How a Regional Law Firm Built Discovery Review Where the Attorney Makes Every Call

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Six-Step AI Workflow with Human Oversight

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Estimates are directional and based on stated assumptions. All names, organizations, and identifying details have been anonymized in accordance with our confidentiality agreements.

The Transformation

How a Regional Law Firm Built Discovery Review Where the Attorney Makes Every Call

Before

✗An associate used to cull the corpus a folder at a time.

→

After

✓what is in scope, counted before anything is collected

✓273,000 items reduced to the set a person could actually read

✓every document tagged to an issue, with the passage it was tagged from

✓the short queue of calls only an attorney can make

✓a production set, its redactions and its log, checked against each other

Executive Summary

Collects what was agreed, culls it down, sorts what is responsive, and stops at every call an attorney has to make with their name on it. Written for a 45-attorney commercial litigation firm where associates lost half their week to reading documents that turned out not to matter: 50,000 documents collected on one matter to find the few hundred the case turns on. Six stations, run as a loop: what station 6 learns from the calls attorneys overturned becomes the rule station 3 sorts on.

What Was Broken

An associate used to cull the corpus a folder at a time

The real cost

What We Built

Six stations and 13 subagents. Each subagent carries its own tasks and its own refusal.

Source Mapping

Summarize every system and mailbox each named custodian actually touches

Volume Counting

Count what each source holds before a single document is collected

Duplicate Removal

Remove exact duplicates across every custodian and every system

Term Searching

Search the corpus for the terms both sides agreed in the protocol

Issue Tagging

Summarize each document against the six issues this matter turns on

Confidence Scoring

Score each classification on how clearly the document fits the issue

Counsel Spotting

Search every document for counsel on the header, in the body or anywhere in the email chain

Log Drafting

Draft the privilege log entry each withheld document would need

Redaction Marking

Summarize what on each page has to be covered before it goes out

Set Checking

Check every produced document carries its Bates number and its family

Overturn Reading

Read every attorney correction back against the call that produced it

Signal Testing

Search the corrections for the signal separating the calls attorneys change

Rule Proposal

Draft the change to the classification rules this matter's corrections support

How It Runs

Custodian Scoping

A person answers here

Subagents map every system each named custodian touches, count what sits in each one before anything moves, and collect only inside the protocol both sides agreed. A partner agrees the custodian list and the date range. Nothing is collected until they do.

Corpus Culling

Nobody is asked anything here

Subagents remove exact duplicates, thread every email into its conversation, and apply the agreed search terms, so what reaches an attorney is the corpus rather than its echoes. Nothing waits on a person here. A document reaches an attorney only when station 3 cannot settle it.

Relevance Sorting

A person answers here

Subagents read every document against the issues this matter turns on, attach the passage each tag came from, and send everything they are unsure of to an attorney. An attorney reads a recommendation with its evidence, not a verdict. No document is produced or withheld on a classification alone.

Privilege Calling

A person answers here

Subagents find every document touching counsel, say what the basis would be, and draft the log entry. They call nothing. This is the station where a human works. Everything else exists to make this decision small and well-lit.

Volume Building

A person answers here

Subagents mark every redaction with its reason, build the Bates range and the load file in the agreed format, and check that nothing withheld is missing from the log. An attorney signs the production. Nothing leaves the firm on a checklist alone.

Review Learning

A person answers here

Subagents read every overturned call back against the classification that produced it, find the signal that separates them, and propose the change. An attorney accepts or rejects each proposed change. Nothing about how documents are sorted changes on its own.

Where a Person Decides

•Step 1, Custodian Scoping. Agree the collaboration workspace with opposing counsel, or leave it out. Sign the custodian list before anything is collected. the other side agreed to this list.

•Step 3, Relevance Sorting. Read the 410 that sit between two issues and place them. Look at the 38 drawings and say whether they are a type we sort. a tag is not a production decision.

•Step 4, Privilege Calling. Make seven calls, starting with the memo that is half business advice. Read the 41 thin ones before they reach a log the other side will test. an attorney calls privilege.

•Step 5, Volume Building. Add the missing log entry, or produce the document. Decide the redaction that would cover responsive text. an attorney signs the production.

•Step 6, Review Learning. Accept or reject the draft-versus-final change. Read the signal routed back to this matter's team. nobody changes the sorting but you.

Operating Model

This changes how work flows through the team.

Role

Responsibility

Custodian Scoping owner

Agree the collaboration workspace with opposing counsel, or leave it out. Sign the custodian list before anything is collected. the other side agreed to this list.

Relevance Sorting owner

Read the 410 that sit between two issues and place them. Look at the 38 drawings and say whether they are a type we sort. a tag is not a production decision.

Privilege Calling owner

Make seven calls, starting with the memo that is half business advice. Read the 41 thin ones before they reach a log the other side will test. an attorney calls privilege.

Volume Building owner

Add the missing log entry, or produce the document. Decide the redaction that would cover responsive text. an attorney signs the production.

