In preparation for the LawTech Europe Congress due to take place this upcoming October, CEE Legal Matters spoke with one of the Speakers at the conference, Michael Schulte, representing kCura, an e-discovery service provider making a push into the CEE market, about the growing interest of firms in the region in such technology-driven solutions.
Michael Schulte is an account and channel manager, based in kCura’s London office. He began his career in e-disclosure with kCura in 2009 as a member of the client services team, providing technical support to Relativity partners and clients. After learning about Relativity from the technical side, he moved to his current role on the sales and marketing team in 2011. Michael specializes in supporting the business development efforts of kCura’s international network of channel partners.
CEELM: If you had to describe e-discovery and what kCura does in one sentence each, how would it sound like?
M.S.: Broadly, I would describe e-discovery as the management and exchange of electronic data as it relates to litigation and investigations. kCura is a Chicago-based software company whose software helps users address and overcome the challenges inherent in the various stages of data management and e-discovery.
CEELM: You will be attending the LawTech Europe Congress in Autumn this year to showcase your software. What are the main reasons that draw you towards the CEE region as a potential market for your product(s)?
M.S.: We very much see the CEE region as an emerging market for e-discovery – and have already seen our software, Relativity, expanding there. Additionally, many of our channel partners already operate or are beginning to operate in the CEE region, so we’re also here to support their efforts. Lastly, we hope to get to know the market more – and better understand its unique demands – so we can better support the region’s growing Relativity community.
CEELM: Based on your assessments of the markets in the region, how common is the use of e-discovery software by law firms?
M.S.: Typically, we find that firms in the CEE region haven’t seen the data volumes that we see in the UK or the U.S. Nevertheless, this seems to be changing – we are seeing increasing interest in using e-discovery software and technology overall to meet the requirements of managing large data. As data volumes grow, the need for technology grows along with it, and we feel that Relativity is well-suited to meet those needs.
CEELM: Do you see a growing trend in the region as a whole in using e-discovery solutions? What do you believe is the main reason for this?
M.S.: Yes, we do see a growing trend, but it’s difficult to point to the main reason for it. Overall, as mentioned, we see that data sizes are growing in the region, so the need to support e-discovery with powerful technology is growing along with it. This seems to lead to an increased demand not only for newer technologies, but also for the people that are skilled in putting those technologies to use. We’re consistently supporting our partners in the region as they build out their services here.
CEELM: This increased demand that you are registering, does it come primarily from UK/US firms operating in the CEE region who have used such software for a while now in their global offices or are local firms in the region turning towards such solutions as well?
M.S.: It seems to be a combination of both. I think that as firms in the CEE region see their data volumes growing, they are increasingly looking towards the markets and solutions that have been dealing with larger volumes over the last few years. At the same time, we are starting to see our US-based and Western Europe-based partners and clients pushing into the region to proactively serve the growing need for e-discovery solutions.
CEELM: How has e-discovery been evolving recently, and what trends will continue?
M.S.: One of the most noticeable trends that we’ve seen is that the industry as a whole is really embracing advanced text analytics technologies, like computer-assisted review and email threading. As data volumes continue to grow, those technologies are becoming more and more important. With our partners and clients, we’ve seen a significant spike in the use of Relativity Analytics and Relativity Assisted Review to help address the growing number of documents that need to be reviewed. We plan to focus heavily on pushing innovation in this area, as we see it as vitally important to the industry.
