Technology

Nate Silver Helps Thomson Reuters Get Into The Ediscovery Game

What exactly does Nate Silver have to do with ediscovery?

By  
on
Nate Silver

Nate Silver

The ediscovery game just got a little more interesting. And no, doing actual discovery is still as boring as ever, but the competitive space is definitely more juicy.

At an event earlier this week at Thomson Reuter’s Times Square headquarters, timed nicely during the Legaltech show, Eric Laughlin, managing director of Legal Managed Services for Thomson Reuters, hosted a fireside chat with Fivethirtyeight.com’s Nate Silver to launch Thomson Reuters new product eDiscovery Point.

Now, what exactly does Nate Silver have to do with ediscovery? According to Laughlin:

Data can be your friend, Nate Silver made data his friend. With eDiscovery Point, data can be your friend.

There was a certain symbolism that you couldn’t miss about the event. It showed off the power of a mega-sized company like Thomson Reuters which has the means to host a Nate Silver. I fully expect Thomson Reuters to leverage that power to get into this space. But, I have to say, not only was it a cool to hear from Silver just a day after the surprising Iowa caucuses (although Nate acted unsurprised by the results), but, for an “old company,” Thomson Reuters has felt very young during this entire week at Legaltech. The company hosted a roundtable at a local bar where people from across the industry discussed the proliferation of young startups and what it means for the legal industry. The discussion was refreshingly youthful and current.

I have to admit that when I heard Thomson Reuters was getting into e-discovery, I was pessimistic at first, and even said so to fellow ATL writer Joe Borstein who works for Legal Managed Services, a Thomson Reuters company. Why would Thomson Reuters get into such a competitive space? The market is already filled with dozens of companies like kCura, Recommind, Everlaw, Logikcull, CloudNine, Catalyst (this list keeps going and going). But Joe had a good point:

Sponsored

There may be a lot of competitors but that doesn’t make it a competitive space. When the market is happy you have Coke and Pepsi.
It’s a good point, although it remains to be seen what kind of consolidation we can expect in what is very much a fragmented ediscovery market with kCura still leading the way. Will it ultimately get down to just two companies? Hard to say.
The other question is why wouldn’t Thomson Reuters simply buy one of the existing ediscovery companies rather than devote an entire team of developers to building their own product in house. I spoke to James Jarvis, vice president, Product and Partner Management at Thomson Reuters who told me that this product has been nearly two and a half years in the making. I asked Eric this question at Legaltech and here was his answer:
When you buy a new house, you want to build something with a good foundation.

Sponsored

Does this mean game over for the other ediscovery companies? Certainly not. LexisNexis has a product on the market yet it’s definitely not the most popular choice. But, as all of you who work inside biglaw firms know, there are Westlaw reps inside every every firm, and sometimes getting a foot in the door is the biggest obstacle for start-ups. Thomson Reuters doesn’t have that problem. But when I mentioned that fact to one CEO at an ediscovery company, he brushed me off. His point was that ideas are cheap and execution is everything. Whoever builds the best product and executes the best strategy is going to win.
This is a story I’m following closely and I plan to have Eric on ATL next week for my own fireside chat of sorts. Also, I haven’t played with the product yet, but I fully intend to. If you’ve got any questions you think I should ask him, email me or tweet to me.

Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at [email protected].

Topics

, , , , , , , , ,