Company that promised to revolutionize legal services confirms layoffs of most of its legal staff
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Atrium, a company that launched in 2017 with the promise of transforming the delivery of legal services, has laid off most of its legal staff in a restructuring.
Atrium co-founder and CEO Justin Kan said in a blog post Monday that the company will now focus on building a professional services network that supports the founders of startups, report LawSites (here and here), Law.com, Law360 and Axios.
Kan said Atrium “will keep a small group of partners in-house” to serve clients with strategic services, like financing and mergers, and to work with its network of law firms to deliver general corporate legal services. Laid-off lawyers will have the option of joining the professional services network.
Atrium launched in 2017 as two companies. Atrium Legal Technology Services was created to develop technology to automate repetitive tasks. Atrium LLP provided legal services to startups at fixed rates and assisted with fundraising.
Atrium had raised $75.5 million. Another Atrium co-founder, Augie Rakow, a former partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, left the company in April 2019.
Former Atrium lawyer Gabriel Shapiro said on Twitter that he moved across the country to join Atrium toward the end of 2019, and he then received a layoff notice three weeks later. He said he turned down the offer to join the preferred provider network, which would require him to cover all of the costs and give one-third of his fees to Atrium.
