Doctrine (company)

Doctrine
IndustryLegal information
Founded2016 in Paris
FounderNicolas Bustamante, Antoine Dusséaux, and River Champeimont
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area served
France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain
Websitewww.doctrine.fr

Doctrine (also known as Doctrine.fr) is a French startup created in 2016.

History

Doctrine was created in June 2016 by Nicolas Bustamante, Antoine Dusséaux, and River Champeimont.[1][2][3]

In 2020, Doctrine launched the "Document Analyzer" feature, which detects and enriches legal sources in documents.[4]

In April 2023, the company announced that it would be acquired by the investment funds Summit Partners and Peugeot Invest for more than €100 million.[5][3][6]

In December 2023, Doctrine announced its acquisition of Jobexit, marking the company's first acquisition.[7]

In 2024, Doctrine expanded into Italy.[8] That same year, it received coaching from the CNIL on GDPR and signed a partnership agreement with the Paris Bar.[9][10][11]

In 2025, Doctrine entered the German market with a minority investment in legal information provider Dejure and in 2026, Doctrine expanded to Spain by acquiring Spanish legal information provider Maite.[12]

In 2026, RELX, parent company of LexisNexis, announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Doctrine.[13]

Business model

The search engine relies on algorithms and artificial intelligence[14][15] and is commercialised on a subscription-based model.[16][17]

In 2018, Doctrine was sued by its competitors LexisNexis, Dalloz, Wolters Kulwer France, Lexbase and Lextenso for unfair competition. In February 2023, the Tribunal de commerce de Paris ruled in favour of Doctrine on the merits, rejecting the publishers' claims and ordering them to pay €50,000 in damages for abusive proceedings.[18][19]. In 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal overturned the judgment (except with regard to parasitic competition and misleading commercial practices), and ordered the publisher of Doctrine, on grounds of unfair competition, to pay each of the 5 publishers between €40,000 and €50,000 in damages, plus €30,000 in legal costs, and to publish an extract of the ruling on its website, finding that it had obtained hundreds of thousands of court decisions through unlawful means[20]. Doctrine stated that it was satisfied with the ruling, as it did not require the company to remove any decisions from its database, and announced that it would not seek an appeal to the Court of Cassation[21].

In September 2018, the French National Bar Council and the Paris Bar Association, taking the view that lawyers' personal data had been used without their knowledge, filed a criminal complaint against Doctrine on various grounds, including impersonation of a lawyer, identity theft, fraud, theft, and unauthorised access to and retention in a computer system. Doctrine stated that it retained the confidence of its investors[22][23][24][25]. The Paris Bar's complaint was dismissed in 2022[11]. In 2020, the Paris Bar filed a further complaint for unauthorised intrusion into an automated data processing system, having detected the extraction of a large number of disciplinary decisions it had issued; this complaint was withdrawn in 2024 following an agreement between Doctrine and the Bar[26]. In February 2022, following a press report in Le Canard Enchaîné referring to ongoing proceedings concerning "a former employee", Doctrine reaffirmed the lawfulness of its collection of court decisions to power its technology, at a time when a decree of September 2021 had instructed the Council of State and the Court of Cassation to make their decisions available online[27]. In 2025, a former Doctrine employee who, in May 2018, had stolen the login credentials of a clerk at the Poitiers civil court and used them to harvest more than 52,000 decisions — which had been made immediately available to Doctrine's subscribers — was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment suspended and a fine of €30,000. Doctrine maintained that it had suspended and then dismissed the employee as soon as the facts came to light (a settlement agreement having ultimately been negotiated), and had removed the disputed decisions from its database[28][29]. Separate proceedings against Doctrine itself for handling stolen goods remain ongoing[28][30].

In 2022, Doctrine sued France before the European Court of Human Rights to gain access to the Tribunal de Paris' decisions.[31]

Leadership

CEO

  • Nicolas Bustamante (2016–2020)
  • Guillaume Carrère (since 2020).[32]

