Why U.S. Legal Businesses Flirt With IPOs But Don’t Commit

Welcome back to the Big Law Business column on the changing legal marketplace written by me, Roy Strom. Today, we look at two legal businesses that decided against going public and ask what it means that the industry isn’t lighting up Wall Street.

Last week, two companies in the legal space sold to private investors after they flirted with the idea of publicly floating shares.

The bigger of the businesses was Axiom, the 20-year-old talent agency that provides on-demand lawyers for corporate law departments. Axiom had been in a quiet period after filing paperwork in furtherance of a public ...