Alexandria Smith, Sales & Marketing Intern
As an intern at Sandline, I came in thinking eDiscovery was just document review. I pictured myself spending hours scrolling through endless PDFs and organizing files day in and day out. But from my very first week, I realized how wrong I was. eDiscovery is strategic, tech-driven, and, honestly, really exciting. I wanted to share what I thought eDiscovery was before coming to Sandline because seeing how Sandline does it showed me just how innovative (and awesome) this field can be.
1. Just “document review”
- Assumption: eDiscovery meant lawyers and paralegals clicking through PDFs to find evidence, nothing more.
- Reality: eDiscovery at Sandline is an end-to-end process, not just review. It follows the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM):
- Identification & Preservation – locating all potentially relevant electronically stored information (ESI) and ensuring it’s not deleted.
- Collection & Processing – pulling huge volumes of data, deduplicating, filtering out irrelevant material, and preparing it for review.
- Review & Analysis – attorneys and review managers examine documents for relevance, privilege, and key issues.
- Production & Presentation – delivering evidence to opposing parties, often with unique exhibit numbers, metadata, confidentiality labels, and helping attorneys prepare depositions and trial strategies.
eDiscovery is strategic and tech forward, designed to sift through millions of records to find the few that matter.
2. No forensics involved
- Assumption: Evidence was simply handed over—screenshots of texts, forwarded emails, or files provided by clients.
- Reality: Forensics is the first and most crucial step in eDiscovery.
- Forensic experts remotely or physically collect data from laptops, servers, mobile devices, and even cloud accounts to ensure nothing is altered.
- They use specialized tools like Cellebrite for mobile phones, preserving the chain of custody so evidence holds up in court.
- Forensics can pull hidden or deleted data, trace login activity, or even analyze “Internet of Things” devices (e.g., a malfunctioning medical device in a liability case).
- Forensic specialists often testify in court to validate that the evidence was collected properly.
3. Primarily attorney work
- Assumption: Lawyers personally handled every step of narrowing down evidence to what was important.
- Reality: eDiscovery is highly collaborative and cross-disciplinary:
- Forensics teams collect and preserve data defensibly.
- Operations teams process the raw data, handle files, and run advanced filtering and analytics to reduce volume.
- Project Managers oversee workflows, monitor quality control, and communicate with clients about strategy.
- Review Managers manage teams of contract reviewers coding documents for responsiveness, privilege, and issue tags.
- Attorneys receive in Relativity or Everlaw the documents once they have been organized so they can focus on strategy, depositions, and arguments, often working only with the refined “hot docs” prepared by the review team.
4. Minimal technology
- Assumption: eDiscovery used only basic keyword searches and manual deletions.
- Reality: eDiscovery is tech-driven and Sandline increasingly is at the cutting of advanced technology:
- Platforms like Relativity and Everlaw allow attorneys to search, batch, and review documents, create timelines, and visualize communication networks.
- Analytics & AI tools (TAR, CAL, email threading, near-duplicate detection) prioritize relevant data, saving time and costs.
- Generative AI & Modern ETL can summarize months of chat data, extract entities (people, companies, dates), and visualize patterns in communications across Slack, Teams, email, and texts.
- Sandline’s AI working group continually works to use and grow the power of Closed LLMS that protect client data and streamline workflows while minimizing costs.
- Storybuilder in Everlaw helps litigation teams craft narrative timelines, link evidence directly to deposition prep, and organize trial arguments.
5. Only about litigation
- Assumption: eDiscovery was just about “turning over documents” during lawsuits.
- Reality: eDiscovery goes far beyond litigation—it’s used for:
- Regulatory compliance – responding to investigations by agencies like the DOJ or SEC.
- Privacy & Data Protection – processing Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) under GDPR and CCPA, ensuring companies know where sensitive personal data is stored and how it’s used.
- Internal investigations & corporate audits – tracking insider threats, fraud, or workplace incidents.
- Risk management & consulting – advising clients on information governance and defensible deletion policies.
Conclusion:
My time at Sandline completely reshaped my understanding of eDiscovery. It isn’t just “document review”; it’s an end-to-end process that requires legal expertise, forensic precision, and advanced technology working together to uncover the truth buried in massive volumes of data. It goes beyond litigation, powering regulatory compliance, internal investigations, and even global data privacy efforts. What I once thought was simply legal work is one of the most innovative, fast-moving fields in legal tech.
