Austin-Based Mitratech Holdings To Lay Off 80-Plus Workers

NORTH AUSTIN, TX — More than 80 workers at Austin-based Mitratech Holdings Inc., a provider of enterprise legal matter management solutions, will be out of work starting amid a corporate restructuring, according to documents filed with the Texas Workers Commission.

The legal tech firm is a a wholly owned subsidiary of TA Associates, a multi-national legal information services company offering software and services for in-house legal professionals and companies. On May 1, the company alerted state regulators if impending layoffs as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the "WARN Act"), a labor law compelling employers to alert to mass layoffs as a safeguard for employees, their families and communities to prepare for such developments via a 60-day notice of furloughs.

Patch formally requested accompanying correspondence to the Texas Workers Commission explaining the reasons for the imminent layoffs. In the letter, company officials said the layoffs of 83 workers will begin on July 1 and conclude by Nov. 1: "Mitratech is restructuring the organization and, as a result will be terminating approximately 83 employees, which meets the definition of a 'mass layoff' under the WARN Act," Jodi Reynoso from the company's human resources department wrote in the letter to regulators. "This action is expected to be permanent."

The Austin American-Statesman reported the job exodus is due to the company's plans to bolster its presence in India for engineering and support needs. The company has 368 employees total, according to the report, including 170 in Austin. Mitratech CEO Jason Parkman said the layoffs affect 100 workers globally, including the 83 in the U.S. — 53 of which are in Austin, according to the report.

Affected workers have no union representation and lack opportunities to transfer or be reassigned elsewhere within the company for salaried office or management personnel jobs, Reynoso added. Moreover, workers targeted for layoffs lack "bumping rights," which would allow them to take another person's job via seniority status within the firm.

The letter indicates employees were notified of their imminent unemployment on May 1, the same day the company alerted regulators. Affected jobs run the gamut, from software engineers to technical writers, according to the correspondence.

According to its website, Mitratech aims to "...help you safely embrace legal technology transformation. How? By partnering with you to leverage the most proven, praised, reliable, flexible and effective legal technology solutions around. So you’re empowered to quickly transform your legal operations, making Legal a hub of innovation and excellence."

According to Wikipedia, the company was founded in Los Angeles in 1987 before moving its headquarters to Austin. Initially, it began as a law practice management company to assist legal professionals and companies throughout the U.S., and was one of the early technology company to offer a web-based case management software for the legal industry. Given its "paperless solutions" products, the company has gained major clients in the U.S. and Europe, the page reads.

Privately held, the Mitratech Holdings lists its headquarters address at 5001 Plaza on the Lake. Bloomberg describes the company's offerings as "...web-based enterprise legal management solutions for corporate legal departments." Among its portfolio, the company's enterprise legal management software solutions "...offer end-to-end matter management, spend management, e-billing, legal hold, contracts management, entity management, and reporting solutions, as well as governance, regulatory, and compliance."

Among the company's products are TeamConnect, an enterprise legal management solution designed for the operational needs of large legal departments; eCounsel offering an enterprise legal management solution for mid-size legal departments; Lawtrac, which provides matter management solution for legal departments; LawManager for government agencies; GettingContractsDone for busy departments; PolicyHub, a policy management solution; and Secretariat that helps user’s corporate secretary to manage legal and ownership structures.

Ironically, the company kicked off 2019 with a bang, announcing the launch of its LegalHold product described in a press release as "...a new, modern, mobile-friendly SaaS solution for end-to-end management of the legal hold process, enabling both defensible mitigation of litigation risk and improved outcomes." The company further noted that "LegalHold was built in partnership with over 40 corporate legal department clients, who’s co-innovation over the past year helped create a validated, best-practice-based solution."

Concurrent to that announcement, Mitratech officials touted the surpassing of "significant milestones" in 2018 as a result of expanding its product portfolio, client base and senior executive team. The company described 2018 as a "record year" given those corporate accomplishments.