eDiscoveryDaily

Masters Conference: Seattle, 2025 |  Article by Sheila Sadaghiani, Regional Director of Sales, CloudNine

Speakers:

• Doug Kaminski, Infinnium
• Mike Russell, Expedia Group

Session Abstract:

Let’s face it, most organizations are drowning in data and struggle with gaining control. At the same time, threat actors are targeting those who hold a lot of data and especially sensitive data. Storage used to be cheap, but now we’re seeing vendors in the data ecosystem monetizing that volume to a greater degree. Add the element of GenAI and the data footprint grows exponentially as does the need to control any exposure.  Join us for this important session to learn what you can do to address this growing issue!

Why Information Governance Should Come Before AI in eDiscovery

At the recent Master’s Conference Legal in Seattle, I sat in on a powerful panel discussion about information governance and it really resonated with what I see daily in eDiscovery sales. As an account representative for CloudNine, where we offer CloudNine Review for eDiscovery document review, I often work with corporate legal teams and large law firms who are struggling under the weight of their own data.

One of the panelists, Doug Kaminski, Chief Revenue Officer at Infinnium, shared an important point: organizations are creating and duplicating data faster than they can manage it, and without a strong governance framework, they end up losing control of their information. His insight underscored what I experience firsthand, many clients simply don’t know what data they have, where it’s stored, or how much of it is redundant.

Another panelist, Mike Russell from Expedia Group, expanded on that idea by emphasizing the practical side of governance. He noted that governance isn’t just about meeting compliance obligations, it’s about enabling business agility. As Mike explained, when organizations take the time to understand their data landscape, they’re not just preparing for litigation or audits; they’re improving collaboration, reducing security risk, and setting the stage for smarter decision-making across departments.

Much of this data sits in Microsoft 365, local drives, and shared servers, sometimes duplicated multiple times across custodians. When litigation arises, the result can be overwhelming. I’ve seen organizations collect 10 terabytes of data when the actual relevant set might only be 500 gigabytes to 2 terabytes. That overcollection drives up processing, hosting, and review costs dramatically, all because no one had visibility into the data landscape beforehand.

To put the scope of the problem in perspective, several statistics were mentioned during the panel discussion:

• Over 50% of enterprise data is considered “dark data”, information that organizations store but don’t actively use or even know exists.
• ️ 30% to 50% of stored data in most organizations is duplicated or redundant, increasing costs and risk exposure.
• The average enterprise holds over 10 petabytes (10,000 terabytes) of data, yet less than 10% is typically relevant for eDiscovery or compliance purposes.
• Data storage and management costs rise an estimated 35% year over year when governance is not in place.
• Unstructured data makes up roughly 80–90% of total corporate data, making it the hardest, and most expensive, to manage in litigation.

Doug Kaminski also emphasized that this lack of visibility doesn’t just inflate discovery costs, it creates security vulnerabilities. Disorganized, unstructured data is a prime target for threat actors. When sensitive information is stored haphazardly across systems, it’s not only harder to find for litigation but easier to exploit in a breach.

There’s also a growing misconception that AI can fix these issues. It’s true that AI has tremendous value in accelerating review and surfacing insights, but as Doug noted during the panel, “AI is only as good as the data you feed it.” I couldn’t agree more. If an organization’s data is chaotic and duplicative, AI simply amplifies that noise, leading to higher costs and less reliable results.

That’s why, in my opinion, information governance must come first. Governance creates the structure that makes AI effective. It’s proactive, not reactive. It prevents unnecessary spending, improves security, and lays the foundation for more accurate and efficient discovery when litigation occurs.

AI is an incredible tool, but it’s not the solution to poor governance. Clean, well-managed data allows AI to reach its potential. Without that foundation, even the most advanced technology becomes an expensive workaround.

When you roll these into a financial model, companies that implement governance-first strategies often realize 2× to 3× higher ROI within 12–18 months compared to those with no formal governance.

Putting governance first doubles the organizational ROI by cutting waste, improving compliance, and unlocking automation potential, while ignoring governance leaves money and risk on the table.

The takeaway from the Seattle Master’s Conference was clear: before we can rely on AI to revolutionize eDiscovery, we must first reimagine how we govern data. Information governance isn’t just a compliance initiative; it’s the cornerstone of every successful discovery strategy.

