Stephanie Wilkins

"To me, legal innovation is about always questioning the status quo and moving toward making a more transparent and democratized legal marketplace a reality," says Basha Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Priori.

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New Law Company of the Year: Priori (Scout)

<img width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/iStock-498334873-169-1024x576.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />For some employees of legal tech companies, the holidays have been far from merry, as their employers have trimmed headcounts and sent out layoff notices.
The exact number of layoffs in legal tech are unknown. It is difficult to track and confirm layoffs, as companies are often secretive about them. Although, in the U.S., the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to report layoffs, it generally applies only to employers of 100 or more employees that layoff 50 or more employees.
So, although this may not be a comprehensive list of recent legal tech layoffs, here are the ones that have been reported.
Contractbook. Two weeks ago, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/niels-martin-brochner-18a7b1b/">Niels Martin Brochner</a>, founder and CEO of the Danish contract lifecycle management company <a href="https://contractbook.com/">Contractbook</a>, took to LinkedIn to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7003368241544708097/">announce the layoff of 32 employees</a>.
&#8220;Like many other companies in our industry, we must reduce our headcount and grow in a more efficient way. I’m sorry to take this step, and I wish it could have been avoided. At the same time, I take full responsibility for the decision.&#8221;
Last year, the company <a href="https://venturebeat.com/business/contract-automation-platform-contractbook-raises-30m-to-challenge-docusign/">raised $30 million</a> in a Series B round, just a few months after it <a href="https://news.cision.com/contractbook-aps/r/contractbook-raises--9-4-million-in-series-a-funding-led-by-bessemer-venture-partners,c3250656">raised a $9.4 million Series A round</a> in December 2020.
&#8220;There is no good way to lay off good people, but I would at least like to express my gratitude and appreciation towards the people leaving Contractbook today,&#8221; Brochner wrote on LinkedIn. &#8220;You’ve had a massive impact and helped us grow into what we are today.&#8221;
Filevine. The news site <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2022/12/15/utah-tech-layoffs-silicon-slopes-losing-workers">Axios Salt Lake City</a> recently reported that <a href="https://www.filevine.com/">Filevine</a> is among several Utah-based tech companies that are laying off workers. However, in an interview with me, founder and CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-anderson-49a30740/">Ryan Anderson</a> denies the company had layoffs.
Rather, he said that, as part of a strategic plan announced to employees last January to focus on being a software company, not a services company, certain employees who work in services roles with customers on product implementation and data migration were notified earlier this year that their work would be transitioned to third-party Filevine partners who specialize in implementation and migration. Filevine offered to assist those employees in finding positions with partner companies, and many have already been successfully placed, Anderson said.
While a layoff is typically driven by a need to reduce costs due to a reduction in revenue, Anderson said, this transition was driven by a strategic decision regarding the company&#8217;s focus and mission. He noted that it is common for companies such as his to rely on third-party partners to handle implementation and migration, pointing to NetDocuments and Salesforce as examples.
From a business standpoint, Filevine is strong, Anderson said. With much of the $108 million it <a href="https://www.lawnext.com/2022/04/case-management-company-filevine-raises-108m-series-d-to-fuel-expansion.html">raised earlier this year</a> still in the bank, it is about to hit $60 million in annual recurring revenue, with 59% ARR growth year over year. It has just had its two strongest quarters ever, and has seen 75% revenue growth year over year.
Bottom line: Anderson said these were not economically driven layoffs, but strategically driven transitions of certain service functions to companies in Filevine&#8217;s partner ecosystem.
Lawgeex. In September, the Israel-based contract review automation company <a href="https://www.lawgeex.com/">Lawgeex</a> announced plans to lay off 30 employees, or about a third of its total staff.
“We had to lower the number of employees so that the product could soon be profitable — remove the auxiliary wheels and let it work on its own, founder and CEO Noory Bechor told the <a href="https://www.tech12.co.il/index-career/Article-daa4d2195231381027.htm?sCh=cf25c425b37bc710&pId=18758941771">Israeli news publication Tech12</a> (as translated and reported <a href="https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2022/09/07/lawgeex-plans-to-layoff-staff-pivot-to-small-business-clients/">by Legaltech News</a>).
Onit. The website <a href="https://www.trueup.io/layoffs">TrueUp Tech</a> reports that Texas-based enterprise legal management and contract lifecycle management company <a href="https://www.onit.com/">Onit</a> laid off 19 people, citing employee reports as its source. I reached out to Onit seeking to confirm the report, but a spokesperson declined to comment.
Relativity. Earlier this month, the e-discovery company Relativity <a href="https://www.law360.com/pulse/articles/1556506/legal-tech-giant-relativity-lays-off-150-to-adjust-costs">laid off 150 employees</a>, or about 10% of its total staff.
In a statement <a href="https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2022/12/09/relativity-lays-off-approximately-10-of-workforce-in-cost-adjustment-move/">provided to Law.com</a>, the company said:
<blockquote>“To support our core business strategy going forward, we will reduce and realign our investments in certain parts of the business and adjust our overall cost structure. We believe these changes will prepare Relativity, which is healthy and growing, for any headwinds from what is becoming an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic environment. It will also better position the company to focus on, invest in, and continue to lead in our core areas where we have the best product-market fit and that are most valued by our customers and partners.”</blockquote>
Reynen Court. As I <a href="https://www.lawnext.com/2022/11/reynen-court-app-store-of-legal-reduces-staff-tells-vendors-they-could-see-service-delays.html">reported Nov. 22</a>, <a href="https://reynencourt.com/">Reynen Court</a>, the so-called app store of law, is reducing its headcount, cutting expenses, and telling vendors on its platform they might experience service delays. The company has not said how many employees it is letting go, but reports from various sources have suggested it is a substantial percentage of its workforce.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdklein/">Andrew D. Klein</a>, the company’s founder and CEO, denied that the company is going out of business or discontinuing support for its platform, and he said he is seeking new investment capital to help the company manage through the economic downturn.
“As a result of the delay in raising capital, we are reducing headcount and other operating expenses to manage through the economic downturn,” he said.

