About Catalyst
Catalyst's roots go back to the early 1990s, when the power of the Internet was still mostly untapped. We began as part of Holland & Hart, the largest law firm in the Rocky Mountain region. As a litigation partner and Chief Information Officer of the firm, I dreamed of technology tools that could connect all ten offices of the firm. With multi-office teams trying to work together on their cases, the need seemed critical.
PC-based programs, such as Access or Paradox, worked fine in one office but were less useful when you needed to share data among offices. Commercial litigation-support products were not much better. After searching high and low, I realized that there was no easy solution on the market, at least not yet.
Not being one to take no for an answer, I figured we could just develop what we needed to make things run better. That proved harder than I originally thought. You could build the software easily enough. But it still wouldn't run well over multiple offices.
Rise of the Internet
In 1995, the World Wide Web took center stage and brought with it the hope of greater connectivity. As my team saw it, the Internet provided the ultimate gateway for sharing information, both in and outside our offices. All we had to do was figure out how to combine the tools necessary to pull it off.
The first step was to put a web front-end on our databases. Suddenly simple case management and docketing systems could be accessed from every location of the firm. This simple feat proved so useful, we soon integrated e-mail into the work flow process. This meant we were warned in advance of key events and deadlines. Before long, we had dozens of useful data-driven web applications running in the firm. Docketing, case management, litigation support databases, timekeeper availability and even data-driven daily memos became a way of life...one that was making everyone's job easier.
Going Paperless
Next, we started scanning most of the paper documents we had. (The digital era was still a few years away so paper was still king.) Once the documents were converted to images, everyone could see and review discovery documents from our desks, from home or from the courthouse. The ability to see the document's image and to search its text began saving time and money for the firm and our clients.
Looking Outward
In 1998, we began to look outward. We started by deploying litigation support extranets. The first involved a series of Qui Tam (whistleblower) actions with about a trillion dollars at stake and which involved the entire oil and gas industry. We were at the center of these cases and were asked for ideas on how to coordinate the defense. Rather that dedicate a secretary to the task of making copies of all the pleadings and other documents, we suggested trying a different way using an extranet. We set it up and soon connected over 300 participants from different law firms and corporations. We ended up hosting it for almost a decade before the cases settled. It worked like a charm.
Soon word got around and we quickly had more than 50 up and running, even in cases where our lawyers were not participating. Our extranet users members learned what we already knew bringing pleadings, correspondence, case documents and deadline information together in one place, accessible to all team members, was a good thing.
Helping Others
Before long, clients began asking us to develop work flow systems to help manage aspects of their legal departments. One of the first was a system to help Albertson's, a large supermarket chain manage its labor cases. Another client, Sears, one of the nation's top retailers, asked us to build a system that would coordinate the legal review of its advertising. And, Presidio Partners, an investment group specializing in ultra-high net-worth individuals, asked for help managing hundreds of complex security offerings. We ran these systems over the Internet on our secure web servers. This allowed our clients and their outside counsel to access their documents and data from anywhere, simply by using a browser and an Internet connection. Everyone liked the results.
On Our Own
We launched caseSHARE Systems (predecessor in name to Catalyst) as a separate entity in 2000, when the opportunity for cross-enterprise collaboration and document management systems became too great for a division of even a big law firm. Today, as Catalyst Repository Systems, we offer our Internet-based products and services to help manage electronic discovery and other complex legal matters around the world. No longer a new company, we are built on more than fifteen years of experience dealing with the kinds of problems you now face. We have made all the mistakes and learned from every one of them.
To learn more about how we got started, read my article on "Using Extranets to Build Client Relationships," published in LawTechnology Product News (Am. Law. 2000). We appreciate your support and interest.
John C. Tredennick
CEO and Founder
Catalyst Repository Systems
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