LegalTech Interview of Dean Gonsowski on Predictive Coding and My Mission to Make Predictive Coding Software More Affordable

I highly recommend you watch this interview of an expert on e-discovery search whom I respect, Dean Gonsowski, Symantec eDiscovery Counsel. Dean is a former practicing attorney and general counsel who is now an expert on technology for Clearwell-Symantec. He has a good handle on the big picture of predictive coding type technologies, not only in litigation, but also in corporate information governance. The interview is well-done by Don McLaughlin, CEO of Falcon Discovery.

Stay to the end of the interview and learn about the possible use of predictive coding as an email management tool to file your email. I can just see the commercials of the near future! Let your computer do your filing for you. That way the computer can more easily retrieve your email when you want it. Manual self-filing will become a thing of the past, freeing up hours of time for the average information worker. I am all for that vision of the future. This is outlined by Dean, and so is the use of predictive coding in litigation. Dean talks at length, as did I at the time, about there being no real need to wait for a big decision approving predictive coding. We all used keyword search without an opinion approving its reasonability, so why should these new search technologies be different? Dean, like everyone at the time, pointed out that judicial approval of predictive coding might never come, or its coming could take years.

Dean is one of the key e-discovery people from Clearwell who are now helping to make Symantec a more dynamic, information-driven company. Their blog, e-discovery 2.0: thoughts about the evolution of e-discovery, is one of my favorites. They have new software called Clearwell Transparent Predictive Coding that will come out in a few months (price to be announced). I saw a private demo of it at LegalTech from the top people of Clearwell-Symantec. I told them then what I tell all of the vendors, bring the prices down! I will keep beating that drum so that predictive coding culling is affordable in all sizes of cases. It is the ideal tool to implement my Bottom Line Driven Proportional Review method. 

In the video interview above Dean Gonsowski gives a new perspective on technologies and legal methods that goes back to Dean’s early days in e-discovery in 2003. Poor Dean never gets much of a chance to talk when I appear on panels with him, which I have done now for Clearwell for the last two years at LegalTech. He is usually graciously allowing his panelists to speak while he asks questions. When the tables are turned he has many interesting things to say, as this You Tube video shows. Frankly, I have never heard Dean speak for so long as in this video.

As a final note you might want to calendar a free webinar I’m doing for Symantec and Inside Counsel on March 22, 2012 at 2:00 ET. It is called Is Keyword Search in eDiscovery Dead? I’ll answer that question, talk about the old days of endless games of Go Fish, some of my new search methods, and the Kleen Products case, but not the other case. Presenting with me and trying to get a word in edgewise is Matt Nelson, eDiscovery Counsel for the Symantec Intelligent Information Group.

I wonder who counsel is for their Dumb Information Group? Glad I’m not presenting with that guy! Anyway, did I mention it’s free? So give it a listen and ask a question or two, such as, what will your predictive coding software cost when it comes out, and can you make it less expensive? I will cheer you on, and even if you don’t ask (or, more like it they don’t read your question), I will keep on trying to influence all of the software leaders.

I want to make predictive coding software an affordable, everyday item. Now that I’ve helped to open the door, I want as many people as possible to be able to walk through. With the right methods to use this tool, a new world of affordable e-discovery awaits.