In today’s litigation and investigation landscape, data volumes and communication channels continue to multiply. From emails and chat platforms to mobile data and collaboration tools, legal teams face an overwhelming challenge: identifying what matters most, as early as possible. The sooner counsel can assess case merit and key issues, the better equipped they are to shape strategy, evaluate risk, and control costs.

That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) in investigations and eDiscovery review comes in.

Early Case Assessment: Finding the Signal in the Noise

Traditional early case assessment (ECA) often required broad culling strategies, search term testing, and manual review of sample sets. While useful, those methods can be time-consuming and costly, especially when data sets are massive.

AI-driven review tools like generative AI-powered analysis, allow teams to:

• Quickly surface key evidence: AI learns from reviewer input, identifying documents most likely to be relevant far faster than linear review.
• Spot patterns and themes: Similar to Technology Assisted Review (TAR) and other workflows, AI can cluster related documents, highlight communication spikes, and uncover custodians or topics of interest that may not appear in keyword lists. AI is now the fastest way to organize and find patterns in your data, much more efficiently and effectively than other methods.
• Assess case merit earlier: With faster access to the “hot” documents, legal teams can make informed decisions on settlement, litigation strategy, or resource allocation at the outset.

Cutting Downstream Review Costs

The benefits of AI extend well beyond ECA. By embedding AI throughout the review workflow, organizations can dramatically reduce downstream costs, which often make up the largest portion of discovery spend.

• Smarter prioritization: AI identifies relevant material faster, ensuring that reviewers spend time where it matters most and can categorize data by issues or topics.
• Consistent coding: AI maintains coding consistency across large reviewer teams, across every issue, by suggesting categorizations based on your specific instruction. It applies that instruction, consistently across every document, every time.
• Eliminating redundancies: AI can detect near-duplicates, email threading, and conversation reconstruction, allowing reviewers to avoid re-reading similar documents.
• Reducing review volumes: Accurately identifying irrelevant material and excluding those up-front results in fewer documents remaining in the costly final stages of review. Lower volumes equal lower costs.

Building Confidence with Defensibility

One of the biggest questions around AI in eDiscovery has always been defensibility. Many of the protocols for AI review are identical to those for TAR related projects and are already familiar to those in litigation. Documented protocols, validation sampling, and transparent reporting ensure that AI-powered review stands up to scrutiny while driving efficiency. Additional features like document summarization and relevancy explanation help confirm each individual coding classification.

A Smarter Path Forward

For legal teams balancing speed, accuracy, and cost, AI is no longer optional it’s becoming essential for cases of ALL sizes. Leveraging AI during review not only accelerates the path to critical evidence and early case insight, but also dramatically reduces the burden of downstream review.

The result?

• Faster decisions on case strategy.
• Lower overall discovery costs.
• Greater confidence in outcomes.

In an era of ever-expanding data, those who integrate AI into their review workflows will be best positioned to gain the competitive advantage in litigation and investigations and isn’t limited to large cases as the economics of the technology and services align with cases of all sizes.

Legal teams today face increasingly complex data from emails and documents to mobile and collaboration platforms. While many vendors offer all-in-one eDiscovery solutions, these often sacrifice flexibility and performance for convenience.

That’s where CloudNine and eDiscovery AI stand out.

CloudNine delivers fast, scalable, and defensible review and production across diverse data types. eDiscovery AI brings cutting-edge analytics and AI-powered Early Case Assessment (ECA), helping teams gain clarity faster and with greater accuracy.

Together, we offer:

• Specialized excellence at each stage of the eDiscovery process
• Flexible workflows that adapt to your case needs
• Cost efficiency by paying only for what you use
• Scalability to handle data growth without overpaying
• Future-readiness with faster innovation and support for emerging data types

Instead of being locked into a rigid platform, legal teams get the freedom to choose, integrate, and evolve.

Want to see how this partnership transforms your eDiscovery outcomes? Read the full article from eDiscovery AI:

Why CloudNine and eDiscovery AI Deliver Better ECA, Analysis, Review and Production than “All-in-One” Platforms

Masters Conference: Philadelphia, 2025 |  Article by Rick Clark

The 2025 Masters Conference in Philadelphia kicked off with a powerhouse panel tackling one of the most anticipated topics in the industry: “The State of eDiscovery: Case Law and Hot Topics.” Moderated by Nicole Marie Gill of CODISCOVR, the session brought together thought leaders Nicholas Berenato (CODISCOVR), Doug Austin (eDiscovery Today), and Jerry Bui (Purpose Legal) to explore recent case law shaping discovery practice and emerging trends redefining how organizations manage modern data. 

