Trinity Hunt's IMS Exit Spotlights Private Equity's Legal Tech Playbook

DALLAS, TX – April 06, 2026 – Trinity Hunt Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm, has announced the successful sale of its portfolio company, IMS Legal Strategies, to the newly formed Uplift Investors. The transaction marks the culmination of a multi-year, high-growth partnership that transformed IMS from a specialized litigation services provider into a national powerhouse through an aggressive acquisition strategy and operational scaling. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The exit is a significant event not only for the parties involved but also for the broader legal services industry, serving as a prime example of the intense consolidation and strategic investment reshaping the sector. For Trinity Hunt, it represents a successful execution of its signature “buy-and-build” strategy. For the buyer, Uplift Investors, the acquisition of IMS marks its second major platform investment in the legal space, signaling a deliberate and focused push into a market ripe for disruption and growth.

The Anatomy of a Private Equity Success

When Trinity Hunt Partners first invested in IMS, it saw a business defined by its deep client trust and high-quality team. The firm embarked on a strategic plan to build upon that foundation, executing a disciplined growth strategy that dramatically expanded IMS’s scale and capabilities. Central to this plan was a robust mergers and acquisitions campaign that saw IMS complete 14 strategic add-on acquisitions during the partnership.

This M&A blitz allowed IMS, founded in 1992, to expand its geographic footprint across the United States and the United Kingdom and to build a truly comprehensive service platform. The company now offers a full suite of litigation support, from expert witness search and placement to jury consulting, trial graphics, and life care planning. This integrated model has attracted over 21,500 clients, including 182 of the Am Law 200 firms and 366 Fortune 500 companies, with the company supporting over 50,000 cases to date.

“From the moment Trinity Hunt partnered with IMS, it was clear this was a business defined by the quality of its people and the loyalty of its clients,” said Pete Stein, Senior Partner and Co-Founder of Trinity Hunt Partners. “Together, we transformed the business into a differentiated, market-leading platform through strategic acquisitions and operational investments.”

Beyond acquisitions, Trinity Hunt worked closely with the IMS leadership team, led by CEO James Crane, to recruit executive talent and build out scalable operational infrastructure. This collaboration was key to managing the rapid growth and integrating the newly acquired companies seamlessly into the IMS platform.

“Trinity Hunt recognized this early and invested in the team, technology, and strategy needed to meet the growing demand for sophisticated expertise-focused litigation support,” stated James Crane. “We are proud of what we’ve built, and we look forward to continuing that momentum.”

A Booming Market for Litigation Support

The sale of IMS is set against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding and consolidating legal services market. Valued at an estimated $1.12 trillion in 2024, the global legal services industry is projected to grow to $1.86 trillion by 2034, fueled by increasingly complex regulations, globalized business disputes, and a growing reliance on data-driven legal strategies. Within this landscape, the litigation support sub-sector is experiencing particularly fervent activity.

The market is undergoing a significant consolidation wave as firms race to build end-to-end platforms that can serve as a one-stop-shop for law firms and corporate legal departments. In 2024 alone, the legal tech industry saw over 47 major M&A deals, more than double the activity from just three years prior. This trend is driven by a client preference for integrated solutions over disparate point products and the immense capital required to develop competitive AI-enabled tools.

For companies like IMS, artificial intelligence is viewed not as a disruptor that replaces human experts, but as a powerful enabler. AI can streamline workflows, analyze vast datasets for insights, and augment the capabilities of consultants and expert witnesses, making a platform with deep human expertise even more valuable. This dynamic makes scaled, tech-enabled service providers like IMS highly attractive acquisition targets.

Uplift Investors' Strategic Bet on Legal Services

The acquirer, Uplift Investors, is a relatively new but highly focused private equity firm founded in 2025. The firm operates on a “5-5-5 Framework,” targeting middle-market companies across five specific business models and five service sectors, with legal services being a core pillar of its strategy. Uplift seeks businesses with non-discretionary revenue streams that are not tied to economic cycles—a description that perfectly fits the high-stakes world of litigation support.

The acquisition of IMS is Uplift’s second platform investment in the legal arena. Earlier this year, the firm launched Orion Legal MSO, a managed service organization designed to provide operational support to plaintiff law firms. The dual investments in Orion and IMS demonstrate Uplift’s clear thesis that the legal services market contains distinct, high-growth micro-sectors ripe for investment and modernization.

Under Uplift’s ownership, IMS is expected to continue its growth trajectory. The new parent company plans to invest further in IMS's people and technology while continuing the M&A strategy that proved so successful under Trinity Hunt. The goal is to further expand IMS's geographic reach, add depth to its existing service lines, and potentially enter adjacent expertise-focused service categories.

Trinity Hunt's Next Chapter in B2B Services

For Trinity Hunt Partners, the successful exit of IMS validates its investment model and frees up capital for its next ventures. The firm, which has over $2 billion in assets under management, is not stepping away from the professional services space. In fact, it is already redeploying its well-honed playbook.

Just last month, Trinity Hunt announced a new platform investment in Berger Consulting Group, aiming to build a market leader in economic consulting and dispute advisory services. Tellingly, the firm has tapped Gary Buckland, a seasoned executive who previously led another successful Trinity Hunt-backed litigation support company, Lexitas, to helm the new platform. This move highlights Trinity Hunt’s practice of leveraging its network of proven leaders to replicate success.

In addition to its focus on legal-adjacent services, the firm also recently launched Allvia, a new workforce services platform, in February 2026. These concurrent platform launches demonstrate Trinity Hunt's continued conviction in its buy-and-build strategy and its ability to identify and scale entrepreneurial B2B services companies into market leaders. The sale of IMS is not an end, but rather a successful chapter in an ongoing story of strategic value creation.