Early-stage tech company Fathym, Inc., global law firm Bryan Cave LLP, and the University of Colorado Law School announced today a new partnership to make legal services more accessible to early-stage companies while modernizing legal training.
“The cost of legal services, especially when delivered in a bespoke manner and billed for hourly, is beyond the reach of many early-stage companies,” said Vince Jordan, COO of Fathym. “As a result, these companies tend to cut corners when it comes to legal matters. While this may be an economic necessity in the short run, it can really hurt the company when it looks to raise money or get acquired.”
The three-way partnership aims to provide early-stage companies robust, cost-effective legal services while simultaneously giving law students the opportunity to deliver both legal and operational services under the supervision of an experienced law firm.
Colorado Law will provide a student intern who has completed the school’s Tech Lawyer Accelerator program, which trains future leaders in the tech law arena. Under the supervision of Bryan Cave’s Director of Client Technology Christian Zust and Managing Partner Mark Weakley, the intern will complete a project that involves identifying and meeting Fathym’s particular needs in a scalable and cost-effective way. Together, Bryan Cave and the intern will productize these solutions and make them available more broadly. By working with executives from both Fathym and Bryan Cave, participating students will gain both traditional legal skills and a complementary knowledge of process and technology.
The Tech Lawyer Accelerator is a partnership between technology companies and Colorado Law that provides a select group of law students with intensive training on what it takes to succeed as a lawyer in the tech industry, followed by paid internships with tech companies ranging from 10 weeks to seven months.
“Large companies increasingly address the issue of high legal costs by standardizing repeatable work and either automating it or assigning it to lower cost providers,” said Bill Mooz, scholar in residence at Colorado Law and former deputy general counsel at Sun Microsystems. “Pulling this off requires a team of professionals who not only are good lawyers, but also have a deep understanding of process and technology. Fathym, Bryan Cave, and Colorado Law are teaming up to apply this same approach to the legal needs of early-stage companies that lack the scale to do this alone.”
“Participating in this initiative was a natural fit for us—Bryan Cave is a recognized leader in law firm innovation, and this internship compliments other training programs that we have implemented, such as the Bryan Cave Business Academy, to help our rising lawyers learn to anticipate our clients’ needs and differentiate our services in new ways,” said Katie DeBord, Bryan Cave’s chief innovation partner. “The opportunity to help shape the next generation of lawyers, while partnering with Fathym to identify scalable, practical solutions to meet their needs, is exciting.”
About Bryan Cave:
Bryan Cave LLP (www.bryancave.com) has a diversified international legal practice. The firm represents a wide variety of business, financial, institutional and individual clients, including publicly held multinational corporations, large and mid-sized privately held companies, partnerships and emerging companies. Aided by extensive investments in technology, Bryan Cave’s more than 1,000 attorneys across the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia serve clients’ needs in the world’s key business and financial markets.
About Fathym, Inc:
Fathym is a software company providing a platform that efficiently converts Internet of Things (IoT) data from inaccessible information to actionable results through fully customizable event-driven data visualizations, analytics and notifications with alerts. Data feeds coming from modern day IoT devices or legacy reporting devices and systems are quickly captured by the platform and made accessible and actionable to the end users.
About Colorado Law:
The University of Colorado Law School is a nationally recognized innovator and regional leader in the changing legal landscape. Founded in 1892 at the gateway to the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado Law delivers high value to its students and serves its communities through the quality of its scholarship, teaching, and curriculum. For more information, please visit colorado.edu/law.
Pictured:(L-R) Sierra Moller ('16), Karl Hoffman ('15), and Whitney Carlson ('15), who completed the Tech Lawyer Accelerator program.