Parent is probably talking about "BigLaw" (thousands of lawyers) and boutique law firms (hundred lawyers or less). Most lawyers at the firms are employees (i.e. the associates) and not part-owners (i.e. the partners). They are not co-ops.
Even in a tiny local law firm of 5 partners/owners and no junior associates, they'd still have the staff paralegals and secretaries as non-owner employees so they're not really co-ops either.
You could certainly have a similar model for software co-ops, using contracts for various non-central parts of the work.
Most worker co-ops also include a probationary period for new hires before they become part owners (because to do otherwise would be a bit insane). A really long probationary period with a low chance of conversion starts looking a lot like the lawyer model...
You don't see law firms raising millions to open shop, but it's almost a pre-requisite for serious tech companies. A law firm can be profitable from day one. This difference makes it much harder to use the co-op model for tech companies unless all the workers are independently wealthy and don't need VCs.