A newly published survey suggests that the e-discovery market is consolidating.
Growth Curve, the AmLaw Tech column in the February 2006 issue of American Lawyer Magazine, presents the e-discovery portion of the results of a recent survey administered in connection with the Litigation Department of the Year article in the January issue. The magazine surveyed 81 litigation department chiefs at large law firms. They asked about e-discovery vendors, scanning and coding vendors, and software used to manage discovery documents and cases.
“[T]he industry fragmentation that we spoke of [2 years ago] appears to be waning.” The article points out that 2 years ago, 24% of respondents listed Kroll as their primary EED provider; this time 46% did. It also quotes me as saying “It is more efficient to have a few big players than to have many smaller ones. A larger vendor can offer more capacity, higher quality, faster turnaround.”
Consistent with other recent surveys, this one finds among the top five e-discovery vendors – all with mentions by more than 20% of respondents – are Kroll, Applied Discovery, EED, and Fios.