I spent most of January interviewing 27 individuals responsible for e-discovery decision-making, including 10 in-house lawyers, nine in-house administrative e-discovery leaders, and eight law firm partners. In addition to offering their impressions of 30 prominent vendors, they shared their views on current e-discovery challenges and where companies are making their biggest investments in 2017, among other topics. The rise in cloud adoption, a renewed focus on in-sourcing, and a heightened recognition of what makes the client/vendor relationship successful were among the issues that resonated throughout the interviews.
100 percent of the survey participants selected e-discovery tools and vendors, and developed e-discovery processes. Of the 19 respondents from corporations, seven were in financial services, including banking and insurance, four were in life sciences, three were in manufacturing, two were in retail, and the remainder were in energy, transportation, and entertainment. 59 percent worked for companies with revenues that exceeded $5 billion, and 79 percent worked for companies with over 10,000 employees. All of the law firm partners worked for Am Law 200 organizations and served as primary e-discovery counsel.
