"How e-discovery requirements are changing: 5 questions with Relativity CTO Keith Carlson"
Carlson was most recently general manager of payments and fraud at Amazon Web Services in Seattle, and is now responsible for technology and architecture strategy and oversees engineering delivery, engineering operations, and production engineering functions at Relativity—formerly known as kCura.
In his new role, the company says, he will be integral to maturing Relativity's SaaS delivery model with RelativityOne and expanding Relativity's reach into the unstructured data realm.
Carlson recently shared his views on the value of unstructured data, changing requirements for data privacy, and how the e-discovery space is evolving.
What are some of the approaches or technologies that you hope to plan to implement in your new role at Relativity?
Keith Carlson: As more customers adopt RelativityOne, we will continue to implement more cloud-native services to augment this growth. Thanks to the elastic scaling and storage already built in to our SaaS product, we can really focus on making the whole customer experience the best it can be.
At Amazon Web Services, you developed one of the first cloud fraud prevention and detection organizations and grew it to where it was evaluating 10 trillion pieces of data a day. How does the expertise and skills from that role transfer to the new responsibilities at Relativity?
KC: Building the Fraud Prevention team at AWS taught me the value of unstructured data. During my time there we developed sophisticated real-time analysis models that processed thousands of variables. Over the next decade, I believe that leveraging unstructured data will be a key part of the move to machine learning models, artificial intelligence and deep learning, and I believe that these technologies will impact just about every part of our lives. With the experience Relativity already has in the unstructured data space, I feel like I have been given a front row seat for what's coming. I can't wait to see where it goes and where we will take things.
Why is it important to extend Relativity's reach into the unstructured data realm?
KC: Customers love the extensibility of our platform because it allows them to address the unique needs of their business and clients in e-discovery and beyond. More and more we're beginning to see customers harness the power of our platform to build unique applications to previously-unsolved problems in the unstructured data realm. A great example of this is Deloitte's new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) application which is built on top of Relativity. The application is used by government agencies to help them manage disclosure requests for government records using automation, analytics and scalable data compliance functionality. Internally, we're also committed to building out unique extensions of Relativity that help grow our business and promote new revenue streams. One area we're really excited about is proactive compliance and how our new Relativity Trace application works with businesses in regulated industries to stop bad behavior like fraud and insider trading before it happens.
How are changing views on data privacy affecting e-discovery solutions?
KC: Data privacy has made its way into regulation around the world and it has impacted how organizations manage data and e-discovery matters across borders. Now more than ever, it is important that users look for a single e-discovery solution with a global footprint, like RelativityOne, that can handle increasingly complex e-discovery matters in a secure and compliant manner.
What are the biggest challenges you see in the e-discovery?
KC: One area that is always top of mind for customers and continues to be a high priority for Relativity is data security, especially in the public cloud. Our goal is to lead the industry to SaaS through RelativityOne and one of the biggest hurdles we've identified is users being unsure around data security in the public cloud. We're confident that we can continue to quell any concerns around this topic by delivering a truly best-in-class security posture developed and implemented by our Calder7 security team and built into every avenue and process of the code that our engineering team develops. I'm looking forward to expanding engineering's partnership with our Calder7 team to ensure that our security remains a best-in-class pillar for our company and for RelativityOne.
"Relativity names former LinkedIn SVP Mike Gamson as its new CEO"
On Wednesday, Relativity announced that it's bringing in Mike Gamson as its new CEO. Gamson will take on his new role with Relativity starting July 1.
Most recently, Gamson was an executive at LinkedIn, where he led about 5,000 employees across different teams and countries. He worked for LinkedIn from 2007 to 2019, starting as a general manager, then moving on to be VP of sales and then SVP of global solutions. He left the company in February.
But Gamson has also been on the board of Relativity since 2017. The company credits him with helping develop its strategy and advising it on how to address global demand.
Gamson will take over the role of CEO from Andrew Sieja, who founded Relativity and will continue to serve on Relativity's board of directors as executive chairman. The two have an established relationship from working together on the board.
"Working closely with Andrew and the Relativity team over the past two years has given me the unique opportunity to get to know the company's business and team extremely well," Gamson said in a statement. "I couldn't be any more excited for the future of the company and the opportunity I have to help move Relativity ahead to its next phase of growth."
Relativity creates e-discovery software, which is used to find information during legal proceedings like litigation or investigations. Relativity's platform is used by over 180,000 legal professionals and organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies, top American law firms and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Founded in 2001 as a software consultancy, Relativity started development of its e-discovery platform in 2004 as an internal tool for an international law firm. The company retained the intellectual property rights for the software, which over time evolved into its core offering.
The company rebranded to Relativity from kCura in 2017 to align its name with that of its flagship product.
Besides being a big deal in the legal world, the company also plays a big role in the Chicago tech scene. With about 750 local employees, it's one of the largest tech companies in Chicago.
What's more: In February, Relativity announced it would hire another 300 people by the end of the year. The new hires will likely put Relativity over the 1,000-employee mark.
Beyond its impact on the tech scene, Relativity has also put an emphasis on its role in the city more broadly. It has a philanthropy branch, Relativity Gives, which has donated millions of dollars to Chicago schools over the years.
"It is a tremendous honor to continue my career as CEO of Relativity," Gamson said in a statement. "I look forward to partnering with our employees and our industry to fulfill Relativity's mission."
