highlights from the CRIV Semiannual Conference Call with Bloomberg Law (December 9, 2024, Author: Ashley Arrington)

ALM to Remove Legal News from Lexis and Bloomberg Law by 2026 (November 4, 2024, Author: Andrew Christensen)