By Ari Kaplan with Marc Zamsky.
Ari Kaplan speaks with Marc Zamsky, the CEO at Cimplifi, an integrated legal services provider that aligns e-discovery and contract analytics for corporate legal departments and law firms, for a special E-Discovery Unfiltered edition of the Reinventing Professionals podcast.
Ari Kaplan
Tell us about your background and your role at Cimplifi.
Marc Zamsky
I practiced law in Philadelphia as a commercial litigator for four years and have been in the legal services industry since 1996. As the CEO of Cimplifi, I am responsible for operations, sales, client satisfaction and delivery, and helping grow our new contract analytics and contract lifecycle management division. I report to the board of directors and the leadership of our parent company, System One.
Ari Kaplan
As you know, from February 14, 2022 through March 7, 2022, I interviewed 30 professionals responsible for e-discovery, mixed equally from law firms and law departments for the 2022 E-Discovery Unfiltered Report. How has e-discovery changed over the course of this year?
Marc Zamsky
First off, the report is so fantastic. I refer back to it all the time, and I really enjoy using it as a resource, so I really appreciate you doing it year after year so that there are results that we can track and look back on.
In terms of e-discovery, it has really changed in so many ways. First, the movement to the cloud has completely matured. It is the laggards that are really behind that are wondering about how the security of the cloud. Most are really moving towards the cloud. Second, it is not only pandemic-driven data sources like Zoom and Teams, but new data sources, in general, are proliferating. Today, properly managing email and Microsoft Office files is table stakes. We are all trying to understand the newer data sources, such as chat messages, where there is no such thing as a document. In fact, cell phone collection and efforts to retrieve other forms of data are changing the entire landscape. And then, of course, everything from information governance initiatives all the way through document review is AI-driven. There are three key themes that are driving e-discovery forward: platformization; ecosystem; and, interoperability. People are looking for a single source to better manage, understand, and work through their data, whether it's for an investigation, litigation, or internal data management. All three developments encapsulate the current perception of data.
Ari Kaplan
There were a number of really positive perspectives on Cimplifi's work and its approach. Cimplifi changed its name from Compliance in early 2022 while I was conducting this research. How have you navigated that shift in branding?
Marc Zamsky
First, we have the most amazing marketing department. I appreciate everything they do and they have made this change seamless. Second, we have been in business since 1997. Compliance was originally established by two antitrust lawyers performing Hart-Scott-Rodino work, who leveraged workflows, project management, and teams of attorneys to keep clients in compliance with their HSR second requests. As the company matured and expanded into e-discovery and contract analytics, the field of compliance evolved into a distinct sector, and the name created confusion. In rebranding as Cimplifi we wanted to maintain the C for Compliance and use CI for our signature compliance integrations and innovations. It is also a play on words because we are always trying to simplify complex legal challenges for our clients.
Ari Kaplan
In the 2022 E-Discovery Unfiltered report, I asked the participants about expected pain points and business challenges. How do you see the changing e-discovery landscape shaping how companies approach their matters in 2023?
Marc Zamsky
I think companies are highly focused on IG initiatives and managing data to address risk, opportunity, litigation, and investigations, among other needs. In addition, the technology necessary for cell phone collections is changing so rapidly that e-discovery providers are actively working to stay ahead of these developments. As a result, cell phone collections are becoming more difficult, which the array of updates to Slack and Teams further complicates. Collecting data is taking longer and is becoming much more intricate. Data reuse is becoming huge, as are data lake repositories. As we apply AI and algorithms in more complex ways, we need additional skills to adapt.
Finally, we are seeing a huge influx of contract analytics matters, which reflects the convergence of the technology and workflows that we used in e-discovery now being applied to contracts. Instead of extracting a paragraph or keywords in an email for e-discovery, we are identifying clauses within an agreement to understand critical obligations.