References

  1. ↑ "Doctrine lève 10 millions pour son moteur de recherche juridique". Les Echos (Entrepreneurs). 29 June 2018. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  2. ↑ Rauline, Nicolas (13 October 2016). "Doctrine affole les compteurs de l'amorçage". Les Échos.
  3. 1 2 "Legaltech : Doctrine rachetée par le fonds américain Summit Partners". Les Echos (in French). 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. ↑ Rochefort, Mathilde (22 September 2020). "Doctrine, l'entreprise de legaltech qui révolutionne le monde juridique français". Siècle Digital (in French). Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  5. ↑ Demarle, Xavier (28 February 2023). "Summit Partners négocie le rachat de Doctrine". l'Informé (in French). Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  6. ↑ Digitale, Usine (11 April 2023). "La legaltech française Doctrine rachetée par le fonds américain Summit Partners" [The French legaltech Doctrine bought by the American fund Summit Partners]. L'Usine Digitale (in French).
  7. ↑ "Doctrine annonce sa toute première acquisition" [Doctrine announces its very first acquisition]. mesinfos (in French). 21 December 2023. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  8. ↑ "Jus Mundi, la start-up qui monte dans la legaltech française". Les Echos (in French). 11 September 2024. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  9. ↑ Vitard, Alice (23 September 2024). "RGPD : Docaposte, Doctrine, la Française des Jeux et ShareID bénéficient du soutien renforcé de la Cnil". Usine Digitale (in French).
  10. ↑ Manach, Jean-Marc (24 September 2024). "La CNIL offre un " accompagnement renforcé " à Docaposte, Doctrine, la FDJ et ShareID". Next.ink (in French). Archived from the original on 26 September 2024. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  11. 1 2 Wong, Camille (17 October 2024). "Doctrine, le " Google du droit " signe avec le Barreau de Paris". Les Échos. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  12. ↑ "Doctrine grows European presence with acquisition of Spanish AI platform Maite". www.globallegalpost.com. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
  13. ↑ "LexisNexis Owner RELX Announces Plans to Acquire Legal Tech Company Doctrine". Law.com. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  14. ↑ Bregeras, Guillaume (29 June 2018). "Doctrine en passe d'imposer son moteur de recherche". Les Échos. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  15. ↑ Matarin, Yann (20 December 2017). "Doctrine.fr : l'intelligence artificielle au service des juristes". Capital.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  16. ↑ Rees, Marc (11 March 2016). "Doctrine.fr, le moteur qui ambitionne de devenir le Google du droit". Next (in French). Archived from the original on 19 June 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  17. ↑ de Senneville, Valérie (22 March 2017). "Quand les algorithmes entrent dans les prétoires". Les Echos (in French). Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  18. ↑ "Cinq éditeurs juridiques condamnés pour procédure abusive contre le site Doctrine.fr". Le Figaro (in French). 23 February 2023. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  19. ↑ "Affaire Doctrine.fr : cinq éditeurs font appel". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "CA Paris, 7 mai 2025, RG n° 23/06063". courdecassation.fr. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  21. ↑ Perreau, Charlie (7 May 2025). "Doctrine condamné en appel pour concurrence déloyale". Les Echos. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  22. ↑ "Le CNB et le barreau de Paris déposent une plainte pénale contre doctrine.fr". Conseil national des barreaux (in French). 10 September 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Le barreau de Paris poursuit en justice la société FORSETI, éditrice du site doctrine.fr". Ordre des avocats de Paris (in French). 28 September 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  24. ↑ Loye, Delphine Iweins et Deborah (27 June 2019). "La guerre s'intensifie entre Doctrine et les avocats". Les Echos Executives (in French). Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  25. ↑ "L'information juridique en procès". Le Monde. 5 August 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  26. ↑ "La legaltech Doctrine peine à tourner la page des entorses éthiques de ses débuts". La Lettre (in French). 2 April 2026. Retrieved 2 April 2026.
  27. ↑ Alice Vitard. "Doctrine réaffirme la légalité de sa collecte des décisions de justice pour alimenter sa technologie". usine-digitale.fr. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  28. 1 2 "Siphonnage de données au tribunal : l'ex-salarié d'une plateforme d'IA juridique condamné". Le Point (in French). 9 May 2025. Retrieved 11 May 2025.
  29. ↑ "Vol massif de données judiciaires : un ex-employé de Doctrine.fr sanctionné". ActuaLitté.com (in French). Retrieved 11 May 2025.
  30. ↑ "Le site Doctrine.fr condamné pour « concurrence déloyale »". Le Monde (in French). 11 May 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  31. ↑ Vitard, Alice (28 June 2022). "Doctrine s'en remet à la justice européenne pour nourrir son moteur de recherche juridique". L'Usine Digitale (in French). Archived from the original on 3 September 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  32. ↑ "Doctrine.fr se réorganise sous l'égide du nouveau DG Guillaume Carrère". La Lettre (in French). 8 December 2020. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
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