Earlier this week, I posted my LawNext interview with Augie Rakow, cofounder and managing partner of alternative law firm Atrium. Now comes news that Rakow is leaving the firm.

Atrium today posted the announcement, saying that Rakow is stepping down as managing partner. No explanation was given for his departure.

“Building Atrium with Justin and the team has been a fantastic growth experience,” Rakow says in the announcement. “I’m hugely grateful for what I’ve learned as a lawyer and business builder, and proud of what we’ve created so quickly.”

Hans Kim, who has been an Atrium partner at Atrium, will now become managing partner. A corporate and securities lawyer with over 20 years of legal experience, he previously worked at Paul Weiss in New York and Tokyo, Kim & Chang in Seoul, and Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto.

Atrium was launched in 2017 by Rakow, a former Orrick partner, and Justin Kan, a serial entrepreneur who sold the Twitch video platform he created to Amazon for $970 million, to address Kan’s own frustrations as a client with how legal services are delivered.

Atrium raised an initial $10.5 million in funding in 2017 and then another $65 million last September in round led by prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The dual entity is part law firm and part legal technology company.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.