Who Owns LegalZoom?
LegalZoom is owned by its shareholders as LegalZoom.com, Inc., a public company listed on Nasdaq under ticker LZ. Founded in 2001 in Los Angeles, it is the leading online legal services platform, reporting fiscal 2025 revenue of $756 million with approximately 1,200 employees.
Parent Company
Founded
2001
Status
Publicly Traded
Headquarters
Who Owns LegalZoom?
- Parent Company: LegalZoom.com, Inc.
- Ownership Type: Wholly owned
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock Ticker: Nasdaq: LZ
| Brand | Parent Company | Ownership Type |
|---|---|---|
| LegalZoom | LegalZoom.com, Inc. | Wholly owned |
Advertisement
History of LegalZoom
- Founded: 2001
- Founders: Brian S. Lee, Brian Liu, Edward R. Hartman, Robert Shapiro
Brian S. Lee, Brian Liu, and Edward Hartman founded LegalZoom in Los Angeles in 2001, recruiting attorney Robert Shapiro as co-founder and public face. The idea was to unbundle routine legal work: wills, LLC formations, trademarks, and divorces did not require a $400-an-hour lawyer if software could generate the documents.
The model caught on with consumers and small businesses priced out of traditional legal services. LegalZoom became the dominant online legal brand through heavy advertising, with Shapiro's celebrity giving it credibility the category lacked.
Private equity entered in 2014 when Permira took a controlling stake for about $1 billion, buying out early investors including Polaris Partners, Kleiner Perkins, and Institutional Venture Partners. Under PE ownership the company expanded into registered agent, compliance, and business services.
The June 2021 Nasdaq IPO at $28 per share returned it to public markets. Since then the strategy has been converting one-time transactions into subscriptions: legal plans, registered agent renewals, compliance services, and attorney consultations that turn a single LLC filing into recurring revenue.
Advertisement
Acquisitions have layered on capabilities, notably the Formation Nation purchase that contributed to fiscal 2025 growth and LZ Legal Services, the Arizona licensed law firm that lets the company employ attorneys directly where state alternative business structure rules allow.
Fiscal 2025 was a record year: revenue of $756 million, up 11 percent, subscription revenue of $492.5 million, record free cash flow of $147.9 million, and a $100 million increase to its buyback authorization announced in early 2026.
About LegalZoom.com, Inc.
What does LegalZoom own?
It owns the LegalZoom platform and brand, the LZ Legal Services Arizona law firm, and acquired brands including Formation Nation and Earth Class Mail.
Advertisement
Is LegalZoom publicly traded?
Yes. It trades on Nasdaq under ticker LZ after a June 2021 IPO.
Who founded LegalZoom?
Brian S. Lee, Brian Liu, and Edward Hartman, joined by attorney Robert Shapiro, who founded it in Los Angeles in 2001.
Advertisement
Where is LegalZoom headquartered?
Mountain View, California, having moved from its original Los Angeles base.
How many brands does LegalZoom own?
The master LegalZoom brand plus three-to-four acquired and subsidiary brands.
Advertisement
Who owns LegalZoom?
Public shareholders on Nasdaq, with no controlling owner. Permira, which owned it from 2014, exited through the 2021 IPO.
How does LegalZoom make money?
Subscription fees for registered agent, compliance, and legal plan services, plus transaction fees for one-time products like business formations and wills.
Advertisement
- Founded: 2001
- Headquarters: Mountain View, California, USA
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock: Nasdaq: LZ
- Revenue: $756.0 million (FY2025)
- Employees: Approximately 1,200 plus 700 contractors
Where Is LegalZoom Made / Based?
- Headquarters: Mountain View, California, USA
LegalZoom Categories & Tags
LegalZoom Sustainability & Ethics
LegalZoom's social impact proposition is access to justice: it prices routine legal services far below traditional attorney fees, extending basic legal help to consumers and small businesses that could not otherwise afford it.
The company's ethics record is dominated by the unauthorized practice of law debate detailed below: the perpetual tension between selling legal documents and practicing law without a license, the issue that has defined its regulatory life.