Review Learning owner

Accept or reject the draft-versus-final change. Read the signal routed back to this matter's team. nobody changes the sorting but you.

What Transfers, What Must Be True

What transfers

•A person is in the loop wherever a professional judgement is being made. Five of the six stations refuse to proceed on their own, Custodian Scoping, Relevance Sorting, Privilege Calling, Volume Building and Review Learning, and those are the five an attorney carries. Everywhere else the subagents run at volume and reach you only when they cannot settle something.

•Custodian Scoping stops for a person, and the other side agreed to this list.

•Relevance Sorting stops for a person, and a tag is not a production decision.

•Privilege Calling stops for a person, and an attorney calls privilege.

•Volume Building stops for a person, and an attorney signs the production.

•Review Learning stops for a person, and nobody changes the sorting but you.

•Every subagent says what it will not do. 13 of them do.

What must be true in your environment

•The agent can read the systems your records already live in. This one reads 25.

•Somebody owns Custodian Scoping and has time for it.

•Somebody owns Relevance Sorting and has time for it.

•Somebody owns Privilege Calling and has time for it.

•Somebody owns Volume Building and has time for it.

•Somebody owns Review Learning and has time for it.

Failure Modes

What breaks this pattern:

✗ Collection drifts past the protocol

The agent collects from a system the other side never agreed to search. Every document from that system is now in dispute, and the firm explains the overreach to a judge.

✗ The machine calls privilege alone

The agent marks a document privileged and no attorney ever reads it. A wrong call waives the privilege, and the waiver can spread to every related document.

✗ Withheld documents missing from the log

A production goes out with a document withheld and no log entry for it. The other side finds the gap and treats it as concealment.

✗ One correction rewrites the rules

One reviewer overturns one call, and the agent changes how it sorts every document after that. A single bad correction becomes a standing rule, and nobody decided it should.

Directional Outcomes

What the agent counts, and the station that counts it.

These counts are the tallies from one monitored run of the agents. They are not monthly or annual totals.

Documents culled

Counted at Corpus Culling

148,000

Families broken

Counted at Corpus Culling

Held with no extractable text

Counted at Corpus Culling

340

Our measurement policy: We do not publish precise ROI without baseline methodology. Every figure above carries its basis.

What Runs Where

Every step names the subagent that does the work, the record it writes, the thing that raises a question for a person, and what it is allowed to touch. This is drawn from the source, not from a diagram somebody kept in sync by hand.

1Custodian Scoping

GATE

subagentscope-map

writesmatters/<matter-id>/scope.json

raisessource-outside-protocol

may touchmatters/**, systems read-only

2Corpus Culling

subagentcull-run

writesmatters/<matter-id>/culled/<doc-id>.json

raisestext-not-extractable

may touchmatters/<matter-id>/**, sources read-only

3Relevance Sorting

GATE

subagentissue-sort

writesmatters/<matter-id>/tagged/<doc-id>.json

raisesbelow-confidence-threshold

may touchmatters/<matter-id>/tagged/**, corpus read-only

4Privilege Calling

GATE

subagentpriv-brief

writesmatters/<matter-id>/privilege/<doc-id>.json

raisesawait-attorney-call

may touchmatters/<matter-id>/privilege/**, everything else read-only

5Volume Building

GATE

subagentprod-build

writesmatters/<matter-id>/production/<volume>.json

raiseswithheld-missing-from-log

may touchmatters/<matter-id>/production/**, everything else read-only

6Review Learning

GATE

subagentreview-read

writesanalytics/reviews/<matter-id>.json

raisespropose-rule-change

may touchanalytics/**, matters/** read-only

Stack

Every system this agent reads or writes.

System

Read at

Stations

the Bates register

Volume Building

1 of 6

the agreed search term list

Corpus Culling

1 of 6

the classification rules

Review Learning

1 of 6

the clawback agreement

Privilege Calling

1 of 6

the collaboration workspaces

Custodian Scoping

1 of 6

the correction log

Review Learning

1 of 6

the counsel roster

Privilege Calling

1 of 6

the court's standing order

Privilege Calling

1 of 6

the custodian interview notes

Custodian Scoping

1 of 6

the date range

Corpus Culling

1 of 6

the document management system

Custodian Scoping

3 of 6

the email archive

Custodian Scoping

1 of 6

the exception report

Corpus Culling

1 of 6

the family relationships

Corpus Culling

1 of 6

the file shares

Custodian Scoping

1 of 6

the issue list agreed with the litigation team

Relevance Sorting

1 of 6

the load file specification

Volume Building

1 of 6

the matter type library

Relevance Sorting

2 of 6

the prior tagging history

Relevance Sorting

1 of 6

the privilege log

Privilege Calling

2 of 6

the processing platform

Corpus Culling

1 of 6

the production tool

Volume Building

1 of 6

the protective order

Volume Building

1 of 6

the reviewer queue

Relevance Sorting

2 of 6

the tagging history

Review Learning

1 of 6

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