By Angel Coker – Banking and Legal Reporter, Birmingham Business Journal
A legal tech firm has relocated its headquarters from Atlanta to Birmingham after securing an investment from the Alabama Futures Fund.
Case Status Inc., a company that assists law firms to build deeper relationships with clients through automation and streamlined communication, has signed a lease at the Pack Health building in downtown Birmingham.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The company currently has four employees and will be adding three to four employees in Birmingham between now and next fall.
The AFF launched in September 2018, and Case Status represents the third company the fund has invested in so far and is the second company the fund has recruited to the state. The $25 million fund has invested in VirtualCare, which originated in Birmingham, and Joonko, which relocated from San Francisco. The AFF seeks to address the state’s low ranking in funding for early-stage startups by investing in Alabama companies, as well as businesses that will relocate their operations to the state.
Case Status focuses on client-side communications and seeks to improve the client experience and help legal practices leverage technology to improve and automate their client communication workload. By using both client-facing and attorney-facing dashboards, which are accessible through iOS and Android mobile apps, clients and their attorneys can maintain real-time visibility on the status of their case.
In addition, encrypted text messaging allows attorneys and clients to communicate quickly about their case, and sequenced satisfaction surveys provide feedback to attorneys and their firms about the clients’ experience throughout the case.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to partner with Case Status,” said Mickey Millsap, a partner at Redhawk Advisory, which serves as the investment manager for the Alabama Futures Fund. “Through their intuitive and sophisticated platform, Case Status solves one of the most important problems facing high case volume litigation attorneys: client communication and client satisfaction. We believe Case Status fills an important gap in an extremely active legal technology space and look forward to helping management grow this outstanding company.”
As we’ve noted, Birmingham is home to a large legal community with firms that have significantly expanded their footprints around the region.
There are currently 27 firms and more than 10,000 cases on the Case Status platform.
Through Case Status, law firms can have a more efficient case management process, higher customer referral rates and stronger client-focused reputations.
“We believe the missions of Case Status and the Alabama Futures Fund are very much aligned. We are both dedicated to building companies that solve real business problems on an exponential scale,” said Lauren Sturdivant, CEO and founder of Case Status. “AFF brings a wealth of knowledge, feedback, and acumen to the Case Status team. From our earliest days, we have focused on building deep, trusted, and expansive relationships for the benefit of law firms and their clients. AFF demonstrated their commitment to the same ideals.”
Sturdivant said it is a compelling time for founders of startups to be in Birmingham.
“In my opinion, in the next five years, the Birmingham tech ecosystem will expand rapidly, and it is a great time to join the community,” Sturdivant said. “The future is bright for Birmingham, and Case Status is excited to be part of it.”
