By Sara Merken
NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Attorney outsourcing company Axiom Global has closed its affiliated Arizona-based law firm, three years after it became one of the largest companies to take advantage of relaxed law firm ownership rules in the U.S. state.
“Axiom made the strategic decision in 2025 to discontinue Axiom Advice & Counsel (AA&C) as part of our broader effort to focus resources on our core business and accelerate key growth initiatives,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
Chicago-headquartered Axiom launched the law firm in January 2023, a few years after Arizona became the first state to eliminate a rule that barred people who are not lawyers from having an economic interest in law firms.
An Arizona Supreme Court committee was slated to discuss Axiom Advice & Counsel's "voluntary surrender of license" at a meeting on Tuesday, according to an agenda posted on the court's website. The firm first notified the court in April 2025 of its decision to end its participation and close the firm, according to court records.
Arizona's move to change its law firm ownership rules in 2020 paved the way for Axiom, an on-demand legal talent company used by corporate legal departments, to offer legal advice directly to clients. Its leaders said when the firm launched that it would rely heavily on technology and adopt a staffing and compensation model to allow it to keep client costs down.
Axiom is among several large national companies, including LegalZoom, Rocket Lawyer and Elevate, that opened up businesses under Arizona’s “alternative business structure” program. KPMG followed suit last year, becoming the first of the Big Four accounting giants to be able to practice law in the United States with an affiliate Arizona firm.
The Arizona court has licensed 156 alternative business structures since 2021, and there are currently 150 that are still active, according to a court spokesperson. Technology companies and personal injury, mass tort and immigration law firms partially owned by non-lawyers are among the participants.
Axiom in the statement said that while its law firm “provided valuable insights” to the company, it sees “greater opportunity in our investments in AI and our Tech + Talent portfolio, which directly address the talent and workload pressures facing in-house legal departments today.” A spokesperson did not immediately provide further comment.
At least four lawyers that Axiom had hired for the law firm moved to other employers early last year, according to updates on their LinkedIn accounts and announcements by other firms on some of their hires. Matthew Levine, who was managing partner of Axiom Advice & Counsel, left to join law firm Buchalter in April. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Sara Merken in New York)