Happy e-Discovery Day! On December 4, 2025, legal professionals around the globe will unite to celebrate e-Discovery Day, a day where we honor the pivotal 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that marked a turning point formally recognizing electronically stored information (ESI) as a central component of modern legal discovery.
As we reflect on this day, our e-Discovery team wanted to share our views on the key e-Discovery trends we have observed, and whether the explosion of AI and workplace efficiency tools marks another major turning point in e-Discovery:
Data Is Growing Unabated—With Real Consequences for Complex Litigation
Organizations are creating more data than ever before—every chat, collaboration and AI‑generated transcript adds to the digital record. To put it simply, the challenge is not merely one of volume. More data also means more information to manage, preserve, assess, collect, review and potentially disclose in discovery. Reasonableness and proportionality will continue to be guiding principles to help navigate increased data volumes.
Moreover, we expect that as data continues to grow exponentially, serial litigants will need to seriously consider the effect of record retention policies and over-retention on their litigation budgets.
Discovery remains the most expensive and resource‑intensive phase of litigation
The future of e-Discovery lies in reasonable and smarter workflows: defensible culling, applying court-approved, statistically-sound sampling techniques, and leveraging tested and validated technology‑assisted review so that we only need to review what we reasonably must. Long before “AI review” became a headline, Norton Rose Fulbright has been emphasizing tested principles and technology-assisted strategies that balance thoroughness with efficiency to defensible reduce the prevalence of irrelevant information in document reviews.
Our team is also familiar with leveraging technology-assisted strategies and Generative AI tools during early case assessment, deposition preparation, and privilege log preparation, among other use cases, while also ensuring compliance with the proliferation of standing orders and local rules on the use of AI and addressing use of GenAI tools in parties’ protective orders.
Privacy and Data Protection Disclosures Matter
It is becoming more and more common for parties to negotiate the protection of personal data – and limits on its disclosure – in protective orders. Our e-Discovery team at Norton Rose Fulbright has consistently advised on the importance of data protection and data breach notice provisions in protective orders, particularly where discovery of non-US custodians or sensitive personal information may be implicated, and to ensure both parties are bound to safeguard litigation data and inform parties in the event of a cybersecurity event.
While we still see challenges with some parties and courts agreeing to limit or phase disclosures that implicate data protection regulations and privacy considerations, our team has helped navigate these issues and enhance compliance with global privacy regulations and minimize risk in this area.
We Are Undergoing Yet Another Major Technology Shift
Legal technology has always redefined discovery. Email once felt revolutionary, but now chat platforms, mobile devices, and collaborative environments are routinely considered potentially-relevant information, with their own challenges for preservation, collection, and disclosure.
More importantly, artificial intelligence (AI) is now the ‘next frontier’. Prompts, outputs, transcripts, and recordings generated by AI tools challenge our assumptions about what constitutes a “document.” Proprietary and third‑party AI systems are embedded in workflows, producing outputs that may be relevant in litigation. These are precisely the kinds of issues Norton Rose Fulbright has highlighted in its ongoing work on AI and information governance, and their impact on e-Discovery.
As companies manage more and more data and seek to incorporate new technology workflows into their business, we can expect significant impact on e-Discovery to address challenges with analyzing more data more efficiently, and addressing preservation, collection and disclosure challenges around new tools and data sources.
Moreover, we are observing the continued interconnectedness of data risks—over-retention, privacy, cybersecurity—and their effects on e-Discovery and complex litigation. We are also seeing the continued interconnectedness of various data risks, and their impact on e-Discovery. To address a myriad of data risks, Norton Rose Fulbright has established a unified legal practice that integrates its information governance, cyber, privacy, AI, and e-Discovery lawyers. We expect that organizations will need to encourage internal collaboration across these functional areas and rely on external counsel versed in these issues to navigate these interconnected data risks.
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We are proud that our commitment to excellence in eDiscovery has been recognized by leading industry authorities. Our team’s expertise and client-focused approach have earned our practice Band 1 ranking in Chambers and Level 1 ranking in Legal 500 in 2025, underscoring our reputation as trusted advisors in complex litigation and investigations. These accolades reflect not only our technical proficiency but also the collaborative spirit that drives us to deliver innovative solutions for our clients every day.