It publishes ESG disclosures covering workforce and governance, though its material footprint is the social one of democratized legal access balanced against quality and accountability questions.
LegalZoom Recalls & Controversies
LegalZoom's regulatory history is the unauthorized practice of law. State bar associations and plaintiffs challenged whether selling legal documents constituted practicing law, producing settlements including a 2011 Washington state agreement and a North Carolina resolution that let it operate under document-preparation rules.
Advertisement
Class actions over its products, including disputes about document quality and the marketing of attorney services it does not itself provide, have settled periodically over the years without ending the business model.
The FTC-era scrutiny of subscription practices across the industry touches its recurring-revenue model, where cancellation and auto-renewal practices draw the standard complaints for subscription businesses.
LegalZoom Ownership: Pros & Cons
Advantages
- +Dominant brand recognition in online legal services
- +65 percent subscription revenue provides predictable economics
- +Record fiscal 2025 with strong cash generation and buybacks
- +Full-service catalog from formation through estate planning
- +Arizona law firm subsidiary extends into actual legal practice
Considerations
- -Perpetual unauthorized-practice-of-law regulatory exposure
- -Lower-priced competitors undercut on formation and documents
- -AI threatens the document-generation product at its core
- -Subscription model invites auto-renewal scrutiny
- -Conversion of transactions to subscriptions has a saturation limit
Advertisement
Frequently Asked Questions About LegalZoom
Sources & Further Reading
Advertisement
Competitors to LegalZoom
No direct competitors found in the same category. This could be because LegalZoomoperates in a unique market segment or we're still building our competitor database.
Advertisement
Independent Alternatives to LegalZoom
Looking for brands with different ownership structures? These similar brands are not owned by LegalZoom.com, Inc., giving you alternative choices that support different corporate structures.
Legal ServicesMorgan & Morgan
Owned by Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
America's largest personal injury law firm, founded by John Morgan in 1988, generating more than $2 billion in revenue with 1,000-plus attorneys.
law-firmpersonal-injurylegal-services
Privately Owned
Morgan & Morgan is privately owned, unlike LegalZoom which is under a publicly traded parent company.
LegalZoom.com, Inc. Stock Information
Advertisement
Jobs at LegalZoom.com, Inc.
Latest News About LegalZoom
Advertisement
Related Articles About LegalZoom
View more articles
Consumer Education
How to Support Truly Independent Brands
Finding genuinely independent brands requires more than reading labels. Here is a practical, sourced guide to identifying and supporting brands that are not owned by large multinationals.
Who Brands StaffApr 14, 2026
Independent BrandsBrand OwnershipConsumer Research
Health
Hospital and Clinic Brand Ownership
HCA Healthcare is the largest for-profit hospital system (190 hospitals, $75.6B revenue). Tenet has 50 hospitals ($21.3B). UHS has 346 behavioral facilities. Fresenius leads dialysis. Explore our database.
Who Brands StaffNov 14, 2026
Hca HealthcareTenet HealthUhs
Health
Eye Care Brand Ownership: Bausch & Lomb to Alcon
J&J Vision (Acuvue) leads contact lenses at 27-30%. Alcon (Novartis spin-off) holds 25-27%. CooperVision has 22-24%. Bausch + Lomb has 12-15%. EssilorLuxottica dominates lenses at 30.7%. Explore our database.
Who Brands StaffNov 13, 2026
Bausch LombAlconCoopervision
People Also Searched
Discover popular brands and companies in the Legal Services category and related searches from other users.
Brandlaw-firm
Morgan & Morgan
America's largest personal injury law firm, founded by John Morgan in 1988, generating more than $2 billion in revenue with 1,000-plus attorneys.
Brand in Legal Services
personal-injurylegal-services
CompanyLegal Services
LegalZoom.com, Inc.
The leading online legal services company for consumers and small businesses, listed on Nasdaq since 2021.
Company with Legal Services brands
CompanyLegal Services
Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
Morgan & Morgan is America's largest personal injury law firm, a private partnership founded in 1988 generating more than $2 billion in annual revenue.
Company with Legal Services brands