Inside E-Discovery & Beyond: Navigating Legal Digital Disruption

In this evolving digital risk landscape, the fifth annual Inside E-Discovery & Beyond survey by BDO examines the opinions and insights of 100 senior in-house counsel about changes in their approaches to e-discovery, information governance, compliance, data privacy and cybersecurity.

 

Explore the Survey

Click the graphics below to explore the different sections of the survey.

 

 

Will 2019 be the year the lawyer-bots invade?

Okay, we won’t go that far. But for better or for worse, legal departments are feeling the full forces of digital disruption, to both positive and not-so-positive effects. AI-powered e-discovery tools—where machine learning algorithms scour electronic content to identify the most relevant documents for a case—are quickly gaining momentum despite initial skepticism. And e-discovery advances are just the tip of the innovation iceberg. Automated solutions, such as matter management platforms and intelligent contract review, are enabling in-house counsel to spend less time on manual, soul-grinding work and more time on developing risk mitigation efforts and providing strategic advice to senior management.
 
Digital disruption also is making legal jobs more complicated. Today’s general counsel must advise on the legal and reputational risks of relatively untested waters as regulators struggle to play catch-up. The scope of e-discovery keeps expanding (consider data stored on IoT devices and voice-activated assistants), adding to unresolved questions about the appropriate access to, and use of, an ever-growing body of increasingly personal data. At the same time, legal departments must shoulder new cybersecurity and data privacy responsibilities. They cannot simply be legal specialists, but are expected to be champions of ethics and drivers of economic value.
 
The demand for a new breed of legal-tech hybrids—attorneys who understand, and can navigate, the intersection of law and technology—is also rising rapidly. Most corporate counsel are looking to build or acquire these skills in one of three ways: augmenting their own internal capabilities, recruiting help from outside counsel or alternative service providers, or pursuing both paths simultaneously.

---

“Organizations today are experiencing significant disruption on all fronts—regulatory disruption stemming from new geopolitical developments, economic disruption from tumultuous markets and, perhaps most notably, digital disruption from the advent and proliferation of new technologies and business models. To help their organizations brave this new digital world, corporate counsel must embrace digital solutions to fight digital risks and glean new business opportunities.”

STEPHANIE GIAMMARCO
Partner and BDO Technology & Business Transformation Services Practice Leader

 

About the Survey 

The 2019 Inside E-Discovery & Beyond Survey is a national survey conducted by Rabin Research Company, an independent marketing research firm, utilizing Op4G’s panel of executives. Rabin Research Company surveyed 100 senior in-house counsel at leading corporations throughout the United States to collect their insights for BDO’s fifth annual study. Respondents come from corporations with revenues ranging from $100 million to more than $3 billion from a variety of U.S. industries.
 
Reference:

• Lower Middle Market ($100-$500M)

• Upper Middle Market ($500M-$1B)

• Large Organizations ($1B+)