Review is Dead! Long Live Review!

The declaration we’ve all heard: “The King is dead, long live the King!” It comes from the traditional proclamation used to announce the death of the reigning monarch and simultaneously hail the ascension of the new monarch. The declaration is intended to underscore the perpetual nature of the monarchy, ensuring that the death of a leader does not mean the monarchy has ended. Instead, it’s an immediate acknowledgment of the new regime and reinforces the idea that the monarchy’s institution endures despite an individual ruler’s death.

So, what does this have to do with document review?

Legal document review has undergone a significant transformation over the past few decades, evolving from a labor-intensive process to a highly automated and precise operation. This evolution reflects broader trends in technology, including modern data types, globalization and privacy laws, and the increasing complexity of legal practice that we now encounter in document review.

The Early Days: Manual Review

In the early days, legal document review was a painstakingly manual process. Lawyers and paralegals would sift through mountains of paper documents, page by page, to identify relevant information for litigation, due diligence, or compliance. This method was not only time-consuming but also prone to human error, making it difficult to ensure thoroughness and accuracy.

The 1990s saw the advent of digital documents and the introduction of basic eDiscovery tools. These tools allowed legal professionals to search for keywords and phrases within digital files, significantly speeding up the review process. However, the primary burden of review still fell on humans who had to interpret the context and relevance of the search results.

The Rise of Advanced eDiscovery Tools

As technology continued to advance, so did eDiscovery tools. By the early 2000s, more sophisticated software emerged, incorporating features such as metadata analysis, de-duplication, and basic machine learning algorithms. These tools helped reduce the volume of documents requiring manual review and provided more accurate and relevant search results.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The most significant leap in legal document review came with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the late 2000s to early 2010s. AI-driven platforms could analyze vast amounts of data with remarkable speed and accuracy, identifying patterns and making connections that would be impossible for humans to discern. Predictive coding and natural language processing (NLP) have become essential components of modern eDiscovery, enabling computers to understand context, relevance, and even sentiment within documents. Thankfully, along with it, the number of documents that require eyes-on review has been significantly reduced. On-premises document review centers once filled with 100+ contract attorneys for months on end were soon replaced with smaller rooms of 10 people for a week or two validating AI results and helping to ensure the accuracy of production volumes.

Generative AI Tools in Review

Today, as GAI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini become integrated into review platforms, the focus has shifted from eyes-on and TAR-enabled document review to prompt engineering and iterative testing.  Modern document review no longer requires 100 or even 10 contract attorneys, but instead small teams of knowledgeable GAI experts who understand how to draft critical inputs for large language models to churn against legal data sets.  This new era has ushered in a new need for attorney experts knowledgeable in GAI prompts and results, enabling full data-set categorization in a matter of hours with minimal, if any, eyes-on review.  The human need has shifted from document coding to calculated validation.  Nevertheless, the extent to which GAI can currently categorize data sets still requires human interaction.

Document Review is not Dead!

Despite these advances in technology, the human element, albeit reduced, remains crucial in legal document review. Lawyers and paralegals bring contextual understanding, ethical considerations, and critical thinking skills that AI cannot replicate. The best results come from a synergy between human expertise and AI capabilities, where technology handles the heavy lifting and humans provide oversight and nuanced judgment.

Long Live Review!

As AI and machine learning technologies continue to evolve, the future of legal document review looks promising. We can expect even more sophisticated tools that further enhance accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. However, the core principles of thoroughness, integrity, and professionalism will always remain central to the practice.  So, while we perhaps mourn our document review centers, linear review, and perhaps even some aspects of TAR, a new regime enters the spotlight, highlighted by advances in GAI technology in legal document review.

The Benefits of AI-Powered Review

AI-powered document review offers numerous benefits:

1. Efficiency: AI can process and analyze documents at a fraction of the time it takes humans, dramatically reducing the time required for document review.
2. Accuracy: AI reduces human error, ensuring a more accurate review process and helping to identify relevant documents that might otherwise be overlooked.
3. Cost Savings: By automating much of the review process, law firms and corporations can significantly cut down on labor costs associated with document review.
4. Scalability: AI tools can handle large volumes of data, making them ideal for complex cases involving massive amounts of information.

The evolution of legal document review from manual labor to AI reflects broader technological advancements and is transforming the way legal professionals approach their work. This ongoing evolution promises to continue shaping the legal landscape, driving improvements in how we manage, review, and understand legal documents.

Just as was once shouted in the 1400’s, “The King is dead, long live the King!”, we announce the death of one form of document review, while simultaneously hailing the ascension of the new leader, AI-powered review. It signifies the continuity of the review realm and the seamless transition of (AI) power from one process to its successor.

Follow along in this three-part blog series on the future of document review. Next up, read “Are Search Terms Obsolete? The Future of Search in eDiscovery.”  Our second blog in this series explores the limitations of traditional search methods and the future of search.  The third blog, “The Future of Document Review,” and the final blog in this series, explores how our collaboration with Relativity’s aiR for Review early-access program highlights our dedication to innovation. We invite you to stay informed and join in the conversation on the future of document review. You can learn more about Cimplifi review and analytics here.