<img width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/iStock-498334873-169-1024x576.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />For some employees of legal tech companies, the holidays have been far from merry, as their employers have trimmed headcounts and sent out layoff notices. The exact number of layoffs in legal tech are unknown. It is difficult to track and confirm layoffs, as companies are often secretive about them. Although, in the U.S., the [&#8230;]

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&#8216;Tis the Season &#8230; for Layoffs in Legal Tech, As Multiple Companies Send Out Pink Slips

<img width="1024" height="577" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ReynenCourtOffering-9-21-22-1024x577.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><a href="https://reynencourt.com/">Reynen Court</a>, the so-called app store of law, is reducing its headcount, cutting expenses, and telling vendors on its platform they might experience service delays. But <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdklein/">Andrew D. Klein</a>, the company&#8217;s founder and CEO, denied that the company is going out of business or discontinuing support for its platform, and he said he is seeking new investment capital to help the company manage through the economic downturn.
The news comes two months after Reynen Court <a href="https://www.lawnext.com/2022/09/reynen-court-the-app-store-of-legal-launches-online-stock-offering-to-bring-on-individual-investors.html">launched an online stock offering</a> to bring on individual lawyers and “legal technology enthusiasts” as investors in the company, on top of some $20 million in venture financing the company had already raised, including a $4.3 million round earlier this year.
Reynen Court has now discontinued the online stock offering.
&#8220;We were pleased with the reception to our stock offering,&#8221; Klein told me by email. &#8220;However, we recently made the decision to pull the transaction after realizing that market conditions were making it unlikely that we could meet the forecast on which the offering was based. It simply became untenable to close on the committed capital in the current economic environment.&#8221;
Although sources asserting knowledge of the situation had told me that the company would be closing down its platform, Klein said that is false. Rather, he is reducing headcount and operating expenses to get through the economic downturn.
&#8220;As a result of the delay in raising capital, we are reducing headcount and other operating expenses to manage through the economic downturn,&#8221; he said.
Today, Klein emailed vendors whose products are featured on the platform. He wrote to them:
<blockquote>&#8220;I am sorry to report that Reynen Court is reducing our headcount and other operating expenses in order to manage through the economic downturn.
&#8220;Consequently, until further notice, we are suspending access to our vendor portal. You may also experience delays in certain vendor services and support.
&#8220;We greatly value your partnership and thank you in advance for your patience.&#8221;</blockquote>
The vendor portal referenced in his email is a recently launched feature that provides vendors with certain tools and a self-testing environment to assist in making their products deployable on the Reynen Court platform, Klein said.
Klein did not say how many people have been laid off. Via posts on social media, I have seen two Reynen Court employees announce their layoffs: <a href="https://sarahglassmeyer.substack.com/p/so-it-goes">Sarah Glassmeyer</a>, who was legal tech curator at Reynen Court, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sam-moore_legalinnovation-legaltech-activity-7000878675101417474-vFyO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop">Sam Moore</a>, who was director of vendor relations.
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<h3>Seeking to Simplify Tech Adoption</h3>
