Serving Startups in Big Law
The last attorneys to exit the failed Silicon Valley experiment Atrium are now behind a start-up focused initiative at Crowell & Moring. They've taken a few lessons forward.
July 23, 2021 at 09:39 AM
5 minute read
The Law Firm Disrupted
The last attorneys to exit the failed Silicon Valley experiment Atrium are now behind a start-up focused initiative at Crowell & Moring. They've taken a few lessons forward. Have an opinion? Email me here. Want this dispatch in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here.
Credit: MicroOne/Shutterstock Serving Startups in Big Law
Remember Atrium? After serial entrepreneur Justin Kan pulled the plug on the VC-backed law firm-legal tech company hybrid back at the start of 2020, attorneys Matthew Melville and Michel Narganes were left holding the bag, just after they arrived to help pivot the business to a new model relying on outside providers.
Ultimately, the pair landed back in Big Law, joining Atrium founding member Jon O'Connell at Crowell & Moring. Around the same time, former DLA Piper emerging companies specialist Steve Ryan joined Crowell on the East Coast as part of a mini emerging companies/venture capital hiring blitz that coincided with the frightening early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team is now putting some of the (positive!) lessons learned at Atrium to work for a new startup-focused microsite called GrowthStudio, powered by Crowell. One way to look at it is building a space within the traditional law firm model to cater to the unique needs of emerging companies.
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