A business describing itself as a ‘global marketplace for on-demand corporate legal talent’ has become the latest legal services innovator to announce a stock exchange float. Axiom Global said yesterday that it has submitted a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

The announcement did not reveal the size of the stake being offered, but entry to the New York Stock Exchange would create a significant expansion of the publicly listed legal services sector. While Axiom is not a regulated law firm, it employs some 2,000 lawyers and other professionals globally, providing services to half the Fortune 100 companies. In the UK it has bases in London and Belfast. 

The IPO announcement also reveals that Axiom has spun off two parts of its operation into separate businesses. Knowable provides a service enabling businesses to extract data about risks and obligations from large numbers of contracts and Axiom Managed Solutions (AMS) which supplies in-house legal departments resources to tackle ‘complex legal work at scale’.

Axiom Global has no connection with the Cayman Islands-based Axiom Legal Financing Fund, which collapsed in 2015 amid allegations of fraud.