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Why discovery remains ever-important for optimal client service delivery
In the evolving world of litigation, this special counsel asserts that discovery projects remain a critical cornerstone of successful legal practice, with their significance growing as technology continues to reshape the legal landscape.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly, Allie Umoff, special counsel at LK, shared her insights into why discovery projects continue to be a cornerstone of exceptional client service, even as the litigation landscape evolves and technology continues to reshape the legal profession.
At the core of Umoff’s belief in the power of discovery projects is the understanding that this critical phase holds the key to unlocking the insights and understandings that can significantly enhance your ability to advocate for and strengthen your client’s position.
“There’s a couple of reasons, but one reason is because they are so big, [and] there is a potential for it to be very costly. Which means that good management [and] good design of the project is a way to assist your client in making that as cost-effective as possible,” she said.
Umoff also emphasised that discovery projects are the backbone of litigation, as they are ultimately where “cases are won and lost” and provide the opportunity to understand the case comprehensively.
“Another reason why they’re so important is that discovery is really a key phase of litigation. It’s where cases are won and lost. It’s where you and your team learn everything about your client’s case, and it’s where you have the opportunity to find material that’s going to best serve your client’s interests in litigation,” she said.
Despite its critical importance, Umoff said: “I think discovery has been difficult and challenging throughout the course of the history of litigation, and I don’t think that there’s anything about the way that discovery is currently undertaken that makes it more difficult to do satisfactorily or more prone to errors.”
However, as technology has advanced, Umoff explained, the management of discovery projects has transformed, with lawyers now harnessing a suite of powerful electronic tools that significantly boost the process’s efficiency and precision.
“Now, as we’re moving towards a more technology-driven discovery process, we are actually protecting ourselves against making errors more than we were capable of doing back in the old days of dusty boxes, manual review, [or] page by page.
“The technological tools that we are now using not only increase efficiency for clients, but they also increase the reassurance that we, as the lawyers, have that what we’re doing is finding the right stuff, producing the right stuff and scoping the project correctly,” she said.
While technology has undeniably improved efficiency, Umoff acknowledged that it has brought its own set of challenges, particularly for those who began their careers navigating discovery projects the traditional way.
“There are always risks of that, and I do think that right now, the current people who are currently managing projects, like myself, have come up through the ranks learning, starting doing discovery [projects] in hard copies, looking at boxes, going to physical data rooms and reviewing huge volumes of data in a hard-copy world
“Now, we’re applying that knowledge and understanding of the context of it to doing that discovery in an electronic data room and using all the electronic tools,” she said.
However, despite these challenges, Umoff confidently asserts that the rewards technology offers far surpass the risks it may present, transforming the landscape of discovery for the better.
“At the moment, where things are going, while there are risks with the technology that people are using, the rewards far outweigh those risks. And as long as we’re using them responsibly, we are really doing a better job than we were doing even five, 10 years ago,” she said
