Image courtesy National Parks Service
Note: This story has been updated with information about InfoSys. -EK
Participants in LegalTech New York this month will see several e-discovery companies that are exhibiting for the first time. Law Technology News contacted the newcomers to find out their stories.
Allegory Law (Brooklyn, N.Y.) formed in 2011 and doesn't do traditional e-discovery. Instead, the company focuses on cloud-based case management software. But their software is designed to also hold post-production e-discovery documents. "We are finishing up our development/beta stage for the first rollout of Allegory now. Our beta stage included the recent four-week trial in Voom HD Holdings LLC vs. EchoStar Satellite LLC, which ultimately settled for hundreds of millions of dollars (I was co-counsel on the case with Gibson Dunn, my former employer)," co-founder Alma Asay wrote. "We have been demonstrating the product for various clients as far back as March and anticipate officially [selling it] in the near future."
AOS Legal Technologies (Tokyo) expanded into U.S. markets in 2012 by partnering with Catalyst Repository Systems Inc., according to the company's website (officials were traveling in Japan this week and were unavailable to comment). In addition to e-discovery, AOS also sells data recovery and forensic services.
Cicayda (Nashville, Tenn.) brings e-discovery veterans Roe Frazer and Jason Cox back into the field, after they sold CaseLogistix to Thomson Reuters in summer 2010. Their new company is named for the urban legend that finding a blue-eyed cicada bug is a one-in-a-million chance, according to Frazer. More important, "Our product roadmap calls for 10 releases of five products through the end of 2013," he said. The products include legal hold, processing, review, search, and text analytics. Frazer said the products will have ultra-simple interfaces and very low prices.
Compiled Services (Richmond, Va.) makes software for working with load files. Their product, ReadySuite, offers "tools for converting, manipulating, reviewing, validating, and quality-checking load files and document productions," founder Justin Blessing stated. "Other modules in ReadySuite let users handle image file conversions, Bates numbering and endorsements, redaction, and OCR." Blessing said he considered the software a hobby until 2011, when it became his full-time job. The software is available now, and so, "It made sense to exhibit at LTNY this year and get the message and product in front of more people," he said.
Cumulus Data Inc. (Chicago) has a hosted data collecton service called eCloudCollect. "It enables instant access to ESI from anywhere in the world with nothing more than a web browser, and has the capability to de-NIST and de-duplicate ESI before the collection is exported -- producing a lean data set for processing," said marketing manager Desiree Salomon. The software shipped in August 2012.
Discovery Services (Chicago) formed in 2008 and provides contract attorney staffing, document review (with centers in Chicago and Washington, D.C.), e-discovery services, and litigation support. "In addition, we are a minority-owned company," CEO Ashish Prasad noted. "So we offer clients the advantages of being able to fulfill their supplier diversity objectives."
Infosys (Bangalore, India) does business process outsourcing including e-discovery services for law firms. It also performs contracts management, intellectual property services, and research, company officials stated.
So what's the trend? "One thing did strike me about all the new companies ... they reflect the larger movement in business applications of social, mobile, and cloud," said technology analyst Tom Petrocelli, of Enterprise Strategy Group. "These are three forces that are driving a lot of disruption in the apps market and, in that respect, it's not surprising to see it played out in the e-discovery market."
Evan Koblentz is a reporter for Law Technology News. Send email or follow him on Twitter.
