(Reuters) - Flexible legal talent company Axiom opened up its own Arizona-based law firm on Monday, becoming the latest company to take advantage of loosened lawyer regulations to start a new legal business in the state.

Axiom leaders said the firm, Axiom Advice & Counsel, will incorporate new technologies and adopt a staffing and compensation model that allows it to keep costs down for corporate clients. The firm is targeting a range of clients, including small companies without in-house legal teams.

Regulatory changes in Arizona beginning in 2020 eliminated a rule that barred people who are not lawyers from having an economic interest in law firms, paving the way for Axiom to launch the new firm.

Arizona is on the leading edge of U.S. states beginning to adopt similar changes, with the stated goal of expanding access to legal services and enabling innovation. Utah authorized a "sandbox" program to allow businesses to experiment with new legal business models and services in 2020.

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Removing barriers to non-lawyer law firm ownership and fee splitting is still controversial, however, and efforts to change such rules in other states have stalled or been blocked. Critics resisting the change cite professional ethics concerns, including worries that client protections might be undermined by loosening traditional rules.

Axiom, an on-demand legal talent company founded in 2000, employs nearly 7,000 lawyers globally who work with corporate legal departments....

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