Ashish Prasad, '93, Shares Lessons on Launching a Legal Technology Startup

I am a legal technology entrepreneur. I started my career like many other lawyers. When I graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1993, I followed the traditional path to a clerkship with the Micigan Supreme Court, and then to Mayer Brown as an associate. In 2003, I was promoted to litigation partner, and in the same year, I became the founder and chair of the electronic discovery and records management practice.

After five years in these roles, something changed in how I viewed my career. I noticed that there was a need for a different approach to electronic data discovery than what law firms were offering, and I thought I could help fill the need. After careful analysis and developing a business plan, in 2008 I took a leave of absence from the firm to form a document review and electronic discovery company called Discovery Services.

Shortly after we launched, DS grew through help from my friends in the EDD, law firm and corporate legal communities. We had a great staff and helped our clients manage the often burdensome process of document review. Here are takeaways that I learned along the way, in the hopes of helping other aspiring legal entrepreneurs...