Lawyers are taking greater notice of the legal, ethical and technological issues around Big Data. In addition to the mountains of data that have always been part of the legal industry, the explosion of digital and social-media content has created a unique set of challenges. Law firms and attorneys are looking for new approaches to help them make sense of massive amounts of data. A promising application for Big Data analysis is in electronic discovery, where fast, high-performing data analytics can substantially reduce the time and cost of preparing for a case.
Discovery has always been an intensive process. The traditional approach was largely reactive, waiting until discovery was required before beginning the arduous task. A common sight was attorneys poring over boxes of documents.
