ILTA Voices · ILTA - International Legal Technology Association

#0119: (JIT ) Evolution of Document Review

·22 min·2 clips

Dina reveals how document reviewers in 2004 used green and red sheets of paper to mark relevance in boxes of documents.

James starts with the evolution question, and Dina answers from the ground up. Document review has moved a long way from manual processes to more technology-supported work, but the conversation stays refreshingly practical. LLMs are in the frame, sure, but nobody treats them like a magic wand. The focus keeps coming back to what reviewers actually have to look at. Manual review sounds messy and exhausting: boxes of documents, post-it notes, colored paper, then rooms of people clicking through piles of material, much of it not useful. Better search changes that grind. When terms and searches are sharper, reviewers spend more time on documents that make sense to review instead of wading through mostly not-relevant material. Outsourcing gets a fair airing too. India enters as a legal process outsourcing center, especially before COVID, when offshore review was already a major part of the work. Cost mattered, obviously. But James and Dina spend time on something less lazy than price: clients liked the quality. QC becomes the hinge. Dina describes qualified lawyers in India working in-office, with stronger training, internal briefings, and quality control starting almost right away. That makes the comparison more interesting. Set against fast room-based review, a structured outsourced process could look steadier to clients. The episode avoids the usual AI fog. Even with machine learning and LLMs around the topic, the useful stuff is workflow, preparation, and reviewer experience. Better tools narrow the pile, help with redaction, identify privilege, and push review past basic relevant-or-not-relevant coding. James lets that land without overselling it. The result is a friendly practitioner chat about document review getting better through search, process, and tools that actually help.

As heard by us

A practical look at how document review moved from manual work to machine-assisted review.

ILTA Voices follows the shift in document review from manual sorting to machine learning and LLMs, with James McGregor and Dina Kamlani-Hetherington staying at the center.

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Why you'd press play

For anyone who remembers when document review meant boxes, post-its, and endless clicking.

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