headquarters ada oklahoma united states area served united states canada key people jeff bell ceo products pre paid attorney legal services services legal services identity theft restoration revenue 461 million owner midocean partners number of employees 813 website http www.legalshield.com law portal legalshield is an american corporation that sells legal service products through direct sales and multi level marketing in the united states and canada . the company was originally founded august 8 1972 as the sportsman s motor club . in 1976 it was incorporated as pre paid legal services inc. and made its initial public offering in 1984 . pre paid legal services inc. went from being traded on the new york stock exchange back to a private company in 2011 when it was acquired by midocean partners for 650 million and subsequently changed its name to legalshield . contents 1 company description 2 subsidiaries 3 history 4 references 5 external links company description edit legalshield develops and markets pre paid legal service plans through a network of more than 6 900 independent provider attorneys across the u.s. and canada . the company also markets an identity theft monitoring and restoration services through its partnership with kroll inc. . 1 the company s service plans are sold through its business to business channel b 2 b its employee benefits division and also through its multi level marketing division . 2 products are also sold as an employee benefit through payroll deduction . the company has legal service plans for small businesses as well as gosmallbiz plans advertised with nfl hall of fame player fran tarkenton as spokesman . subsidiaries edit today legalshield has its headquarters in ada oklahoma . the company owns several subsidiaries . pre paid legal casualty inc. operates in alabama arizona arkansas georgia illinois montana nebraska tennessee & wisconsin . there are three subsidiaries that serve individual states pre paid legal services inc. of florida national pre paid legal services of mississippi inc. and legal service plans of virginia inc. the primary purpose of these subsidiaries is to comply with different insurance laws in those states ; they consider the product to be an insurance product while the other u.s. states consider legal service plans to be a service product . ppl legal care of canada corporation operates in canada . history edit legalshield headquarters on july 11 1969 former ceo and founder harland c. stonecipher of ada oklahoma was involved in a motor vehicle accident and was hospitalized . although the other party was cited for fault they filed a suit against him for the accident . 3 he hired a lawyer to defend himself in court but in doing so depleted his life savings . after researching the industry of european legal expense plans stonecipher created pre paid legal s predecessor the sportsman s motor club on august 8 1972 . the club offered legal expense reimbursement to its members . pre paid legal began utilizing network marketing multi level marketing or mlm in 1983 . pre paid legal went public on the nasdaq national market system in 1984 . in 1997 pre paid legal bought the people s network tpn a satellite television network dedicated to personal development . two years later the company moved to the american stock exchange and then on may 13 1999 pre paid legal was listed on the new york stock exchange . 4 in 2001 the wyoming attorney general issued a press release announcing when we discovered that pre paid was using prohibited income representations to promote their multilevel marketing program we warned them that the representations were prohibited by wyoming law . pre paid paid 4 000 in lieu of civil penalties reimbursed the state for 1 000 in costs and refunded 2 000 to participants who claimed to have been misled . 5 6 in july the same year the company was forced by the u.s. securities and exchange commission sec to stop counting the commissions they paid out to sales associates as assets instead of expenses 7 the same way other types of insurance companies do though they did not release their updated halved 2000 earnings figures until february 2002 . 8 pre paid legal has faced ongoing troubles in missouri . after the company settled complaints in 2001 a number of similar suits arose . the company won in a jury trial against two plaintiffs 9 but after losing others including one in which a former customer was awarded 9.9 million 7 10 settled with more than 400 others . the company and the u.s. chamber of commerce of which pre paid legal ceo harland stonecipher is a director 11 have described the lawsuits against the company as frivolous and abusive . 12 pre paid legal reported to the sec that less than 25 % of its sales representatives sold more than one insurance plan in 2005 but avoids reporting such information to prospective sales representatives . 