Originally recorded on theCUBE.

Catherine Krow, former founder of Digitory Legal, is now the Managing Director of Diversity and Impact Analytics at BigHand. Digitory Legal is now BigHand Impact Analytics. To learn more about Impact Analytics click here.

Catherine Krow, former founder & CEO at Digitory Legal, talks with Lisa Martin at the 7th Annual CloudNOW Awards from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.

Cloud-based AI platform assesses realistic legal fees Anyone who’s survived a legal battle of any kind will recall the legal fees involved. They may also recall not knowing what they’d ultimately pay until at last someone handed them an astronomical bill. That is because fees were not precisely assessed out of the gate. Today’s clients are expecting more info on cost upfront. Can big data and artificial intelligence deliver?

A few years ago, Catherine Krow, chief executive officer of Digitory Legal Corp., practiced law at a major firm. After a consultation, clients would invariably ask, “How much?” “The answer, which was perfectly acceptable, was, ‘It depends,'” Krow said. “And that is no longer acceptable.” Why is that? Because the data and the analytics tools exist to give clients a much clearer answer. Krow realized this and began researching the market of technologies for data-driven cost management and prediction. She found it wanting and decided she should bring a product to market herself.

Krow spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the CloudNOW “Top Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards event in Menlo Park, California. They discussed the shifting landscape of the legal domain and how data and AI can improve cost-associated legal processes. A data problem; a data solution Krow dug in deep on the pain points and what had held back progress in the area for so long.

“It took several months to realize that the problem really is a data problem, and it’s been an industry-wide problem for a long time,” she said. “We have to, as an industry, dig into our data and do better.” With the data part figured out, Krow began networking for Silicon Valley talent to bring tech skills to the project. “The core of what we do is artificial intelligence [and] natural language processing,” she said. (Resumes from anyone with skills in those areas are welcome, she added). This is a long-neglected problem, and Krow believes these technologies are the godsend it’s been waiting for. “I walked away from a big law firm partnership to solve this problem; it was so pressing.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the CloudNOW “Top Women in Cloud” Innovation Awards event.

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Video Transcript:

Introduction:
From the heart of Silicon Valley, it's the CUBE covering CloudNow's 7th Annual Top Women Entrepreneurs in Cloud Innovation Awards.

Lisa Martin: 
Hi, Lisa Martin with the CUBE on the ground at Facebook headquarters. We are here for the 7th annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Innovation Awards. Excited to be welcoming to the queue for the first time, one of tonight's winners Catherine Krow, the founder and CEO of Digitory Legal. Catherine, welcome.

Catherine Krow:
Thank you so much, it's a pleasure to be here.

Lisa Martin: 
So one of the things I love about your story, Catherine, is you were a practicing attorney for 17 years.

Catherine Krow:
Yes

Lisa Martin: 
You are one of the assistant DAs in San Francisco and you are now the founder of a SAS-based software company.

Catherine Krow:
I am, and I was a partner at a major law firm named Orrick for many, many years before doing that.

Lisa Martin: 
So I can imagine, back in school when you were in law school, you didn't envision you would actually be a female entrepreneur in technology.

Catherine Krow:
Ohh heavens no. When I graduated from law school 20 years ago, this was probably dead last on the things that I thought I would be doing. But when I was practicing, it became clear that there was an enormous change in the market and a huge need for better and more powerful tools, particularly around the area of cost management and cost prediction.

Lisa Martin: 
So tell us a little bit about Digitory Legal and exactly what the software enables legal departments and companies to do.

Catherine Krow:
Well, the short answer is we are bringing data-driven cost prediction to law and we're doing it to really help law firms and corporate legal departments succeed in a changing legal market. Now for most of the time that I was practicing law, when clients would ask that “how much” question the answer, which was perfectly acceptable, was it depends. 

And that is no longer acceptable. So in order for legal departments to do their job and for law firms to really succeed, we have to, as an industry, dig into our data and do better. And that's what we do.

