(Reuters) - Buckley is marketing a new regulatory research tool for financial services companies and others, launching a subsidiary, Winnow Solutions, that capitalizes on the firm's brand, gives it a new source of revenue and could steer new business to its lawyers.

The law firm, which caters mainly to the financial services industry, is the latest to debut a subsidiary promising tech-enabled solutions for clients. While its scope may be more limited than some other recent law firm subsidiaries that function as captive alternative legal service providers, Buckley leaders touted the venture as part of a broader industry shift.

Going forward, unique and innovative offerings from law firms "will be part of the expectation that consumers of legal services will expect in the suite of tools in the toolbox," said Clinton Rockwell, managing partner of Buckley's California offices.

The subsidiary's product, Winnow, is an online tool that allows financial services companies, consulting firms, fintech companies and others to generate state regulatory surveys and searches and get results specifically tailored to their needs. The database covers more than 44,000 state law requirements related to mortgage, auto, credit card, consumer and commercial-purpose lending and financing and allows companies to monitor changes and manage compliance and research, the firm said.

Winnow is mainly subscription-based, and pricing varies based on employee headcount. There is also an option for companies to do get a single inventory of applicable requirements.

A financial services provider looking to introduce new products or managing existing ones "has a big spend when it comes to state law compliance," Rockwell said. The firm saw the opportunity for technology to address that challenge, he said.

Chris Hilliard, Winnow's chief operating officer, said he had been a Buckley customer for years, at different companies, before joining the firm and the Winnow project in 2018. He was formerly an advisor and chief compliance officer at Happy Money Inc.

If Winnow and Approved – Buckley's three-year-old technology-enabled licensing service – had existed earlier, "I could have spent our legal budget in a more targeted manner, and been able to really home in on those items and issues that are specific and important to me," Hilliard said.

Such offerings "are a big part of the future of how law firms can provide enhanced services to clients," Rockwell said.

For Winnow, which Hilliard called "almost like an incubated Silicon Valley startup in a law firm," being spun out of a law firm provides a "huge advantage," he said.

"Having the expertise and the experience of the entire firm of lawyers to help build this thing initially, has just been something that you cannot replicate, really, outside of a law firm environment," he said. Buckley attorneys have spent more than 50,000 hours putting information into the system and reviewing it, he said, adding that's an investment not many other companies would make.

There's also the benefit of the Buckley brand, Hilliard said. "There's an instant recognition and hopefully an instant trust when folks see the Buckley name associated with Winnow."