Private company

LegalShield

Logo: LegalShield, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American multi-level marketing company

LegalShield (formerly Pre-Paid Legal Services) is an American company that sells subscription-based legal service plans and identity-theft protection in the United States and Canada. Its memberships are sold directly to consumers, as employee benefits and through a multi-level marketing network of independent sales associates. Under the company's compensation system, associates may receive commissions for selling memberships and for sales made by associates they recruit.2 Its chief executive is Warren Schlichting (since 2022).1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1972Founded1

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LegalShield Building in Ada Oklahoma
Photo: Gratefullab, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

LegalShield (formerly Pre-Paid Legal Services) is an American company that sells subscription-based legal service plans and identity-theft protection in the United States and Canada. Its memberships are sold directly to consumers, as employee benefits and through a multi-level marketing network of independent sales associates.2

How it started

Sportsman's Motor Club

The company was founded in Ada, Oklahoma, in 1972 by insurance salesman Harland Stonecipher as the Sportsman's Motor Club. Stonecipher developed the business after incurring legal expenses following a 1969 automobile accident. After researching legal-expense plans offered in Europe, he established the company to reimburse members for legal fees arising from automobile accidents.

Pre-Paid Legal Services

The club changed its name and incorporated as Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. in 1976. The company expanded the concept beyond automobile-related legal expenses to prepaid legal plans for individuals. Initially, members could select their own lawyers and obtain reimbursement from the company; by the 1980s, members seeking covered services were directed to designated provider firms.

Pre-Paid Legal became publicly traded in 1984. It was initially listed on the NASDAQ, moved to the American Stock Exchange in 1986 and later moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1999, where it traded under the symbol PPD.

In 1998, Pre-Paid Legal acquired The People's Network, a Dallas-based marketing company that operated a satellite television network used in part to provide programming to the company's sales force.

From Wikipedia’s article on LegalShield, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Leadership

Who has led LegalShield, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Chief executive

  1. Warren Schlichting2022–now
19801990200020102020

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Dec 5, 2022New chief executive Warren Schlichting becomes CEO1
  2. 1972Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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