In 2017, seeing how difficult it was for larger law firms to adopt modern technology, Klein, a lawyer, entrepreneur and investor, launched Reynen Court with the mission of making it easier for law firms and legal departments to test, adopt and manage modern cloud-based applications without fear of compromising sensitive firm data.
<div id="attachment_30340" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Andy_Klein_ReynenCourt_169.png"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30340" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-30340" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Andy_Klein_ReynenCourt_169-300x169.png" alt="" width="300" height="169" /></a>Andrew Klein</div>
With financial backing from international law firms Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins, and backing from a consortium of 20 global law firms, it released its beta version in August 2019 and formally <a href="https://www.lawnext.com/2020/01/reynen-court-formally-launches-its-app-store-of-law.html">launched its commercial offering</a> in January 2020, picking up another major law firm, Orrick, as an investor, and bringing its total raise at that point to more than $13 million.
Ultimately, the company raised roughly $20 million in venture financing, including the $4.3 million round earlier this year.
Reynen Court&#8217;s &#8220;secret sauce&#8221; was to offer a platform where law firms could deploy containerized versions of cloud applications on their own infrastructure or to their own virtual private clouds on a self-managed basis. It also offered its own virtual private clouds on a full-service basis to which firms could deploy its standardized software versions.
<a href="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/img_infographic_platform_v5.png"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-42020" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/img_infographic_platform_v5-1024x382.png" alt="" width="1024" height="382" /></a>
Whether self-managed or full service, the Reynen Court platform allows users to run third-party applications in a centralized platform that has greater security and less risk than deploying through any number of separate vendors’ SaaS offerings.
Both options provide the ability to test-drive applications with one click, easily purchase vendor licenses or bring their own, and take advantage of Reynen Court’s telemetry and other services.
Founder Klein, a Harvard Law School graduate, was an associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore when he left in 1992 to start a brewery. In 1995, to raise money for the brewery, Klein applied his experience as a securities lawyer to launch the first-ever initial public offering sold through the Internet.
The success and notoriety of that IPO led Klein to launch Wit Capital, an investment bank dedicated to helping other companies raise money online. The company flourished, recording more than $350 million in annual revenues, and itself went public in 1999. Ultimately, Wit Capital was acquired by Charles Schwab.
Related: <a href="https://www.lawnext.com/2019/09/lawnext-episode-51-reynen-court-ceo-andrew-klein-on-creating-the-app-store-for-law.html">LawNext Episode 51: Reynen Court CEO Andrew Klein on Creating the App Store for Law</a>.

<img width="1024" height="577" src="https://www.lawnext.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ReynenCourtOffering-9-21-22-1024x577.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />Reynen Court, the so-called app store of law, is reducing its headcount, cutting expenses, and telling vendors on its platform they might experience service delays. But Andrew D. Klein, the company&#8217;s founder and CEO, denied that the company is going out of business or discontinuing support for its platform, and he said he is seeking [&#8230;]

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New Law Company of the Year: Priori (Scout)

‘Tis the Season … for Layoffs in Legal Tech, As Multiple Companies Send Out Pink Slips

Reynen Court, ‘App Store of Legal,’ Reduces Staff, Tells Vendors They Could See Service Delays