Forward-thinking starts with vision. Not just a vision for where the legal industry is headed but for what our clients will need when they get there.
At TCDI, we don’t guess at what’s next. We listen. We stay close to our clients, understand the challenges they’re facing, and use that insight to build solutions that meet both current demands and future ones. That work isn’t always easy, and it’s rarely obvious. But by staying curious, being intentional in our approach, and applying innovative thinking to every problem we solve, we ensure our technology evolves alongside the people it’s built for.
This month, we asked our team what forward-thinking means to them. Here’s how they keep one eye on today and the other on what’s ahead:
Anthony Klier | VP Privacy & Security Compliance
Strategic Solutions Team
The challenges we face in data privacy and security require us to be in a constant state of evolution. The technical safeguards and procedures that are sufficient today will not be sufficient tomorrow. New and emerging risks must be quickly identified and remediated, and the reasoning underlying our current policies must be continually reviewed to ensure it remains sound in the face of rapidly changing technology.
When someone in the organization asks, “Is it ok if I do this?” the team has to think through not just the immediate risks but rather the long-term implications that may occur. This is particularly true in the area of data privacy where everyone needs to understand that we are not just dealing with data. We are dealing with individuals who are part of a shared humanity that must be respected and who have an inherent right to privacy.
The data privacy and security landscape will continue to change. We must address these changes with proactive solutions that are based on a commitment to unwavering principles and ethics that have stood the test of time, like Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. This principle requires us to always respect the humanity of others, evaluate our proposed actions, and act in accordance with rules that should be universally applied by everyone. Proactive solutions enacted with principled standards will enable us to meet the challenges that arise in the future.
Michael Canup | Senior Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity Engineer
Digital Forensics Team
“Forward-thinking” is another way to describe an organization as visionary. In other words, an organization with the foresight to anticipate future trends before others, and innovating solutions prior to the fruition of those visions. The organization must foster the right culture where employees are encouraged to analyze their roles and responsibilities, anticipate future needs, imagine solutions, and implement them.
This is much like the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop training I received In Law Enforcement, which I apply to my role at TCDI as the Sr. Digital Forensics & Cybersecurity Engineer. For example, years ago before the pandemic, I observed a growing need for collection solutions that could be done remotely.
I began imagining how I could leverage the tools available to me and oriented myself to that goal. After some testing and validating, I decided on a solution we could offer our clients. The forensics team took action by implementing the solution which continues to help our clients to this day. “Forward-thinking”, visionary, or foresight? Just another day at TCDI!
Connie Smith | Senior Director, Litigation Services
Business Development Team
My father was always a big hockey fan, and he would often tell me that Gretzky was the best hockey player of all time. In turn, I once asked him, “What makes Gretzky so great?” He told me, “Gretzky would anticipate and skate to where the puck is going, not where it is or where it has been.”
It is a core value of my professional life to emphasize the importance of future events and work towards positioning myself accordingly, as opposed to just reacting to the events around you. This led me into the legal technology / data business. TCDI, more than any other company, recognizes we are in a data driven world. Through listening to our customers and modeling future events, we customize our offerings for the everchanging needs of our clients.
Chris Scherer | Project Director
Client Services Team
Being forward thinking in my role as Project Director at TCDI means taking a step back from the daily requests of a project and making informed decisions and recommendations to the client that will streamline or reduce effort in the future.
Whether this is something small like creating a customized database layout that has all of the fields and metadata that project managers will use for the life of that matter, or something larger like drafting client specific project plans to recommend new AI technologies and/or processes that can increase efficiency and reduce spend, we always strive to be several steps ahead of the current demands of the matter.
We find that this approach, and the accompanying communication, emphasizes our general thought process at TCDI: that in addition to performing the day-to-day work, we are acting consultatively, working with our clients to help them achieve their larger goals on time and within budget.
This approach has emphasized that we mean what we say. TCDI wants to work collectively with our clients as a partner, not just as a service provider.
Kathy Busraan | Review Manager
Document Review Team
For me, being forward-thinking in managed review means combining the intelligent use of technology with legal expertise to improve the speed and accuracy of document review.
At TCDI this could mean narrowing a document set prior to review, expediting review via data analysis, employing technology to promote coding consistency, creating custom searches to improve coding accuracy within a document set, and using technology assisted review (TAR) to reduce review volumes.
And then there is the use of AI, which TCDI is pioneering beginning with its use in redaction review. All of this work is employed with one goal in mind: to identify a set of documents relevant to a client’s legal matter without exposing privileged material.
