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The ATL Tech Interrogatories: 7 Questions With Drew Lewis From Recommind

Drew Lewis, eDiscovery Counsel at Recommind, shares his thoughts and insights about the legal technology industry.

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Ed. note: This is the latest installment of the ATL Tech Interrogatories. This recurring feature will give notable tech leaders an opportunity to share insights and experiences about the legal technology industry.

Drew Lewis serves as eDiscovery Counsel at Recommind. His unique experiences at Recommind coupled with prior experience as a commercial litigator handling all aspects of pretrial and trial practice allows Drew to bring practical solutions to lawyers who are struggling to understand the current and future role of technology in the practice and business of law. Drew continuously fights against inefficiencies in the law and encourages lawyers to shape their own future. Drew believes that the future of the law belongs to lawyers who broaden their world view and see there is much to learn from other disciplines. His goal is to help them not just survive, but thrive as the practice continues to evolve.

1. What is the greatest technological challenge to the legal industry over the next 5 years?

I think there are a variety of business challenges that pose greater threats to the legal industry over that time, but in terms of technological challenges I think it is data variety. We hear about the volume problem all the time, and certainly that will continue to be an issue moving forward. But as other forms of communication continue to replace email as the primary method of communication, and the proliferation of devices comprising the internet of things continues, I am not optimistic about our ability as lawyers to keep up. I talk with lawyers all the time that still struggle to view social media as anything more than a tool for teenagers and narcissists, so it is hard for them to imagine a future where email is no longer the primary type of data in play in legal disputes. And when it comes to the internet of things, I think all bets are off – most people, let alone lawyers, don’t understand the data implications for that world!

2. What has been the biggest positive change in legal technology since the start of your career?

Albeit slowly and far from widespread in our industry, I think it has to be the adoption of social media by lawyers (and not just the obligatory LinkedIn profile). I have found so many interesting lawyers out there that I would never have known about without Twitter. The willingness to share ideas and interact with people from around the world can only help us create a better legal practice. Once upon a time you had to pay for business development coaches and people who would show you how to make rain, present compelling arguments in court, or how to run a small firm. But in the era of self-published blogs and social media you can learn from your peers (and competitors) in ways that weren’t possible before. Of course, it is not perfect; some lawyers and firms think social media is a place for press releases and meaningless engagement. But those that are really connecting with people know the power this medium will have on practice in the upcoming years. For people who are trying to make real connections, it is working and I think it will humanize the profession.

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3. What has been the biggest negative change in legal technology since the start of your career?

It is not so much a change in technology but a change in regards to attitudes about technology. There has been an emerging and now widely held belief that younger lawyers will solve the problems related to technology in the practice of law (especially eDiscovery). The argument goes that because they grew up surrounded by technology and social media they understand it better. This is poor (understatement) reasoning – after all, I grew up watching television but HOW the technology operates might as well be magic to me. I understand it at a high level of abstraction, but if you told me to fix a TV or isolate where a given signal is at in the transfer process, I would be helpless. eDiscovery feels a lot like that for some of these lawyers. The fact that people have been sending and receiving email since they were 13 doesn’t mean they understand how email actually works, so I don’t think it makes that person any more likely to understand how to tackle preservation issues, or make them more capable to run a document review project. We can’t keep waiting for someone else to solve these problems, but this belief has continued to gain acceptance.

4. What do you think would help firms become earlier adopters of new technologies?

Aside from the different personalities of the lawyers that comprise the firms? All kidding aside, I think it is natural to be hesitant to embrace change and new technologies – fearing the unfamiliar is hard wired in our reptilian brains and has helped keep us alive as a species. And innovation often involves uncertainty; even worse it involves failure, and many of us who became lawyers are not comfortable with that particular f word. I believe it is vital for firms to understand that improving legal services requires more than an “entrepreneurial spirit” (a phrase that is so overused it seems to have lost all meaning), and instead embrace an inventor’s spirit. And they have to do more than just allude to this spirit in the firm mission statement – they will have to create a culture where failure is not only tolerated, but it is embraced. Try to run your practice like Richard Branson might and see what happens – it may not be perfect, but we don’t have time (and clients don’t have the money) for perfection. Progress is messy, but if you aren’t making mistakes then you aren’t doing anything worthwhile.

5. What is the biggest cybersecurity blunder you’ve seen in working with lawyers and law firms?

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Not so much a specific blunder, but a big picture trend that I think is playing with fire has to be firm’s willingness to host client data and not properly assess (or mitigate) the risks that go with that duty. For all the stories we read about data breaches at major retailers, I wonder how many law firms are hit and we just don’t hear about it (either because they don’t know or it simply isn’t news worthy unless it is one of the big ones). I am a big advocate of law firms letting companies that are in the business of hosting data host that data. And if firms are going to host data they need to build the proper systems and processes to take every reasonable step to protect the integrity (privacy and security) of their client’s data. Sure this costs money, but for clients I would ask, “how much are you currently charged by your lawyer to host your sensitive business data?” If the answer is nothing, you might be getting exactly what you are paying for.

6. What do you think the future holds for legal technology?

Wow, there are a lot of places we can go with this one. One area I have been interested in is using artificial intelligence to expand the capabilities of smaller shops. And I am not talking about machine learning for document review and investigation (which they should be using already!); I mean robust artificial intelligence to provide firms of all sizes with dedicated research assistants and drafting teams. To me this would fundamentally alter the way legal services are procured and delivered. If this happens then firms of all sizes have the chance to compete for business, and that competition should result in even better legal services for the clients. Larger organizations have an advantage over small ones, though not because their people are per se better; instead, the advantage comes in more resources to throw at more problems. But that model can’t survive long term. Instead, reliance on technology to amplify smaller teams of lawyers seems to be the way to compete in the new economy. It has worked in document review, and I think it is just a matter of time before other basic areas of practice are affected by artificial intelligence.

7. PC or Mac?

I have bought into the Apple ecosystem (iPads, iPhones, AppleTV, etc.) so it has to be a Mac unless I am absolutely forced to use a PC (which does happen at work from time to time).

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