It is perhaps not surprising that when discovery stories are told, the focus is on the bigger cases. Talking to Vince Neicho of Integreon, I asked him if there was a role for outsourcing review in smaller matters and for teams beyond the major firms.

Vince Neicho was forthright in emphasising that outsourcing eDiscovery functions, and in particular document review, is as helpful for smaller firms as it is for large ones – and perhaps more so in some cases. One of the overlooked points is the ability to scale resources quickly to meet a particular challenge – what happens when that job finishes, particularly if it finishes unexpectedly early? The ability to outsource people-heavy functions becomes a major benefit to smaller firms.

And not just law firms – Vince Neicho mentions barristers as an example of people who do not have the large support networks of major law firms but who are directly concerned in disclosure, not least because that is where the evidence lies. Vince and I talked about this perhaps ten years ago, foreseeing that barristers would be major users of eDiscovery technology and services in addition to their role in advising on and arguing about the law and the rules. Instead, as Vince points out, one hears only about teams of junior barristers being seconded to others in order to undertake review.

There is no reason, Vince Neicho says, why barristers, individually or collectively should not use Integreon instead to compete with the larger law firms, extending their role from advising on the law, the procedure and the tactics to controlling the day-to-day progress of cases in which they are involved.

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