eDiscovery Services

eDiscovery services are third-party engagements in which a provider manages some or all of the discovery workflow on a firm's or legal department's behalf, rather than work handled by contract attorneys hired directly or run entirely on in-house software. Typical services include forensic data collection, processing, hosted document review, and production, along with related litigation support such as trial printing, scanning, and courier services. Providers can work within a client's own eDiscovery software, layering staffing and project management on top of it, or deliver a fully outsourced service including hosting when internal capabilities are limited. This category traces back to some of the earliest alternative legal services providers, and demand has grown alongside the volume of data now involved in discovery. Many providers combine contract attorney review staffing with AI-assisted document triage, narrowing the pool of documents needing human eyes before billable review begins. Some operate as full-service litigation support firms with eDiscovery as one of several offerings, while others function as staffing marketplaces connecting clients directly with independent reviewers. Generative AI is increasingly used to pre-categorize documents by relevance, privilege, and issue before human reviewers begin their work.