Lisa Martin: 
So when you had the idea, tell us about the kind of process and the phases that you went through to carry it forward and get the Angel funding that you're currently receiving.

Catherine Krow:
Well, the starting point was a lot of market research because I knew as a lawyer what my pain point was. I knew how hard it was to answer that “how much” question in complicated cases and communicate with clients when things would change. But I didn't know if everybody else was feeling that pain and I didn't know if there were software tools out there that I just didn't know about. So I dug in and I dug in deep on what was out there. What were the pain points? And it took several months to realize that the problem really is a data problem, and it's been an industry-wide problem for a long time. So to solve cost prediction, we needed to tackle the data problem and then it was about pulling on my networking, finding the best Silicon Valley talent to help me do that.

Lisa Martin: 
And speaking of network, here we are at CloudNOW, which is a network of women and tour background, and actually digging in there and being an attorney looking at these are the challenges I'm having. How much of an advantage has that been in the networking conversations that you've had? Demonstrating to potential funders, and those that are funding you, that this is a huge gap in the market that isn't solvable. We have an idea. Help us actually start this so we can start enabling organizations to leverage that data, as you're saying, it's really the only option now.

Catherine Krow:
The industry expertise, the deep experience, and my background has really helped because I walked away from a big law firm partnership to solve this problem. It was so pressing and there are. And there are very clear trigger points if you understand the industry very well, that are making it easy to explain why now and why us. And the market has changed and the whole approach of corporate law has changed, and we can explain that because I've lived it and breathed it.

Lisa Martin: 
So it's a big part of this is digital transformation. Which is a theme we hear that every tech event that we go to, but it's not just transforming a tech company. It's, I was talking this morning to a ski resort company that digitized their entire process from paper to electronics, so everybody understands we are digital, we are mobile. We need to have that. I'm curious about your conversations with maybe traditional law firms, maybe such as the ones that you worked at, how easy is it to get them on board with being data-driven is the only way for you as a law firm to continue to succeed and to compete with the next generation that understands data has to drive the business, revenue opportunities et cetera.

Catherine Krow:
There's fortunately, there's been enough publicity and enough of a market shift and requirements on the client side. That law is starting to understand that data-driven decision-making is the way of the future and if they are not early, they are late. So in order to compete in what has become an incredibly difficult market for law firms, they must be able to help their clients make data-driven decisions and be different than the rest of the pack. So fortunately the market has shifted and that shift is very, very clear to even the most traditional law firms.

Lisa Martin: 
So, even in customer conversations, they are getting it.

Catherine Krow:
They are getting it, and they know that I experienced their pain, so it's working.

Lisa Martin: 
Excellent. We'll kind of wrap things up and bring us back to the event that we're at tonight. You have the opportunity not only to present to about 300 attendees today, this event was sold out, not even advertised. It was selling like hotcakes with just networking and word of mouth. But there are also some pretty big notable keynotes that are here tonight, Sheryl Sandberg being one of them, and kind of one of the beacons that us females in technology look to. You have the opportunity as a lawyer, turned technology entrepreneur, to present in front of someone who's pretty well-known and has inspirational thoughts on that.

Catherine Krow:
It's an honor. It's an honor and a privilege. I really can't thank CloudNOW enough for putting together this event and giving female entrepreneurs, like myself, the opportunity to stand up and say what we do to an audience like this.

Lisa Martin: 
It's pretty exciting. Last question there about your company, are you guys hiring? What types of rock stars are you looking for? Are you looking for people with legal backgrounds with tech backgrounds?

Catherine Krow:
AI, because the core of what we do is artificial intelligence, and natural language processing. So rock stars in artificial intelligence, send me your resume. I would love to talk to you.

Lisa Martin: 
Excellent. Catherine, congratulations on the award. Thank you so much for stopping by. Lawyer turned tech entrepreneur I love that's a great headline.

Catherine Krow:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time.

Lisa Martin: 
Our pleasure.

We want to thank you for watching the CUBE. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Facebook headquarters. We'll see you next time.