E-discovery (electronic discovery) is the process by which electronic documents — emails, databases, instant messaging, cloud files, metadata — are identified, collected, processed, analysed and produced in the context of litigation or a regulatory investigation. The process generally follows the EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model), which defines the standardised stages of the processing chain.
Central to common-law systems (particularly US discovery procedures), e-discovery is expanding rapidly in cross-border disputes involving companies operating internationally. AI plays a growing role through Technology Assisted Review (TAR), which automatically ranks the relevance of millions of documents. Platforms such as Relativity and Everlaw can process terabytes of data in a fraction of the time a human team would need.
For lawyers, e-discovery is a major factor in international litigation, compliance and mergers and acquisitions matters. Mastering these tools is becoming a competitive advantage, all the more so as requirements around preservation of electronic evidence tighten and the volumes of data to process keep growing. Integration with Legal Analytics and virtual data room tools creates a complete ecosystem for litigation management.