Earlier this year, AI-powered eDiscovery platform Reveal Data merged with data analytics and visualization company Brainspace. Along with a $200 million investment from K1 Ventures, the merger solidified Reveal’s position as a major player in the legal technology space, opening new avenues for innovation and new opportunities to revolutionize the discovery and investigation processes.
In the latest episode of Casetext’s legal podcast The Modern Lawyer, host Anand Upadhye sat down with Wendell Jisa, the CEO of Reveal Data. Wendell described his entrepreneurial journey, what it was like to receive a $200 million investment, and his vision for the future of legal technology in an unfiltered conversation that yielded intriguing insights about what it’s like to be a major player in legal technology. Here are the highlights–
The legal industry was still sort of stuck in this spot where the traditional attorney felt as though technology – artificial intelligence – was going to inhibit or shorten their careers rather than help them be more productive.
Thinking like a lawyer, Wendell tailors Reveal Data’s software to accelerate attorney workflows
Wendell emphasized how in 2015, law as an industry was apprehensive to automation and technology. But just as with justice, the wheels of the legal industry churn slowly. Once attorneys realized that AI can help them spend more time litigating, brokering deals, and acquiring clients, Wendell’s forward-thinking mindset became apparent both to the industry and investors.
I don’t want to splinter off. I think that focusing on solving these problems of our customers in eDiscovery and helping them make decisions and having the opportunity to literally change the way the practice of law is presented is crazy to me.
Wendell found his niche in eDiscovery, and he’s committed to being a leader in the space. His vision is to make the discovery and investigation process as seamless as possible – and by merging Reveal Data’s artificial intelligence technologies with Brainscape’s powerful visualization and analytics techniques, he’s one step closer to making it a reality. “We have some of the most fascinating minds in data science in our organization, the largest data science team I believe in the industry,” he said. “They’re doing things that are literally going to change the practice of law, and that’s why I’m so invested in not just legal tech but eDiscovery specifically.”
I think it’s just the beginning.
Wendell’s technology is evolving the law – and the innovation is just getting started.
As the pandemic accelerates the adoption of technology across industries, there’s a real shift in the legal space’s comfort level with moving away from tradition. Private equity and venture capital firms are taking notice, too. “I think that the adoption of technology, the whitespace opportunity, and the ability to bring automation to the legal industry is why the money’s coming in,” he said. “I think you’re going to have multi-billion dollar valuations over the next 24 to 36 months for companies that started on someone’s couch, just the way Reveal started with me.”
Reveal’s $200 million funding round and merger with Brainspace shows just how much opportunity the legal industry offers for innovation. Wendell is committed to moving law and technology forward, and he’s just getting started.
For more discussions with industry leaders about the future of law and its intersection with artificial intelligence and technology, tune into The Modern Lawyer Podcast.
Rapidly draft common legal letters and emails.
How this skill works
Specify the recipient, topic, and tone of the correspondence you want.
CoCounsel will produce a draft.
Chat back and forth with CoCounsel to edit the draft.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.
How this skill works
Enter a question or issue, along with relevant facts such as jurisdiction, area of law, etc.
CoCounsel will retrieve relevant legal resources and provide an answer with explanation and supporting sources.
Behind the scenes, Conduct Research generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identify the on-point case law, statutes, and regulations, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), along with the supporting sources and applicable excerpts.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.
How this skill works
Enter a question or issue, along with relevant facts such as jurisdiction, area of law, etc.
CoCounsel will retrieve relevant legal resources and provide an answer with explanation and supporting sources.
Behind the scenes, Conduct Research generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identify the on-point case law, statutes, and regulations, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), along with the supporting sources and applicable excerpts.
Get a thorough deposition outline in no time, just by describing the deponent and what’s at issue.
How this skill works
Describe the deponent and what’s at issue in the case, and CoCounsel identifies multiple highly relevant topics to address in the deposition and drafts questions for each topic.
Refine topics by including specific areas of interest and get a thorough deposition outline.
Ask questions of contracts that are analyzed in a line-by-line review
How this skill works
Allows the user to upload a set of contracts and a set of questions
This skill will provide an answer to those questions for each contract, or, if the question is not relevant to the contract, provide that information as well
Upload up to 10 contracts at once
Ask up to 10 questions of each contract
Relevant results will hyperlink to identified passages in the corresponding contract
Get a list of all parts of a set of contracts that don’t comply with a set of policies.
How this skill works
Upload a set of contracts and then describe a policy or set of policies that the contracts should comply with, e.g. "contracts must contain a right to injunctive relief, not merely the right to seek injunctive relief."
CoCounsel will review your contracts and identify any contractual clauses relevant to the policy or policies you specified.
If there is any conflict between a contractual clause and a policy you described, CoCounsel will recommend a revised clause that complies with the relevant policy. It will also identify the risks presented by a clause that does not conform to the policy you described.
Get an overview of any document in straightforward, everyday language.
How this skill works
Upload a document–e.g. a legal memorandum, judicial opinion, or contract.
CoCounsel will summarize the document using everyday terminology.
Find all instances of relevant information in a database of documents.
How this skill works
Select a database and describe what you're looking for in detail, such as templates and precedents to use as a starting point for drafting documents, or specific clauses and provisions you'd like to include in new documents you're working on.
CoCounsel identifies and delivers every instance of what you're searching for, citing sources in the database for each instance.
Behind the scenes, CoCounsel generates multiple queries using keyword search, terms and connectors, boolean, and Parallel Search to identifiy the on-point passages from every document in the database, reads and analyzes the search results, and outputs a summary of its findings (i.e. an answer to the question), citing applicable excerpts in specific documents.
Get a list of all parts of a set of contracts that don’t comply with a set of policies.
Ask questions of contracts that are analyzed in a line-by-line review
Get a thorough deposition outline by describing the deponent and what’s at issue.
Get answers to your research questions, with explanations and supporting sources.