Although I was following Relativity Fest from afar this year, one of the key themes I saw emerging from the conference was the shifting role of eDiscovery providers from pure litigation support to “data management.” Naturally, this shift would benefit an industry with a reputation for ever-thinning margins, because it would now allow solution providers to upsell corporate legal departments (and perhaps ultimately the CIO of a corporation rather than the legal department) on an entirely new service line. The sales pitch is fairly straightforward — “Like the tech-enabled, data-driven work product we deliver around major discovery projects? Well, we now provide that same quality work product (at significantly lower fees than your law firm) for your large scale contract review.” And if outside counsel begins to buy what the providers are selling, it could spell all kinds of issues for Biglaw firms whose profit model depends on pushing menial work down to still expensive associates.
If anyone understands the opportunity, it’s Chris McDaniel, the CEO of Virginia-based Cognicion LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hunton Andrews Kurth, that handles discovery work and other process/workflow driven projects that are no longer handled by outside counsel. Companies like Cognicion are popping up at multiple firms including Keesal Young & Logan, Reed Smith and Troutman Sanders, just to name a few. Chris comes from a litigation support background, but like several other providers, Cognicion is now expanding into corporate due diligence and other contract review related work. Starting today, I’m kicking off a live conversation with Chris, so if you’d like to learn more about this trend click the button below to follow the conversation as it unfolds.
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].
