Briefs

Nicholas Croce's Inference Data helps lawyers connect the dots amid mountains of electronic documents.

For many small businesses, launching in 2007 could have been fatally poor timing. But Nicholas Croce started Inference Data that year, and now with the global financial crisis seemingly fading, he now thinks that timing worked in his favor.

Mr. Croce, who is president of the legal data-mining firm, expects a wave of post-meltdown lawsuits - and the proliferation of Bernie Madoff-related complaints is just the tip of the iceberg.

...

As law firms are swamped by electronic data coming out of Wall Street, Inference is ramping up to help litigators wade in. Mr. Croce started Inference to take advantage of the belated digital revolution in America's courtrooms. Recent rules changes have made e-mails, voice mail and any other kind of electronic data fair game in the courtroom. A bevy of big data management firms help corporations corral all of those bytes - something they are required to do now, thanks to the new rules.

Read more.