From possession, custody, and control disputes to the challenges of deepfake evidence and AI-generated content, the discussion offered a timely look at how courts and practitioners are adapting to rapid technological change. 

Possession, Custody, and Control: The Continuing Challenge 

Several recent rulings highlighted the nuances of control over electronically stored information (ESI), especially as new data types proliferate. 

• Vaughn v. Solera Holdings addressed the discoverability of Slack messages. Because the company’s Slack configuration lacked an export license, the court ruled that Solera wasn’t obligated to produce those messages. 

• Bui noted that this decision underscores the need for litigation-ready platform configurations, adding that he was surprised by the outcome. 

• Austin observed that the requesting party missed an opportunity to argue the opposing side’s capability to obtain that data. 

• In Allergan Inc. v. Revance Therapeutics, a dispute over mobile device data raised questions about possession and control in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment. 

• Berenato emphasized that organizations should explicitly address collection rights in their BYOD policies while respecting employee privacy. 

• Austin added that corporations are increasingly avoiding mobile device discovery which is a trend he expects to continue as many corporate communications are being advised in policies to avoid such communications via text or mobile chat apps that are non-sanctioned by the organization. 

Hyperlinked Files, Attachments, and Accessibility 

Cases such as Hubbard v. Crow and Young v. Salesforce, Inc. highlighted the growing complexity around hyperlinked documents and data accessibility. 

In Hubbard, the plaintiffs were sanctioned when they couldn’t produce a four-minute segment of a podcast linked via a broken hyperlink. 

• Bui pointed out that many organizations rely on platforms that maintain content access, and hyperlinks should ideally lead to the underlying documents. 

• Austin noted the importance of data archiving practices that preserve contemporaneous versions, including metadata that shows who edited what, and when. 

ESI Protocols and Judicial Oversight 

In Hall v. Warren, when the parties couldn’t agree on ESI protocols, the judge imposed one instead. The panel agreed that this case reinforces the need for collaboration and early agreement on discovery protocols to avoid court intervention. 

Deepfakes: The Next Frontier of Evidentiary Risk 

A standout discussion centered on Mendones v. Cushman & Wakefield Inc., where much of the evidence turned out to be deepfake video content. 

• Bui described how poor lip-syncing and mismatched audio made the deepfakes obvious this time. But he cautioned that synthetic media is improving quickly, and future cases may be far harder to detect and require experts to help validate. 

Emerging Technologies and the Information Governance Connection 

Turning to the “left side” of the EDRM, Gill asked how emerging technologies are influencing information governance (IG) and discovery readiness. 

• Berenato stressed the need for AI frameworks, governance training, and data minimization strategies to manage risk. 

• Bui highlighted the value of preservation-in-place strategies and the importance of involving corporate IT early, leveraging tools like Microsoft 365 and Purview to make IG data more searchable. 

• Austin cautioned that as data organization shifts away from solely custodians, in-place preservation can become problematic, expanding the scope of legal holds. 

Chat, Collaboration Apps, and Generative AI Data 

When the conversation turned to Slack, Teams, and AI-enabled platforms, Bui noted the emergence of a “third category” that is AI-generated data created by digital agents, such as Microsoft Co-Pilot.
He suggested that metadata models may need to evolve to include a new “author” field identifying AI agents. 

Austin added that while technology isn’t perfect, consistent processes and defensible procedures remain key to managing risk as AI becomes embedded in workflows. 

Strategies for Cost, Risk, and Compliance 

Across the panel, a common theme emerged: less data equals less risk. 

• Berenato urged organizations to minimize retained data to only what’s necessary for business or legal reasons. 

• Bui noted that Microsoft 365’s labeling and categorization features can simplify IG planning and retention. 

What’s Next for eDiscovery? 

Looking ahead, the panelists agreed that privacy, AI, and cross-border data will drive the next phase of eDiscovery transformation. 

• Berenato predicted that diverging state privacy laws will complicate compliance but noted that technology is evolving to keep pace. 

• Bui highlighted ongoing tensions between privacy and forensic collection, especially in global matters. 

