Happy 10th Anniversary, eDiscovery Day! To celebrate, this year, we thought it would be fun to rewind back to 2014 when eDiscovery Day was first celebrated.
The iPhone 6 Plus had just revolutionized our perception of how big a phone could be while Samsung fans were figuring out the brand new fingerprint scanners on their Galaxy S5’s. At the theaters, moviegoers were either cheering for the Guardians of the Galaxy, following Bilbo’s final adventure in The Hobbit, or watching Angelina Jolie give a new spin to Maleficent.
It was the year people became obsessed with navigating a tiny bird through the pipes of Flappy Bird, and our social media feeds were flooded with videos of friends and celebrities dumping ice-cold water on themselves for a good cause. And who could forget the Frozen phenomenon that had both kids and adults belting out “Let It Go” at every opportunity?
But while we were all busy perfecting our Elsa impressions and dodging those infamous green pipes, the eDiscovery landscape was just beginning its next evolution. What did that evolution look like exactly? Well, we asked our leading experts at TCDI what they thought about the industry’s biggest changes over the past decade, and here’s what they had to say:
Bill Johnson | Founder and CEO
The fundamentals of eDiscovery have not changed markedly in the last 10 years … that is, the blocking and tackling is still the same. What has changed is the quantity of data involved, as well as the proliferation of alternate communication methods, including collaborative platforms such as Slack and the extensive use of messaging tools. The challenge in eDiscovery is to stay abreast of the complexity of data types, as well as changes in the content of the data itself, through such things as modern attachments.
As organizations move to the cloud or develop advanced security measures, modifying eDiscovery processes to present a complete picture of the underlying information is a full-time undertaking. Equally important, utilizing new techniques to mitigate the ever-expanding data volumes using technologies like AI techniques, has placed a greater emphasis on maintaining a technological edge, with equal emphasis on human processes and technology development.
Andy Cosgrove | Chief Strategy Officer
More mature: eDiscovery as a function, as a service, as technologies, and as collective expertise has just become much more mature. Corporate in-house eDiscovery teams are now often benefiting from decades of internal relationship-building with IT, Information Security, Procurement, HR, and other business colleagues that have built strong foundations for today’s organizational efficiencies.
More predictable: With a bit of maturity has come a real improvement in predictability – as a profession, we have a much better handle on those factors that drive efficiencies and a much better set of refined processes and technologies for solving eDiscovery challenges within some bounds of predictability.
More creative: As teams, workflows, and approaches have become more refined, one might think that there is no longer any room (or need for) creativity in eDiscovery, but in many ways, the opposite is happening. As organizations continue to streamline processes, they continue to try new approaches to solve old problems (and even leveraging old approaches to solve very new problems). This balance allows organizations to manage risk and spend through continued support of creativity and innovation.
Tim Opsitnick | Executive Vice President & General Counsel
I am reflecting on nearly 40 years of working in eDiscovery as we celebrate eDiscovery Day — though we didn’t call it “eDiscovery” until more recently. My first experience producing an electronic record involved a server-based messaging or email system used by manufacturing and R&D personnel in 1988. The system stored its content in database fields or structured data. In fact, for almost a decade after that, structured data was the primary focus of discovery involving electronic information.
During the 1990s, the electronic data crisis arose as corporations faced the need to preserve thousands or even tens of thousands of backup tapes to comply, as best we could, with preservation orders. That crisis, among others, led to the creation of The Sedona Conference Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production in 2002: “Moving the law forward in a reasoned and just way.” Technology was, and continues to be, evolving far faster than the law. Practitioners needed best practice “principles” to guide the request and production of electronic data.
Moreover, technology evolves much faster than the tools for preserving, processing, analyzing, reviewing, rendering, and producing data. The industry has made remarkable strides; for instance, it wasn’t long ago that processing a gigabyte of data cost $2,500 and took a week. Now, it can be done in seconds at a fraction of the cost.
Our eDiscovery challenges have evolved — from databases, to backup tapes, to office files, to social media, to cell phones, to collaboration tools, and now to artificial intelligence — all while the volume and complexity of data have grown exponentially. Technology creates problems, but, if we are patient, it also provides solutions to meet our eDiscovery needs. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!
