In
one
of
my
many
meetings
this
week
at
ILTA’s
super
conference,
I
bumped
into
Alex
Babin,
whose
company
I
have
written
about
before.
Babin,
who
recently
sold
his
company,
Hercules,
to
Aderant,
made
an
important
point.
If
you
want
to
be
a
successful
startup
in
legal
or
elsewhere,
you
have
to
focus
on
one
thing
and
only
one
thing.
You
can’t
divert
your
time
and
energies
trying
to
launch
two,
three,
or
four
products
at
the
same
time.
It
just
won’t
work.
I
thought
about
this
as
I
strolled
through
the
exhibit
hall
and
talked
to
various
vendors,
some
of
whom
were
startups
and
some
of
whom
were
“used
to
be”
startups
that
are
now
mainstream.
The
mainstream
ones
did
exactly
what
Babin
said.
Unlike
their
larger
brethren,
they
offered
products
that
were
designed
for
a
singular
purpose
in
niche
areas
where
the
bigger
players
may
not
be.
ModeOne
A
prime
example
is
ModeOne,
which
focuses
almost
exclusively
on
the
collection
of
data
from
mobile
devices.
I
first
bumped
into
ModeOne
back
in
2022.
ModeOne
and
its
founder
and
CEO,
Matthew
Rasmussen,
have
built
a
successful
business
by
being
laser
focused.
When
I
asked
Rasmussen
this
year
what’s
next
for
ModeOne,
he
made
an
interesting
comment:
“We
can
broaden
our
bench
with
different
products,
or
we
can
deepen
our
bench
and
just
be
a
specialized
company.
So,
we’re
really
going
to
dig
deep
on
just
the
phone
kind
of
stuff.”
Babin
couldn’t
have
put
it
any
better.
ActiveNav
Another
vendor,
ActiveNav,
has
taken
a
similar
approach.
ActiveNav’s
one
thing
is
data
governance
for
and
in
law
firms.
Law
firms
present
special
governance
problems
and
ActiveNav
knows
this.
They
know
the
territory,
they
know
the
culture,
and
they
know
how
to
help
firms
solve
unique
governance
problems.
Tavrn
I
thought
about
all
this
when
I
got
an
invite
and
a
demo
from
a
startup
company
called
Tavrn.
Tavrn
was
founded
by
Pedro
Paulino,
a
Harvard-educated
engineer.
Paulino
worked
for
a
time
in
the
health
field
and
became
interested
in
the
intersection
of
law
and
medicine
where
personal
injury
lawyers
(plaintiffs’
and
defense)
live
and
work.
Tavrn
is
singulary
focused
on
PI
work.
Their
flagship
product
is
something
called
Medical
Chronologies.
A
user
inputs
all
the
medical
records
in
a
case
and
the
tool
then
prepares
a
chronology
with
links
to
the
relevant
records
including
such
things
as
pure
medical
records
and
billing
records,
pain
journals
and
the
like.
According
to
Paulino,
the
tool
separates
out
the
records
relevant
to
the
case
but
does
not
include
the
irrelevant
stuff
that
may
also
be
there.
As
Kevin
Silvergold,
Tavrn
Founding
Engineer,
put
it,
the
chronology
is
essentially
a
timeline
view
of
the
case
in
a
significantly
reduced
format.
The
idea,
says
Paulino,
is
to
deal
with
records
for
legal
purposes,
not
medical
purposes.
In
addition,
according
to
Paulino,
the
tool
will
automate
the
collection
of
medical
records
once
an
authorization
is
received.
One
of
the
big
problems
I
recall
about
medical
record
collection
was
the
need
to
constantly
badger
the
facilities
holding
the
records
to
provide
them.
This
usually
took
multiple
requests
and
was
time
consuming.
Tavrn
completely
automates
this
function.
In
addition,
the
tool
can
review
the
medical
records
and
spit
out
a
demand
letter
in
10-30
minutes.
It
calculates
the
charges
only
for
the
medical
work
relevant
to
the
case.
This
is
helpful
to
plaintiffs’
lawyers
but
also
to
lawyers
representing
entities
who
are
seeking
subrogation
for
medical
charges
they
have
paid
as
well.
It
can
be
helpful
to
those
on
the
defense
side
who
also
must
routinely
evaluate
medical
records
to
assess
exposure
and
prepare
both
liability
and
damage
defenses.
The
Tavrn
suite
of
products
can
also
automate
the
review
of
standard
documents
such
as
those
produced
as
eDiscovery.
According
to
Silvergold,
the
AI
tool
can
understand
the
context
and
nuances
of
the
documents
as
it
runs
searches
across
the
whole
database.
You
can
create
subject
tags
for
search
purposes
as
well
and
the
tools
will
apply
those
tags
to
every
single
document
to
answer
the
query.
Like
most
good
AI
platforms,
it
cites
back
to
the
found
documents.
Tavrn
is
three
years
old,
and
this
is
its
first
time
at
the
ILTA
conference.
Tavrn’s
Key
Value
Particularly
for
plaintiff
lawyers,
this
tool
can
short
circuit
a
lot
of
work.
Since
most
plaintiffs’
lawyers
work
on
a
contingency
basis,
they
have
to
gauge
the
amount
of
work
needed
to
get
to
resolution.
Often,
the
amount
of
human
work
required
will
result
in
them
not
taking
the
case
since
the
cost
may
exceed
the
benefit.
But
with
tools
like
Tavrn
offers,
the
amount
of
work
can
be
reduced.
The
analysis
shifts
toward
taking
the
work
rather
than
not.
As
I
have
discussed
before,
the
result
is
more
cases
being
filed
and
greater
access
to
justice
for
many.
Good
Luck
There’s
something
special
about
companies
that
have
a
laser
focus
on
an
area.
Over
time,
I
have
noticed
that
startups
that
focus
on
one
thing
succeed
more
than
those
who
try
to
do
too
much.
Often
these
successful
startups
are
either
bought
up
by
the
behemoths
of
the
legal
tech
world
or
gradually
grow
and
branch
out
after
they
get
off
the
ground
with
a
singular
product.
Either
way,
the
result
is
new
product
that
helps
a
specific
practice
group.
I
admire
their
creativity
and
hard
work.
Good
luck
to
the
Tavrns
of
the
world.
Stephen
Embry
is
a
lawyer,
speaker,
blogger,
and
writer.
He
publishes TechLaw
Crossroads,
a
blog
devoted
to
the
examination
of
the
tension
between
technology,
the
law,
and
the
practice
of
law.