Joining the hall of famous rebrands somewhere between Meta and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, AffiniPay announced this morning — at 8am local time — that they officially changed their name to 8am.
The logo even sort of has an Artist Formerly Known as Prince look.
The name “AffiniPay” was too tethered to payments, perfect branding for the parent company of LawPay, but a little limiting after acquiring MyCase, CasePeer, and DocketWise. While lawyers cordon off a special place in their hearts for getting paid, AffiniPay’s offerings had outgrown the “Pay” moniker.
That said, 8am could comfortably identify anything from a wake-up call service to a donut joint that charges $11 for coffee and awkwardly forces you to reject the default 25 percent tip. Not that names have to be self-explanatory. Blackberry sounded like produce company until it became the most important business device in the world. Still, a name has to trigger a connection with the audience.
Like if LexisNexis rebranded as “2am,” bringing us back to the moment we realize we’ve been researching the wrong jurisdiction for six hours.
Chief Marketing Officer Nate Skinner said, “The name 8am captures the energy and focus we bring to our customers every day…” which suggests the company approaches 8am very differently than the rest of us because my 8am energy is “bleary-eyed contempt.” That’s the time in the office when lawyers peruse personal emails and order coffee while trying to work themselves up to the idea of real work. Skinner continued, “It’s about making our value clear and helping our customers build momentum from the moment their day begins.”
This latter explanation makes a lot more sense than evoking the energy and focus of the early morning, so we’ll just forget about that first part. 8am (the company) handles the tasks that lawyers dread tackling during that half-asleep 8am (the hour) period. That’s when they’ve slunk into the office to handle billing, conflict checks, calendaring, and all the other back-office chores that they can only accomplish before everyone starts swamping them with calls and emails about the actual law at 9am. It’s an implied pledge to help lawyers — and other professionals — get their 8am hour back. In small law, trying to balance running a business with practicing a profession, getting back any hour is important. Getting back the precious 8-9 hour is golden.
For a company with such a long history, the name change is going to take some getting used to. Especially in November when they have to change back to “7am” to comply with professional business platform standard time.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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