Ari Kaplan
80% of the participants in the 2022 E-Discovery Unfiltered report advised that they are using artificial intelligence in their document review. Why are they doing so and how do you see that usage evolving? Marc Zamsky
The data sets are just too big and the AI is becoming very effective. We now have tools that effectively engage in continuous active learning, measure recall behind the scenes, and filter documents. We're seeing applications at the earliest stages of e-discovery. If we can reduce the cost of review, we can bring down overall cost, get to and understand our data faster, and focus on the most critical, relevant documents. The advancements in AI algorithms make them too good not to use.
Ari Kaplan
When I spoke with e-discovery professionals about the qualities that matter most when they're working with an outside provider, they highlighted things like transparency, trust, elegant problem-solving, customer service, and accountability as key elements of that relationship. As your organization grows, how do you maintain your commitment to those fundamental factors for success?
Marc Zamsky
Those are such incredible qualities for any one company or any one individual that is dealing with clients to embrace. We use Microsoft's Power BI, which we now call PowerCI and CI Spend, to be completely transparent about all of a client's data, where it sits, how much it's costing them, and what our project managers are doing. If we make a mistake, we leverage data to understand why we made it and immediately speak to our client about it. We focus on setting expectations about what our clients want to see and have two teams interacting with that data. One is a higher-level project management consulting group that helps clients understand search term reports, analytics that we generate, and our unique approach. The other is a technical data operations team. Together, they help us deliver eloquent solutions to complex problems that are consistent with our brand - Cimplifi.
Ari Kaplan
I found that 80% of the respondents are in-sourcing more of their e-discovery, with 88% of corporate law department representatives acknowledging that change. What factors are empowering their self-service capabilities?
Marc Zamsky
This trend validates the ecosystem that have we built in that we buy the software, host the technology, create integrations and innovations to produce the necessary interoperability and platformization that I spoke of earlier to empower our clients to manage as much of the process as they can. Instead of just collecting data and then giving it to outside counsel or to an external provider, our clients are increasingly building their own in-house teams and working directly with their IT departments because we help them connect collections and legal holds into their system so that they can manage them proactively. In fact, a lot of your report focuses on managing data, streamlining collections and legal holds, and internally processing and filtering information prior to enlisting outside support. This is an important development because many organizations are unfamiliar with their entire data landscape. Platformization offers a central repository and a single point of access that enhances metrics, data remediation, and security.
Ari Kaplan
77% of the E-Discovery Unfiltered participants advised that they have created a standardized workflow to transform their e-discovery process. Why is that so important?
Marc Zamsky
We work on playbooks each and every day with all of our clients, not only encouraging them to start drafting them, but to update them regularly to ensure consistent processes and results.
Ari Kaplan
80% of the participants expect remote document review to remain permanent. What advantages does that offer teams?
Marc Zamsky
With remote review, we have access to a diverse pool of talent that is able to work more efficiently from home. The accessibility and security around these reviews are also increasing. For example, we use a hardened Citrix platform that monitors the reviewer, tracks metrics, and secures the data. Companies are more comfortable with it and realize their data is being protected, receiving assessments from a broader array of talented professionals, and yielding better results. We are seeing less data needing more review, so a better pool of more talented reviewers reviewing more difficult data.
Ari Kaplan
What issues do you see most profoundly impacting e-discovery in 2023?
Marc Zamsky
Advancements and applications of AI in review, continuously emerging data sources, and information governance challenges. Overall, people want to control their data and as part of that ability, we will need to look more at complying with privacy and security regulations, not only throughout the US, but around the world. So, one of the more difficult tasks is not only locating information, but clearly understanding the contents of a given data set to better protect personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and privacy in general. Privacy and security issues will further expand as data sources become more elusive and as data continues to proliferate.
About the Author
Ari Kaplan (http://www.AriKaplanAdvisors.com) regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change, and introduce new technology at http://www.ReinventingProfessionals.com and his series at Legal Business World
Listen to his conversation with Marc Zamsky
Comments