Upcounsel v. AppearMe v. Atrium - The Best Legal for Startups.

Finding an attorney for your startup is one of the most responsible tasks. At an early stage of every startup it is very important to keep all costs down and be properly protected on the legal side. Hiring a law firm that charges $650 per hour and up on retainer bases can quickly drain $20,000 to $30,000 of your money and give you so little that you feel, and most often are, cheated and robbed.

Lucky for us technology, legal technology to be specific, can help you tremendously. To sort through the different legal options that startups have, I have decided to compare the three legal tech startups that have raised the most buzz lately.

First, Upcounsel.

Yes we do not know if they are still alive, eaten up or just closed down, but the website is still up. With barely 1500 lawyers signed up (although their marketing team used random numbers from 5,000 to 30,000 in different places) it is a startup with questionable business practices.

From slow turn around time, questionable and fake lawyer reviews and lawsuits for violating ethical and business rules, we are unsure how the company will remain operational.

Second is AppearMe.

Based out of Los Angeles, CA this startup made its way to the Bay Area through the UC Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator. Initially available for lawyers ONLY, the network is not open to startups and consumers.

With over 10,000 lawyers who are available to tackle your legal tasks within minutes, it is the largest on-demand and real-time network in the nation. With transparent flat fees, which YOU set, to hourly or contingency based legal services, this startup delivers every time.

Aaaand, Atrium.

Yes they shut down, or wait they did not… They are a “regular” law firm, but wait, they always were… A “startup” with major VC backing and questionable setup and jam-up of 2 entities (a law firm and a tech company) promised to do what AppearMe did and continues to do!

With Atrium you basically had to pay a monthly fee to use their “technology, basically a private Slack and Asana which could be used to see your files and “chat” with your lawyer. The legal work done was billed at $650 per hour as every other law firm does.

Yes, I do marketing for legal companies and I know a thing or two about AppearMe. This article was written to show how awesome AppearMe is and how it has flown under the radar for some many for so long. It’s awesome, take a look www.AppearMe.com