Caragh Landry | Chief Legal Process Officer
eDiscovery has come a long way since 2014, and a lot has changed. Visual analytics and TAR tools like Predictive Coding and Active Learning have made it much easier and faster to manage massive data sets. Remote review and cloud platforms have completely changed how teams collaborate, giving us more flexibility than ever.
Due to new data sources like social media, chat apps, and cloud email, we’ve had to get creative with how we collect and process information. And now, with Gen AI helping us work smarter — summarizing, analyzing, and reviewing documents — it feels like eDiscovery might evolve more in the next year than it has in the past decade!
Dave York | Chief Client Officer
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
Replace “Life” with “eDiscovery” and Ferris describes exactly how I feel about the last 10 years in the industry. It seems like things continue to move fast in eDiscovery. The pace of change when it comes to emerging technology has hit a whole new level, especially with Gen AI.
The significance of the potential changes we are facing is similar to the evolution of eDiscovery and the shift from paper to electronic discovery in the 1990s – early 2000s. Like so many things in our industry, it will come with great improvements and challenges, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us over the next 10 years.
Chris Scherer | Senior Director, Client Services
eDiscovery has changed in a number of important ways over the last decade: the data volumes and diversity of data sources have both increased exponentially, the number of service providers has decreased, and a variety of technological innovations have been widely adopted to deal with this data variety and size.
Overcoming some initial reluctance, the use of secure cloud platforms is now common practice and often necessary for collections, processing, ECA, hosting, production, review, and more. Data security continues to be paramount, and with the rapid adoption of cloud-based AI and machine learning tools and software, it will continue to be critical to secure any data that leaves the walls of a corporation, law firm, or litigation services provider.
In addition, many of the attorneys in those same corporations and law firms are now intimately involved in most aspects of the EDRM workflow, having significantly increased their knowledge and understanding of the eDiscovery phase of their matters.
Ginny Gonzalez | Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer
eDiscovery in the past decade has significantly undergone a transformative evolution driven by the explosive growth of data sizes. Ten years ago, discovery providers primarily functioned as large processing engines that were often converting scanned images or managing native files for time intensive, very demanding linear reviews.
Law firms initially led corporate client decisions, and they relied heavily on document review teams to manage the increased data volumes. But as data growth outpaced even the best that law firms could manage, they began building in-house teams while other alternative technology service providers (also known as ALSP’s) were emerging as low-cost alternatives in the market. These ALSP’s brought more innovative strategies that included TAR (Technology Assisted Review), flat fee or predictable pricing models, optimized workflows which allowed corporate legal teams and law firms to focus on their efficiencies and more strategic tasks, all while controlling costs.
Today, the fast adoption of AI tools is rapidly redefining the industry. Technology is quickly managing repetitive and costly tasks, shifting human roles toward overseeing processes, training AI platforms, and ensuring the quality of the outcomes are intact. The future of eDiscovery will lie in this approach all while balancing efficiency with the technology human expertise.
Michael Gibeault | Vice President of Legal Services
I walked blindly into the eDiscovery world back in 2007, when banker boxes filled with paper were piled high to the ceiling. The room was abuzz with attorneys enduring paper cuts, while rifling through the countless pieces of paper looking for that one hot document.
Quickly, technology started to change the process, and thankfully, I haven’t been asked for a team of attorneys to head to a warehouse or review center to review paper documents in years. With paper extinct, data as our new format, the development of eDiscovery technology, and the use of AI and remote managed review, teams of attorneys can review thousands, if not millions, of documents right from their home office. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Ronnie Power | Senior Director, Client Data Services
Over the past ten years, we have seen more clients utilizing communications outside the corporate firewall. Cloud-based data storage and the endless number of collaboration platforms, including social media outlets along with the proliferation of mobile devices, has allowed eDiscovery to expand, making data governance and compliance more critical than ever before.
Today, AI is set to make a significant impact on eDiscovery. The possibilities are endless, and I can’t wait to see what the next ten years bring.
