Michie Mouth

The Michie Publishing Company was a legal publishing firm headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia. It published state statutes, treatises, and other reference works for the legal profession.

In 1897, Thomas Johnson Michie, George R.B. Michie, and Armistead R. Michie founded the Michie Publishing Company. Three years later, the Michie brothers built a new print shop and editorial office for the Company on the corner of East Market and Seventh Streets in downtown Charlottesville. The Company published various works in its early years, but it always specialized in legal reference materials. By the 1950s, it had narrowed its focus to serving this niche market, and was a national leader in the publication of state statutes.

The Company grew through much of the 20th century, employing over 400 people at its height in the 1970s and 1980s. The original offices could not contain the expansion and several additions were made to the downtown building before the editorial office moved to 914 and 918 Emmet Street in 1973. The print shop later moved out of the original building in 1988.

Members of the Michie family managed the Company until 1969, and sold it to the ITT Corporation in 1971. Over the next several decades the Michie Company changed hands between several larger corporations. In 1985, ITT sold it to Macmillan Publishers. Then in 1988, Macmillan sold it to Mead Data Central (Lexis-Nexis). Finally, in 1994, Reed Elsevier acquired Lexis-Nexis including its subsidiary, the Michie Company.