13 in october 2009 tulsa world reported 14 that pre paid legal had been subpoenaed by the sec for various documents including those pertaining to a stock repurchase program that pre paid started in april 1999 . and in 2006 the company said it would repurchase 27.4 million of shares owned by executives . 13 the sec reported that thus far that its demand for documents is a fact finding mission . on november 19 2009 pre paid legal announced 15 that it received a complaint from the federal trade commission ftc . the proposed draft complaint alleged that pre paid s adrs program and related materials violate section 5 a of the ftc act regarding asserted misleading representations express or implied . 16 on july 27 2010 the ftc ended its three year investigation of pre paid legal services inc. without any action . 17 in january 2011 pre paid legal agreed to merge with entities formed by midocean partners a private equity firm headquartered in new york which it says is focused on the middle market . the transaction would result in the company becoming privately held . the deal closed on june 31 2011 . 18 beginning in july 2011 rip mason served as legal shield s chief executive officer . on september 10 2011 the company announced 19 that it would change its name to legalshield . the new corporate name for the 40 year old company was said by the company to be part of an overall re branding initiative following the acquisition of pre paid legal services inc. by midocean partners . in july 2014 jeff bell executive was appointed legal shield s chief executive officer replacing rip mason . rip mason assumed the position of chairman of the board . 20 references edit pre paid legal services to add identity theft benefits provided by kroll background america . kroll.com . kroll inc. retrieved march 7 2010 . pre paid legal services worth the money . cbc.ca . pre paid legal services inc. executive bios . prepaidlegal.com . retrieved march 7 2010 . pre paid legal services inc. the pre paid legal story . prepaidlegal.com . retrieved march 7 2010 . bernick bob jr. october 30 2008 . shurtleff s fundraising trounces hill s deseret news salt lake city newspaper find articles at bnet . findarticles.com . retrieved october 23 2009 . newell letter pdf . retrieved october 23 2009 . a b pre paid weathers guilty verdict thestreet.com morgenson gretchen april 18 2003 . exchange to warn investors on companies . new york times . davis melissa october 20 2004 . pre paid prevails in mississippi case ; financial articles & investing news . thestreet.com . retrieved october 23 2009 . verdict hammers pre paid thestreet.com u.s. chamber of commerce june 27 u.s chamber reappoints harland stonecipher ceo of pre paid legal services to board of directors . uschamber.com . u.s. chamber of commerce . june 27 2005 . retrieved october 23 2009 . u.s. chamber of commerce nov 24 chamber joins miss . case against frivolous lawsuits pre paid legal services targeted improperly . uschamber.com . november 24 2004 . retrieved october 23 2009 . a b duhigg charles november 13 2006 . why short sellers want to crash the tupperware party . new york times . retrieved october 14 2009 . sec asks pre paid legal for documents . tulsa world . retrieved october 23 2009 . pre paid legal services announces ftc developments . pre paid legal services . retrieved november 19 2009 . pre paid legal ppd received draft complaint from ftc relating to itsadrs program . streetinsider.com . november 11 2009 . retrieved september 26 2010 . ftc ends investigation of pre paid legal . july 27 2010 . retrieved july 28 2011 . winslow laurie february 1 2011 . pre paid to merge with midocean . tulsa world . . pre paid legal services becomes legalshield . pre paid legal services . retrieved september 22 2011 . pr newswire . legalshield names jeff bell as chief executive officer . www.reuters.com . reuters . retrieved 7 september 2014 . external links edit official website prepaid legal to merge with midocean partners acquisition for 650 million july 2011 cbc news report on ppl pre paid weathers guilty verdict pre paid legal s colorful workforce attorney general s office nets refunds from multi level marketer forbes best 200 small companies in america 120 forbes 2008 best 200 companies in america forbes 2009 best 200 companies in america 68 forbes 2010 best 100 small companies in america 78 information on the pre paid legal mlm business pre paid legal services becomes legalshield retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title legalshield & oldid 739041090 categories companies based in oklahomacompanies established in 1972criminal lawmulti level marketing companiesinsurance companies of the united statesprivately held companies based in oklahomaada oklahoma navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent 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