On July 23, 2020 I sat down with Rakesh Madhava, the chief executive officer of Nextpoint, via WebEx. Rakesh and I covered a multitude of subjects, including how the eDiscovery landscape has changed from paper to digital, technology adoption within the legal industry, and how COVID-19 will permanently alter certain aspects about how law is practiced.
Rakesh has extensive litigation experience, first as a litigation paralegal at, among other law firms, Kirkland & Ellis, and then as a litigation data consultant at FTI Consulting in the late 1990s. He was also the creative director of Hubbard One, now a division of Thomson Reuters, in 2000, where he “cut his teeth” on internet-based technologies supporting the practice of law. In 2001, Rakesh founded Nextpoint, which has been an internet-based platform since its inception.
eDiscovery Observations – Historical Lookback to 1990s and 2000s
Rakesh looks back on his early document review projects involving actual paper productions and discusses how that history and the “stickiness of paper” still play a major role in how many litigators see digital data.
Trial Prep as a Launchpad for Services
Rakesh discusses how Nextpoint initially focused on trial preparation in the early 2000s, including his realization during a high-profile matter that trial services could be substantially improved using the connectivity of the internet. The eDiscovery aspects were a subsequent addition at the request of Nextpoint clients.
Legal Industry Technology Adoption
Rakesh notes that lawyers and the legal industry are savvy consumers of technology and will adopt new and better technologies when they’re ready to be adopted, using the relatively recent and broad acceptance of cloud-based solutions as a key example.
COVID-19 Impact – Four Sectors of Change for the Legal Industry
Rakesh discusses the four sectors by which the practice of law will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rakesh described Nextpoint as “a cloud-based provider of a software-as-a-service, that allows attorneys and law firms to control their confidential client information.” Nextpoint’s software offerings fall into two major and integrated categories: (1) traditional eDiscovery and review, and (2) trial preparation, including depositions and trial presentation. Nextpoint offers not only its own software, but also a Client Engagement Team that provides “as much or as little support as a trial team or a law firm may need.”
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at csanko@bakerdonelson.com. I would love to hear from you.
LeanDiscovery: Sitting with the C-Suite is a series of interviews designed to provide in-house legal counsel with a birds-eye view of the eDiscovery marketplace, particularly its various technology and service providers. A key component of great eDiscovery management and execution is having a great supply chain. Sitting with the C-Suite is a forum to hear directly from the C-Suite of various eDiscovery providers about the marketplace history, current and future service offerings, and expectations of things to come. This is not an advertisement or endorsement of any of the speakers, or the companies, services and technology that they represent, by either the interviewer or Baker Donelson. The views expressed are those of the speaker. Baker Donelson’s eDiscovery team seeks to provide the best client value throughout the eDiscovery life cycle. If you have any companies or speakers that you would like to see featured, please feel free to reach out to us at LeanDiscovery@bakerdonelson.com.
