Litigators know eDiscovery can be one of the most unpredictable line items in a case budget. One unexpected dataset, increased custodian counts, complex forensic collections, or intractable opposing counsel, and the numbers start to climb – fast.

After 26 years in eDiscovery, I’ve come to appreciate the evolving complexity and nuance of our work. From paper productions to chat data, the tools and platforms we rely on have transformed dramatically. Yet one thing has remained constant: mastery matters.

When I tell people I teach eDiscovery at IUPUI’s School of Informatics, they either nod politely or immediately check their phones. Fair. It’s not exactly cocktail party material. But here's the thing: if you're practicing law in 2025 and not keeping up with how technology is reshaping the courtroom and the discovery process, you’re doing your clients – and yourself – a disservice.

Let's face it, the legal industry has historically been slow to adopt new technologies. But the technology landscape keeps changing, and legal teams that don’t at least attempt to keep pace risk being branded “outdated” to clients. Legal technology has become a critical strategic imperative for law firms and legal departments aiming to work smarter from managing expanding caseloads to navigating regulatory environments to meeting client expectations for faster, more efficient service.

This fall I attended both Relativity Fest in Chicago, IL and the Everlaw Summit in San Francisco, CA. Like many of you, at Proteus, we’ve been discussing the topic of Generative AI, so it was no surprise that it was a central theme at these two industry conferences, as well. 

Legaltech (generally) and eDiscovery (specifically) marketing often fails because software and services vendors often try to “copy and paste” playbooks that worked in the B2B (business to business) space.

In B2B, revolution can be richly rewarded. The premise of most startup businesses is: the market has an unmet need; if we build the right product and get in front of the right people, we can make a lot of money. Disruption of the status quo is the entire point of the game.

In January we published a tongue in cheek bingo card before Legalweek that poked fun of many of the words and phrases used by eDiscovery software and services providers, like “voluminous data” and “explosion of data.”

It was a silly thing, but it resonated because the terms are all ubiquitous.