The company was started in 1979 by
Steven Brill to publish
The American Lawyer. In February 1997, Brill sold ALM to
Time Warner, mainly for its
CourtTV stake. In July 1997, ALM's legal publications were acquired from Time Warner by U.S. Equity Partners, L.P., a private equity fund sponsored by
Bruce Wasserstein. In October 1997, it acquired National Law Publishing Company (parent of
The National Law Journal and
New York Law Journal) from Boston Ventures and the legal publications of Legal Communications (including
The Legal Intelligencer) from Meridian Venture Partners. In 2007, ALM was purchased by
Incisive Media for million. Two years later, Incisive had to restructure the loan used to purchase ALM, and ALM once again became an independent company, owned by the lenders and
Apax Partners. Wasserstein & Co. repurchased ALM in 2014. In 2015, ALM acquired Summit Professional Networks. In January 2016, ALM acquired British legal magazine
Legal Week. In March 2025, ALM merged with Law Business Research (LBR). In May 2025, ALM completed the
corporate spin-off of Touchpoint Markets, which owns ThinkAdvisor, BenefitsPRO, PropertyCasualty360, GlobeSt, and Credit Union Times. In July 2025, Arc Networks, owned by EagleTree Capital, acquired TouchPoint Markets. ==Publications==