Prominent E-Discovery Lawyer Thomas Gricks Joins Catalyst

Global News

15
Jun
2015

Editor

Will Advise Clients on Best Practices for Use of Technology Assisted Review in Litigation

Thomas C. Gricks III, a prominent e-discovery lawyer and one of the nation's leading authorities on the use of technology assisted review (TAR) in litigation, has joined Catalyst as managing director of professional services.

Mr. Gricks will focus on advising corporations and law firms on best practices for applying Catalyst's TAR technology, Insight Predict, to reduce the time and cost of discovery. 

Mr. Gricks comes to Catalyst after more than 25 years as a trial lawyer and in-house counsel, most recently with the law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, where he was a partner and chair of the e-Discovery Practice Group. At Schnader, Mr. Gricks counseled clients on a range of e-discovery issues, particularly issues involving TAR and predictive coding. 

"Catalyst has one of the best TAR packages available today," Mr. Gricks said of his decision to join the company. "A number of studies are showing that the type of algorithm used by Catalyst, Continuous Active Learning, is the most efficient for locating responsive documents.

"But I have always had a concern with CAL that if not properly used, you may miss documents," Mr. Gricks continued. "Catalyst has solved that problem by using contextual diversity to sample the furthest reaches of a document collection. By combining these two optimal techniques of CAL and contextual diversity sampling, Catalyst has developed the preeminent TAR software on the market." 

"We are honored that Tom has decided to join our professional services team," said John Tredennick, Catalyst's founder and CEO. "The experience he brings as one of the nation's top e-discovery lawyers and as one of the leading experts in TAR will help ensure that our clients are able to achieve even greater levels of efficiency and savings using Insight Predict."

An E-Discovery Leader

Mr. Gricks was lead e-discovery counsel in Global Aerospace v. Landow Aviation, the first case in the country to authorize the use of TAR over the objection of opposing counsel. As such, Mr. Gricks successfully implemented TAR for a collection of more than 1.3 million documents. His work on that case was highlighted in a 2013 Wall Street Journal article, "How a Computer Did the Work of Many Lawyers."

Mr. Gricks' own 2013 article, "The Implications of Rule 26(g) on the Use of Technology-Assisted Review," written with Karl Schieneman for The Federal Courts Law Review, is highly cited for its straightforward explanation of both the legal and technical underpinnings of TAR and its applications in litigation and discovery.

Mr. Gricks is a member of the Sedona Conference Working Group 1 on Best Practices for Electronic Document Retention and Production and the Working Group 6 on International Electronic Information Management, Discovery and Disclosure. He has been designated as an e-discovery special master for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Gricks is a 1987 graduate of Duquesne University School of Law. He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1981.