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Twitch co-founder unveils law firm platform
Blog / Admin
September 2017

Justin Kan, co-founder of startups like Twitch.tv and Exec, is pulling the curtains off his new tech platform for law firms, Legal Technology Services. The first law firm to use LTS is Atrium, co-founded by Augie Rakow and BeBe Chueh. Both are launching today to bring a full-stacked technology-enabled law firm to startups.

What makes Atrium different from traditional law firms, Kan told me, is its technology and upfront pricing. With most law firms, it’s not always clear to the customer how much they’re going to have to pay.

Atrium, which has 30 startup customers focused on everything from cryptography to autonomous cars to medical tech, offers two products. One is Atrium Counsel, which offers ongoing services with fixed-rate, upfront pricing. It sort of functions as preventative legal services, Kan told me. The other is Atrium Financings, a fixed-fee service for startups to navigate the legal intricacies of their financing rounds from start to finish.

Since June, Atrium has advised its customers on $94 million in financing. Its customers include Protocol Labs, cannabis startup Meadow and health care startup Notable Labs. Atrium’s legal team can also help startups with joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, ICOs, litigation and more.

Behind the scenes, doing all the technical work at Atrium, is LTS, co-founded by Kan and Chris Smoak. It provides the technical backbone to Atrium with its suite of tools, like document creation and e-signing, and project management workflows.

“It does everything except give advice,” Kan said.

Atrium was LTS’s first client. For Atrium’s Series A financing round, the company executed the process all through LTS. Down the road, LTS plans to sell its tools to other firms. Although technology plays a large role in Atrium’s offering, the firm still needs real-life lawyers to provide legal advice to startups.

“We’re not trying to do the Uber of lawyers” or “lawyer AI,” Kan said.

So far, Atrium has eight lawyers on board, including two of its co-founders, Rakow and Chueh. Rakow was formerly a partner at Orrick, and Chueh previously worked as a litigator, and co-founded Attorney Fee, which sold to LegalZoom. Atrium’s goal is to bring on over 50 lawyers.

Kan and I are chatting on stage at Disrupt SF next week, so be sure to tune in to learn more about the startup and how it’s going to compete against the likes of Orrick and Wilson Sonsini.