• Austin forecast that linear review is sunsetting faster than expected as AI accelerates review workflows. He also referenced the upcoming EDRM 2.0 model, which aims to modernize frameworks for modern data types. 

• Bui closed by reminding practitioners that the pace of change demands continuous learning, as data types, threats, and technologies evolve faster than ever before. 

Key Takeaways 

From Slack messages and mobile data to deepfakes and generative AI, today’s eDiscovery landscape is expanding beyond the traditional boundaries of ESI. This session underscored that litigation readiness now depends on proactive governance, defensible processes, and a firm grasp of emerging technologies. 

As Austin aptly summarized: “We’re in a modern data era and the types of data we haven’t even anticipated yet will soon be part of discovery.” 

Masters Conference: NYC, 2025 |  Article by Rick Clark

At the 2025 Masters Conference in New York City, one panel dug deep into one of the most pressing issues in modern litigation and investigations: mobile data overload. In the session titled “The Mobile Data Deluge: How to Tackle it for eDiscovery,” a powerhouse panel of experts from Cellebrite, CloudNine, and Sandline Global shared strategies for managing the growing complexity of data in digital investigations and legal discovery.

Panelists:

• Eric Seggebruch, Account Executive, Cellebrite Enterprise Solutions
• Rick Clark, VP of Strategic Partnerships and Marketing, CloudNine
• Rob Fried, SVP, Forensics & Investigation, Sandline Global
• Andy Jacobs, Solutions Engineer, Cellebrite Enterprise Solutions

Together, they brought a mix of field expertise and technical insight, offering a roadmap for legal teams grappling with the explosion of mobile and messaging data.

Data is Everywhere And It’s Getting Heavier

The numbers tell the story:

• 97% of eDiscovery cases now include at least one mobile device
• The average investigation involves 275 GB of data
• Many cases start with at least five custodians
• Growing use of social media, messaging apps, and BYOD environments further expands the digital evidence footprint

The trend is clear: mobile data isn’t just part of an investigation; it’s often the core of the case.

The Tangled Web of Mobile Messaging

Gone are the days of simple SMS and email discovery. Today’s legal teams must sift through a complex web of communications from apps like:

• WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Viber, Wire
• iOS and Android devices
• Cloud storage platforms
• Enterprise messaging apps like Slack and Teams

Andy Jacobs emphasized the need to understand the types of collections available from logical and advanced logical to full file system acquisitions and what each can reveal. “It may be not just about extracting messages,” he explained. “It’s about finding deleted data, encryption keys, application metadata, and cross-platform context.”

Getting to the Truth with Smart Tools

The panel encouraged a toolkit mindset which is one that equips legal professionals with versatile options to handle diverse devices and apps.

Key insights included:

• Full file system collections can uncover data missed by surface-level scans
• Database and keychain access is essential for encrypted apps
• Automation can reduce examination time without compromising defensibility
• Parsed and unparsed data review enables deeper understanding of how, when, and where communications occurred

Rick Clark emphasized the importance of integrating mobile data into the broader review ecosystem, noting that tools like CloudNine support a seamless flow from mobile collection to hosted review and analytics.

Modern Challenges Require Modern Collaboration

Rob Fried reminded attendees that no single approach works for every matter. “You need to meet your custodians where they are,” he said, pointing to the importance of hybrid collection capabilities that include cloud-based platforms, remote devices, and even deleted or hidden data.

Whether the investigation is rooted in financial fraud, corporate disputes, or regulatory audits, success requires a balance of technical skill, strategic thinking, and client communication.

Revolutionizing eDiscovery Workflows

The session concluded with a call to reimagine the traditional eDiscovery model:

1. Mobile Device Collection – Go beyond email and docs; get the full story
2. Seamless Processing – Automate and standardize for speed and accuracy
3. Streamlined Review – Centralize diverse data types into a unified platform
4. Powerful Insights – Use visual analytics and filtering to spotlight what matters

This modern workflow not only reduces time to resolution, but also enhances transparency, compliance, and defensibility in court.

Final Thoughts: Embrace the Deluge, Don’t Drown in It

The explosion of mobile data in legal matters isn’t a crisis, it’s an opportunity. With the right tools, strategies, and collaboration between forensic experts and legal teams, organizations can cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and tell the real story behind the data.

As Eric Seggebruch said during the panel, “It’s not just about collecting data anymore, it’s about collecting the right data, in the right way, and delivering it in time to make a difference.”