If a startup like Atrium can streamline legal workflows, then new school firms don't need to bill for writing that status memo.
That should lower prices and attract more customers. Seems like a win/win.
That's the opportunity - but it's really hard when instead of software they can go get an actual living, breathing attorney to work on contract for $25-35 an hour. More in California because of their OT laws, so maybe that's where the opportunity exists initially for disruption.
Critically, though, I don't think anyone's figured out how to charge billable hours for what your software does. Since you can still bill contract attorneys out at 3x what you pay them, it's tough going.
Big law firms aren't really looking for efficiency. They charge for every 10th minute that they're doing something. If they have more work than they can handle, they'll hire more associates at lockstep salaries based on their "year" - or contract attorneys at less than half that if they only need some spare capacity to do rote tasks. Their labor costs are known and very stable, and with the sheer number of underemployed lawyers out there, it's going to stay that way. No matter what, they're billing those associates or contract attorneys at far more than they're paying them. And the kicker is, the culture of "prestige" in the industry will basically prevent the largest firms from ever marketing that they'll do the same work in fewer hours. They don't pitch on a lower bill than their competitors, they pitch on expertise in a given area of law and a favorable track record of outcomes from similarly sized/situated clients. And because of that, few GCs want to take a chance on a firm doing things differently.
I'm not saying there isn't a place for Atrium - I'm not saying it's a hard sell to be negative. I really want them to succeed. It's just more likely to be in the small and mids where their clients do apply more pricing pressure, and maybe eventually in the larger firms if it really catches on. I think there's also an in-house play, because in-house counsel is often stretched pretty thin and needs better tooling to manage internal workloads and its supervision of outside counsel.
Every 10 minutes? Every large law firm I'm aware of bills by the sixes.