Solving the remote work challenges in legal eDiscovery

No matter how you feel about remote work, there’s no disputing its influence. It has forever altered the workforce. In 2019, only six percent of the workforce worked remotely. But following the COVID-19 pandemic, that number rose significantly.

Remote work is here to stay. Though big-name companies like Dell and Amazon mandated return-to-office policies in 2024, remote work remains a key talent-acquisition strategy. Smaller companies vying for the nation’s top talent find this strategy particularly valuable for attracting candidates.

Even the legal field is on board. Law firms now recognize the advantages of remote work. This has created a unique set of challenges for legal eDiscovery processes.

Legal Remote Work by the Numbers

According to data from Latitude Legal, hybrid work is a common arrangement for permanent positions in the legal industry. In a 2024 Q1 trends analysis, 60% of permanent staffing orders from Latitude Legal’s clients featured hybrid schedules. Data from Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2024 Law Firm Office Attendance Policies Report confirms most legal professionals welcome new hybrid policies.

Following the pandemic, remote legal assistance became common. Law firms turned to remote paralegals and legal assistants for help with legal research, document preparation, and eDiscovery. Today 82% of paralegals and legal assistants work remotely in some capacity.

But there’s one major roadblock: legal eDiscovery. With data scattered across locations, it’s difficult to track that data and keep it secure. On-premise software solutions are no longer effective for managing the files and documents legal professionals access remotely.

For cloud-based eDiscovery software providers, this roadblock is a major opportunity. The software segment of the eDiscovery market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 11.4% through 2028. Experts attribute this growth to the rising demand for sophisticated eDiscovery platforms that offer enhanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning capabilities.

With these capabilities, legal professionals can streamline the process of reviewing and analyzing large datasets.

What Challenges Lie Ahead for Legal eDiscovery?

Legal eDiscovery no longer lives within the controlled confines of office networks. Now that remote work is a permanent fixture, legal tech ISVs are focused on adapting their offerings to meet the needs of a distributed workforce.

Here are some of the challenges they’ll likely face to ensure compliance and streamline the remote eDiscovery process.

Data Sprawl

Remote work has made the corporate data landscape more fragmented and complex. Cloud-based collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workplace enhance productivity, but they also create new data repositories. Each tool comes with its own data format and storage mechanism, which complicates the process of collecting and analyzing information during eDiscovery.

Many remote employees use personal devices for work purposes, blurring the lines between corporate and personal data. Employees who store documents on their personal computers, tablets, or smartphones make it hard to identify and collect all relevant data during eDiscovery.

The geographical distribution of data adds another layer of complexity. Law firms must navigate different jurisdictions and data protection regulations. When employees use non-approved applications or services to store data in systems outside of the organization’s visibility, this issue gets even thornier.

Security Concerns

Since 2020, 20% of organizations have experienced a data breach related to a remote worker. Remote workers are prime targets for cybercriminals. They’re more susceptible to sophisticated phishing attacks and ransomware, which can compromise entire eDiscovery datasets.

Vulnerable network connections are often to blame. Most home networks lack the robust security measures found in corporate environments. Remote workers who use public Wi-Fi run the risk of exposing eDiscovery data. It’s open to interception and hacking attempts that compromise the integrity and confidentiality of eDiscovery.

There’s also the sheer volume of eDiscovery data to consider. In the U.S., a civil case contains approximately 130 gigabytes or 6.5 million pages of data. As employees transfer large volumes of data between remote locations and central repositories, new security risks emerge. Cybercriminals can intercept sensitive eDiscovery information without proper encryption and secure file transfer protocols.

Data Collection and Preservation

The shift to remote work has complicated the process of collecting and preserving electronically stored information (ESI) for legal eDiscovery. Employees are working outside centralized corporate networks. The data they process is also more diverse, from audio and videos to spreadsheets and proprietary databases.

ECM solution providers must corral an expanding array of file types and data structures. Remote work has ushered in more proprietary formats as new collaboration platforms emerge. Legal tech ISVs have to stay one step ahead. Remote data collection capabilities that maintain data integrity are critical.

Review Process Barriers

The review phase of eDiscovery is already a complex, time-consuming process. It faces new hurdles in the remote work environment. Now that teams work across locations, coordinating team reviews is more difficult.

As a result, many law firms struggle to maintain consistent review protocols. Real-time collaboration and communication are also trickier. With these barriers, there’s a greater chance teams will duplicate or overlook documents. Complex, multi-stage review workflows don’t often translate well to the remote environment.

Mitigating Remote Legal eDiscovery Risks

While remote work presents its share of obstacles, most are solvable. The first step to overcoming them is taking a proactive approach.

Comprehensive Policies and Training

Law firms must develop and regularly update policies that cover remote work. These policies should outline data storage and communication channels. Every employee must understand proper storage locations for eDiscovery documents and approved communication tools.

Centralized Communication and Document Management

Legal professionals need company-controlled platforms for communication and document sharing. Centralization helps mitigate the risks associated with data sprawl and unauthorized application use. Platforms should facilitate easy on-platform communication to encourage adoption.

Compliance and Risk Assessment

Regularly assessing and updating compliance measures to align with evolving data protection and privacy regulations is key. With the right eDiscovery tools, legal teams can enforce these policies and prevent legal penalties and non-compliance risks.

The Role of AI in eDiscovery

It’s impossible to talk about the future of legal eDiscovery without mentioning AI. AI-powered document management is the way forward. It will play a critical role in mitigating the challenges of remote legal eDiscovery.

Automated Data Classification and Review

AI-powered algorithms can classify documents based on their content and relevance, allowing for faster data processing and analysis.

Advanced Search and Analysis

With accurate tagging and classification, it’s easier to search the documents within your ECM system. This is a major time-saver for eDiscovery teams.

Predictive Coding and AI-Assisted Review

AI algorithms can also identify relevant documents, which enhances the speed and consistency of document review, especially for large datasets.

Security and Compliance

Together, AI and blockchain technology create more secure, reliable systems. This adds a layer of security to the eDiscovery process, making it less susceptible to data tampering and compliance violations.

Collaboration and Workflow Optimization

AI-driven tools streamline collaboration among remote legal teams, allowing them to share information and insights efficiently.

Solving Remote Legal eDiscovery Challenges

The shift to remote work has undeniably transformed legal eDiscovery. Law firms have reimagined traditional eDiscovery approaches to accommodate their remote employees.

But with every challenge comes an opportunity. Accusoft is helping legal tech ISVs lead the charge in developing next-generation eDiscovery tools.

With PrizmDoc, ISVs can integrate a fully customizable API-based solution into their ECM application for secure document viewing, conversions, and annotations. This integration enhances eDiscovery efficiency, performance, and document security.

PrizmDoc is powered by IBM watsonx.ai technology, which has revolutionized document management and processing for our ECM clients. Users can securely view, mark up, and manage multiple file formats within their application, reducing document processing times with the sophistication of AI.

Start your free trial of PrizmDoc today, or schedule a call with our sales team!