We spoke with AffiniPay’s CEO Dru Armstrong and MyCase’s CEO Jim McGinnis about the acquisition, and what it will mean for end users.
AffiniPay, the parent company of US legal billing and payments software vendor LawPay, announced today (9 June) that is has acquired MyCase, bringing together online payments and legal practice management software in what will become, within just one day, an integrated offering.
MyCase was founded in 2010 and in October 2020 was acquired by Apax, bringing on CEO Jim McGinnis in January of the following year. Since then, the San Diego-headquartered company has been something of an unstoppable force, acquiring legal accounting and billing vendor Soluna; personal injury case management system CASEpeer; legal document automation provider Woodpecker; and immigration case management vendor Docketwise.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider about the acquisition, AffiniPay’s CEO Dru Armstrong said that the deal was sealed quickly, but that an acquisition of this sort has been on the cards for a little while. “We’ve been considering for the past year whether we want to acquire a legal practice management provider,” she told Legal IT Insider. “We were seeing the shifting dynamics in the market and listening to our customers’ needs.”
That shift is the convergence of payments with other software platforms and Armstrong says: “For professionals, being able to provide a holistic service is essential. Their ability to get paid is their first priority, and then it’s the ability to do digital invoicing tied to matter management.”
The acquisition is also, inevitably, a growth opportunity. Within the solo and small market that LawPay operates in – it currently services 52,000 firms – many firms do not have a practice management system. Armstrong said: “It gives us a real opportunity and we asked, ‘if we’re the most simple and powerful payment platform, what is the comparable practice management system?’ We fell in love with the MyCase platform and the team.”
Integration, and the roadmap for MyCase Payments
For customers of MyCase Payments, the big question will be what happens next. McGinnis says: “MyCase Payments customers will continue to enjoy using it but we will start selling LawPay and will have a full integration as of Friday (10 June). It’s something that we have lacked for a long time.”
Ultimately MyCase Payments will be sunsetted but the intentions is to let customers move of their own volition. McGinnis said: “We’re all about giving customers choice. We will be deeply integrated with LawPay and want to make it as attractive as possible,” adding, “It works much better to give customers a choice.”
LawPay’s existing integrations
The big question for LawPay customers will be what happens to its numerous integrations with other legal practice management systems. Armstrong says that nothing will change, commenting: “We’re founded on the idea of customer choice, so with that we’re committed to our partners and to our ecosystems, and we’re going to fully maintain those integrations.”
She adds: “One thing for our partners to think about, is that we are building more APIs as we deeply integrate with a legal practice management system, and that will be to the advantage of all of our partners.”
Armstrong points out that the legal market is in its infancy when it comes to channel partners, commenting, “In a lot of markets you have channel partners and sometimes there are conflicts and you’re competing and sometimes its complementary.” But she says: “You have to put the customer first. If I’m using an Apple phone I might use Microsoft for some things. There’s an expectation that the customer will use their own tech stack and expect their suppliers to work well together.”
The combination – logistics
MyCase has 240 staff, and the combined company will be just shy of 500. It is expected that all employees will continue as normal. MyCase will continue to work on its integrations with the four recently acquired companies, which expand its capabilities within the personal injury and immigration sectors. Interestingly, Soluna and Docketwise already have intergrations with LawPay.
In a sign that there may be further acquisition yet to come, Armstrong observes: “While there is a lot of commonality between lawyers and practice areas, there are those that require a different workflow. It’s really not a case of one size fits all and we’re very bullish on the strategy at MyCase and will continue to take that approach.”
The private equity position
As is often the case now, both AffiniPay and MyCase are private equity owned. TA Associates, which acquired AffiniPay in 2020, supported the acquisition of MyCase with additional investment capital, and will continue as the majority owner of the merged company. Apax remains as a minority investor, with a place on the board.
McGinnis said in a statement today: “We would like to thank Apax, who has partnered with us to help innovate and accelerate our growth and are excited to be joining forces with LawPay in this next chapter. Together, we will take our combined solutions to the next level.”
caroline@legaltechnology.com