The Story of Responsiv: Building the Future of Corporate Legal Research

Every inefficient process in corporate legal departments costs real money. When in-house attorneys need legal information, they often resort to expensive outside counsel calls that cost thousands – not because they need deep expertise, but because they lack basic information access. This insight sparked Responsiv’s journey to transform legal research.

The story begins at Relativity, one of legal tech’s biggest success stories. As Jordan Domash explains, “When I joined it was about 350 employees. And when I left about a year ago, it was at 1700, 1800 employees.” During his eight-year tenure, Jordan gained deep insights into legal technology adoption, particularly around AI implementation.

His role as chief of staff proved particularly valuable: “It was working really closely with the Founder and CEO supporting the business. At the time, we didn’t have a strategy team, so it was strategy strategic project communications.” This experience provided crucial insights into how attorneys adopt and use technology.

But Relativity’s evolution from a founder-led, high-growth company to a private equity-backed enterprise sparked Jordan’s entrepreneurial drive. “It went from, I think like many tech companies, it still started out as Founder, led, high growth, really focused on the product, moving quickly, and eight years later as a much bigger company, its private equity investment much more focused on profitability.”

This transition led to Responsiv’s creation, targeting a specific gap in the market. While established players like Westlaw and LexisNexis built comprehensive libraries for law firms, in-house counsel needed something different. They needed quick answers to everyday legal questions without spending thousands on outside counsel.

The company’s early growth came through careful focus on design partners who could validate the approach. “Most of the new customers that we’ve signed in the past month or two have come from referrals from existing customers,” Jordan notes, highlighting their product-led growth strategy.

This measured approach was particularly important given their target market’s risk aversion. “You don’t want to get something wrong. And their whole job is managing risk for the company,” Jordan explains. The challenge wasn’t just building great technology – it was building trust.

Looking ahead, Responsiv aims to fundamentally change how corporate legal teams operate. “The big picture vision is we want to be the partner to in house attorneys,” Jordan explains. “That means providing them access to relevant legal information for whatever question that they’re asking… and then providing them access to the most important legal content, whether that’s cases, statutes, regulatory guidance, legal analysis.”

But the vision extends beyond just information access. “We also want to support our customers as they’re converting that research into something actionable, whether that is generating a template or a clause or a policy.” This comprehensive approach could transform how corporate legal departments operate, making them more efficient and effective while reducing reliance on expensive outside counsel.

This journey from understanding legal workflows at Relativity to building the future of legal research at Responsiv illustrates a crucial lesson for founders: sometimes the biggest opportunities come not from revolutionary technology, but from deeply understanding how existing processes can be made dramatically more efficient.