Growing by leaps and bounds: Lexitas, a Houston-based leading legal services firm, is expanding aggressively, closes 24 acquisitions in last two years

“We rely on the development and use of innovative technologies to enhance our offerings, efficiency, and value of our work product.”

Lexitas operates as a provider of legal and corporate support services, offering an array of services, including national court reporting, medical record retrieval, process service, registered agent services and legal talent outsourcing. The company serves clients from around the world.

Lexitas was founded in 1987.

As a journalist, I find Lexitas quite striking. From the emotional branding standpoint to the high energy and motivation I felt just talking with the Chief Executive Officer, Gary Buckland, Lexitas stands out. It’s the sense of pride I get just doing this interview and learning about the company.

Interview Highlights

Q. When it comes to longevity, Lexitas has it. I find it unique that an organization has what it takes to continue to offer services for 35 years. How did the company continue to adapt?

Our original company, Depo Texas, was founded on our core values in 1987 and continued to build out its footprint in the Texas market through acquisitions until 2015. Trinity Hunt Partners acquired Depo Texas In the same year with the plan to build out their court reporting offering into a national presence. Additionally, Trinity had the foresight to expand the service offering into medical record retrieval with the acquisition of America First, which is based in Dallas. In November of 2019, after 10 acquisitions with Trinity, the company recapitalized through the sale to APAX Partners. Being part of APAX, the portfolio has provided Lexitas with additional capital resources to scale the business to the next level through larger acquisitions and investment in organic growth. Since 2019, Lexitas has acquired an additional 24 businesses and launched additional service lines; including legal talent outsourcing, process service & investigations, and registered agent/corporate services, to provide our legal and corporate clients with a full support service offering.

Setbacks are a part of every growing business. Tell us about a few roadblocks and learning lessons that helped Lexitas grow through the years.

The most recent roadblock and the learning opportunity was presented during the pandemic. This unprecedented event changed the landscape of the entire legal system. It changed the business model from what was once completely in-person to remote. We learned very quickly that we were not prepared for such a dramatic shift, especially what seemed like overnight. In light of that shift, we were determined to pivot quickly to ensure that our substantial workforce and clients would be taken care of seamlessly. We were able to establish and provide new processes and services seamlessly and securely through remote technology in a matter of days. This hurdle provided us the fuel to focus additional skills and resources on furthering our technology and innovations in this industry, and ensure we will never be behind again.

Outside of the pandemic, most private equity partners would say a major roadblock to acquisition is maintaining and cultivating a culture within a fast-growing business. Culture has been a key part of our success at Lexitas. We have learned over 34 acquisitions that the key to cultural success is having an integration process that is transparent, customizable, and efficient to allow the new team members to feel valued and part of the Lexitas family. This process has been so beneficial for us internally and has proven to provide additional resources to our clients when it comes to quality and satisfaction.

Q. How skilled is the Lexitas team of experts? And how do they bring value to the company?

We have an amazing team of business leaders, the majority of whom were past owners who have stayed post-acquisition in a variety of roles. These are individuals who already had tenure in the legal and corporate industry. They have provided deep strategic insight and continued to help run offices and train individuals.

Lexitas takes training and continued education very seriously and has developed a dedicated Lexitas University for our employees to self-learn industry trends, business skills, and more about our service offerings. Additional resources are always available to assist in learning about industry or business trends. When seeking acquisition businesses, we are not only looking at them via their financial landscape

but also their talent. We want to ensure we have subject matter experts, depth of knowledge, and drive to learn and grow as we formulate comprehensive succession plans for each service line.

Q. No doubt Lexitas is charting new territories in this segment. Given how frequently circumstances change, what plans for transformation are you pursuing to remain relevant now and in the future?

Lexitas is focused on continual improvement and innovation to remain relevant and successful. We do this by eliciting feedback from our clients on their challenges and potential services that can aid them and provide value.

Additionally, we rely on the development and use of innovative technologies to enhance our offerings, efficiency, and value of our work product. We look at it, not as transforming into something else, but as enhancing and focusing on what we do well and continuing to enrich those services for the benefit of our clients. These services are the core of the corporate and legal industries and will remain so in the future.

Q. What level of growth do you hope to see in the next five years?

Lexitas has accomplished a 314% revenue increase through organic growth and acquisition over the last 32 months. We will continue to build out our business model, enhance our technologies, deepen our service lines and add resources to continue that trajectory for the next five years.

Q. Is there anything else you want us to highlight that we might have missed?

In addition to the incredible revenue growth in the last 32 months, Lexitas has added over 700 jobs and increased our footprint from 24 offices to 64. We have been honored to be named to the INC 5000 list of fastest-growing companies for eight years.

Gary Buckland | CEO

Gary Buckland joined Lexitas in March of 2015 as the Chief Operations Officer and was promoted to CEO in June of 2017. Gary also serves on the Board of Directors for Lexitas, IMS Expert Services, and Juris Medicus.

Before joining Lexitas, he was the Global Vice President and General Manager of Kelly Legal Managed Services, the legal staffing solutions business of Kelly Services, Inc, from 2007 until 2015. Prior to joining Kelly in 2007, he served as CEO and President of The Atlantic Group, a part of the public human capital and consulting company SearchPath International. Gary also served as President of Legalink Corporation, a global court reporting, legal videography, trial presentation, and litigation support company, prior to their acquisition by Merrill Corp. Before joining LegaLink, he was Vice President and General Manager with Olsten Staffing, where he was responsible for 57 branch locations throughout the U.S. Additionally; he spent 14 years with Motorola Inc. in various management positions in sales, operations and marketing.

Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

“In addition to the incredible revenue growth in the last 32 months, Lexitas has added over 700 jobs and increased our footprint from 24 offices to 64.”