IncuBaker<\/a> does this really well from BakerHostetler, where they\u2019re developing, using UniCourt and lots of other data sources, outsourced legal services at scale, so they can do something really well and very cost effective, but also tie that in with the expertise that a firm has to offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\nNobody wants to do some of these rote tasks. Imagine most of that\u2019s going to be done in the future through process automation. Where you can insert an attorney into that process that can actually give guidance, I think that\u2019s really where the future is heading. Where attorneys do what they do best, and firms do what they do best, which is give guidance, and the rest of it I think will be automated. So I see a lot of amazing things happening across legal on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Better Uses of Legal Data and APIs <\/h3>\n\n\n\n George Socha: \u201cWhat do you see as some gaps in terms of types of organizations that could be making better use of this data, better use of your APIs, but aren\u2019t yet doing so?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josh Blandi: \u201cI do think BigLaw has a long way to go. From the pulse I have, they all say they\u2019re doing amazing innovative things, and I\u2019m sure they\u2019re doing some amazing things, but from the interactions I\u2019ve had with AmLaw 200 firms, maybe only about 10, maybe 20 percent actually have data science teams, and are actually working to integrate data science into their operations. So I think there\u2019s a lot of room for improvement for the bigger firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also think there\u2019s a tremendous potential in eDiscovery in terms of uncovering information that\u2019s buried in court documents. Your industry already has an amazing set of tools to do this. I am always amazed about what\u2019s happening in the eDiscovery space. You really were the first legal technologists in law \u2014 the real legal technologists in law. I remember when we first started in \u201814, we would go to legal tech conferences and 90 percent would be eDiscovery companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leveraging SALI Standards for Case Classifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Josh Blandi: \u201cWe\u2019re also working with organizations like SALI… I really believe that what they’re doing is the future, where they\u2019re mapping out the legal genome. Everything from billing to litigation, to how a firm runs \u2014 the type of data you\u2019d need structured at a firm level. And some of that, and specifically litigation data, overlaps with our data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s going to be some stuff that overlaps where we just have our own system, but we\u2019re going to map a lot of our data to SALI standards. Meaning, hey, this is what we call it what we do with it, but it\u2019s also equivalent to this SALI standard, so everybody has a universal system to talk to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you\u2019re exporting stuff out of a matter management system or client experience system and you have your SALI tags on it, you can line it up with UniCourt\u2019s data, and then boom you have your dataset you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s Next with UniCourt\u2019s Apollo APIs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n George Socha: “As we draw to a close here, are there any previews you care to share for what\u2019s coming next with what you have to offer?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josh Blandi: \u201cWe\u2019ve been working on our latest version of our APIs, called our Apollo APIs. Imagine when we initially started we had this app and that provided access to court data and trial records, and we got a lot of requests saying, hey, do you guys have APIs for this. We made our initial version of our APIs, and imagine when we created the first version of our APIs, we didn\u2019t really know what people would want to use it for, so we got all of this fantastic feedback, and we\u2019ve been collecting that for about four years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in 2020, we began a pretty impressive project to rebuild our APIs from the ground up with the concept of being API first. Meaning, we develop APIs, so that there can be an ecosystem of people who want legal data. They can develop off of those APIs. And then we can decide to make products off of them, or other people can make products off of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been working on our Apollo APIs since January of 2020, for almost two years with over 120 engineers designing this. And we\u2019re pushing this out to Alpha in November. And the key things that distinguishes these APIs from our predecessor ones are the deep integration of entities involved in litigation and this deep integration with analytics. So now you can pull, hey, this attorney, what type of litigation does he do, how much, where, show me all the people he\u2019s ever opposed, all the law firms he\u2019s ever worked for, all the judges he\u2019s ever been before, filtered by virtually any data object we have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really believe this is going to provide a good foundation on the analytical front, so you don\u2019t need to pull out 10,000 records and do your own data science on it. You can pull the analytical data from our side, and if you want to validate or actually pull those dockets, you can do that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Learn More and Get In Touch With Us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n We really enjoyed working with the team at ACEDS and speaking with George Socha on this episode of eDiscovery Leaders Live. You can watch the full interview with Josh Blandi here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n