Andy Wilson is Chief Executive Officer & Cofounder at Logikcull.com, which he launched in 2004 with CTO and Cofounder, Sheng Yang. He is the visionary behind Logikcull’s product and marketing strategy, which focuses on simplifying and democratizing the discovery process. He earned his Bachelors in Business Information Technology from Virginia Tech.

Welcome! Let’s start with something basic ­– what is Logikcull and what does it do?

Logikcull.com is a document discovery platform for modern legal teams. Within minutes, legal teams from around the world can start a new discovery project (i.e. litigation, investigations, audits, subpoena responses, etc.). No software required. No training required. Simply drag-and-drop your data into Logikcull and Logikcull will automatically categorize it for you into meaningful search buckets. You can then keyword search, tag, review, redact, comment, collaborate, and bates stamp all within the platform. Logikcull makes discovery instant.

Thirteen years is considered eons for a tech company. What’s your number one secret to its long life?

Relentlessness.

Going over some of your materials, it looks like “freedom” and “resist” are two frequent themes. What do those terms mean to you in regards to your business philosophy?

We’re on a mission to democratize discovery so that data can tell the truth, not hide it. So, we see Logikcull’s job as providing anyone, anywhere the freedom to handle any kind of data discovery burden they may come in contact with.

You had zero legal experience when you started the company. What are the three most important things you have learned about the legal profession since then?

1. You don’t need to be a lawyer to build a leading legal tech company =),
2. You need to understand how the legal system’s incentive structure works in order to make a meaningful impact, and
3. To truly make a large impact in the market, you need to design for the end-user, which may or may not be the buyer of the software.

Access to justice is a big part of our philosophy at ROSS and from what I can tell, you too. Tell me what it means to you to be able to help others?

Data is exploding in size and complexity. Most lawyers can’t keep up with it. This can put them and their clients at risk of getting access to justice, because if you can’t get through the data how will you get justice?

Logikcull now hosts 1 billion pages! However, there is still talk about the cloud and security. What do you say to folks who worry about putting their work anywhere but on their desktop or local server?

I ask them if they keep their net worth under their mattress too. Joking aside, I then ask them about what kind of backup policy they have and what would happen in a disaster? And what about data encryption policies? And whether the firm is SOC certified? The list goes on and on. It’s less of an issue these days. Once people realize that 3rd party cloud services are likely 100x more secure than their office/mattress/desktop, then the only logical thing to do is… get Logikcull (seewhatididthere =).

Now it’s time for a POP QUIZ! — Without cheating, how many people have graduated from your alma mater (Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business) since it opened in 1965? We will know if you Google it. We have ways…

I guesstimate an average of 500 grads/year over 52 years. So… 26,000?

Good guess! The actual answer is the rather vague, “more than 41,000.”

Describe the effect artificial intelligence has had on the legal profession?

It’s very, very early days for machine learning and automation in the legal profession. So the effect is small, but growing.

You have five lawyers working for you. Is tech an increasingly viable career option for law grads?

Yes, I think so. Having a legal background is a nice-to-have benefit for a legal tech company, but not mandatory. Lawyers who don’t want to bill by the hour, but still want to work in the legal industry and make decent pay, now have more options other than working in-house because of the explosion in legal tech startups.

Where is the legal profession in terms of its tech revolution? Tell me what the future holds — what will law look like in 10–15 years?

It’s very, very early days. Every week I speak with legal professionals from all around the country ranging in size from solo practitioners to AM Law 100 firms. And what I always come away with is the feeling that the market is still waking up to even basic tech needs like cloud storage backups. I do think though that the digital transformation for legal professionals will be relatively fast. The deadlines legal professionals face don’t care about data problems. And the data problem is becoming a major pain point for them, which will naturally push legal professionals to adopt technology faster.

In 10–15 years the legal market will look similar to how it does today, except more data-driven. And I can see there be a major downsizing in the large law firms due to automation and being able to do a lot more with a lot less.

As always, we ask this one question of all our interviewees: What is the one thing not yet invented that you’d want in your hands RIGHT NOW?

A user-friendly quantum computer the size and cost of an iPhone.

Hmm, I feel a little shallow thinking a self-rejuvenating doughnut would be awesome! Thank you for your time, Andy Wilson.

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