| Parent company | Thomson Reuters |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1872 |
| Founder | John B. West |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Eagan, Minnesota |
| Publication types | Books, Databases |
| Nonfiction topics | Law |
| Official website | west.thomson.com |
West (also known by its original name, West Publishing, and currently a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters) publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has been one of the most prominent publishers of legal materials in the United States. Its headquarters is in Eagan, Minnesota; it also has offices in Rochester, New York and Cleveland, Ohio. Organizationally, West is part of the global legal division of Thomson Reuters. West's official name is West, a Thomson Reuters business.
West was founded in 1872 in St. Paul, Minnesota by John B. West as West Publishing Company. West Publishing is most famous for establishing the National Reporter System, a system of regional reporters, each of which became well known for quickly and reliably reporting all state court appellate decisions within its region. West also reports decisions of the federal Courts of Appeals in the Federal Reporter and of the federal district courts in the Federal Supplement. Technically, all of West's reporters were originally unofficial reporters published without the express authorization or endorsement of the courts.
Due to their consistently high quality and regular publication schedule, West reporters have become the nationwide de facto standard used by all federal courts and most state courts, despite their technically unofficial nature. Indeed, a few smaller states discontinued their own official reporters and with West's cooperation, began inserting certificates in the volumes of the relevant West regional reporter certifying it as their official reporter. Thus, at present, American lawyers and judges regularly perform legal research in West reporters, and in turn cite primarily to West reporters in their written work product.
Thomson purchased West in 1996. Thomson also consolidated into West a number of other law book companies purchased by either Thomson or West, including Bancroft-Whitney, Banks-Baldwin, Barclay, Callaghan & Company, Clark Boardman, Foundation Press, Gilbert's, Harrison, Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, and Warren, Gorham & Lamont. Today, West also publishes some treatise titles purchased from Shepard's (but not Shepard's Citations). Through these acquisitions, Thomson has become one of the "big three" of legal publishers, along with LexisNexis and Wolters Kluwer. From 1997 to 2004, West was known as "West Group."
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