ESI Analyst

ESI Analyst provides a focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for the eDiscovery and digital investigation market, designed to streamline the analysis of modern electronic data for legal teams, forensic investigators, and government agencies. The company was established in 2018 and was acquired by eDiscovery technology leader CloudNine on August 25, 2021, to integrate its modern data capabilities with CloudNine's traditional eDiscovery tools.

The company's creation stems directly from the founder's personal experience with the high costs and complexities of the legal system. Trent Livingston, a veteran of the eDiscovery industry since 2001 with a background as a software developer at Microsoft, founded ESI Analyst after his family was involved in a civil litigation case. He discovered that the existing tools were prohibitively expensive and ill-equipped to handle the variety of modern data types—such as text messages, social media, and financial data—crucial to his case. This firsthand struggle motivated him to build a more accessible and cost-effective solution. The founding team also includes Rick Clark, a co-founder with a deep background in discovery and data-related services for the legal community.

The platform addresses the challenge of making sense of disparate sources of digital evidence by unifying them into a single, interactive environment. It ingests various data types, including text messages, chat, email, social media, geolocation data, and computer forensic data, allowing investigators to build a comprehensive case narrative. Key features include tools for metadata analysis, intelligent link analysis, data visualization, and the automatic creation of chronological timelines that graphically represent case events and actor communications. This visual approach helps legal teams quickly assess a case's context and the actions of individuals involved. The business operates on a subscription-based licensing model, notably avoiding the per-gigabyte fees common in the industry, which provides clients with predictable and affordable pricing.

By focusing on modern communication and data formats, ESI Analyst allows users to identify communication patterns, translate conversations on-the-fly, and tag specific messages within a thread, significantly reducing manual review time. The platform is designed to be accessible from anywhere, fostering collaboration among case teams. Its acquisition by CloudNine aims to create a unified platform that handles both modern and traditional data types, offering services that can be deployed in the cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid model to reduce costs and mitigate risk for a broad customer base. Keywords: eDiscovery, digital investigation, legal technology, data visualization, forensic analysis, metadata analysis, litigation support, modern data review, SaaS, case story analysis, chronological timeline, communication analysis, chat data, social media evidence, geolocation tracking, link analysis, CloudNine, Trent Livingston, legal tech platform, evidence management