Everlaw is an e-discovery company that has attracted the interest of some big-name Silicon Valley venture capital firms, raising nearly $35 million in the last three years. It was the first legal technology company to receive an investment from Andreessen Horowitz, a firm known for backing a wide-ranging portfolio of successful companies such as Facebook Twitter, Airbnb, Box, Skype and Slack. Its $25 million Series B round last July was led by Menlo Ventures, one of the earliest Silicon Valley venture firms that also has a diverse portfolio that includes Uber, Roku, and Warby Parker.

Our guest this week, Everlaw’s CEO AJ Shankar, was a computer scientist with a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, when he founded Everlaw in 2011 as one of the earliest cloud-based e-discovery platforms. In a crowded e-discovery market, he believes that Everlaw stands out for its intuitive user interface, split-second speed, and range of features that span the e-discovery process from data uploads to trial preparation.

While working towards his doctorate, Shankar spent time as a technical expert at a national plaintiffs class-action law firm. Seeing the difficulties lawyers faced in sifting through massive quantities of data, he saw an opportunity to develop a better approach. That experience gave rise to Everlaw.

Shankar graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and computer science. He received his doctorate in computer science from U.C. Berkeley in 2009. Prior to founding Everlaw, he cofounded Modista, a company that made shopping for apparel more intuitive.

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Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.