eMerge: Latest News and Developments – May 2025
May 5 2025
Our eMerge team is excited to share the following updates:
- Jennifer Shea Knox Joins eMerge: Enhancing Our Growing Information Governance Advisory Practice
- Spotlight on Customs Solution Team: Featuring Flywheel and Other Bespoke AI Tools
- Thought Leadership: Streamlining eDiscovery with Supervised Collections and Custodial Interviews
- Events and Speaking Engagements: eDiscovery, Microsoft 365, and More
- Awards and Recognition: Alison Grounds Honored as a “Stand-out Lawyer”
Troutman Pepper Locke’s award-winning eDiscovery and Data Management subsidiary, eMerge, offers clients integrated technology and legal solutions to address complex data-driven problems in litigation, transactional and compliance matters, and government investigations.
Jennifer Shea Knox Joins eMerge
We are excited to announce that Jennifer Shea Knox has joined eMerge as director of information governance advisory services. Jennifer is an eDiscovery and data management strategist with extensive experience utilizing technology to solve legal, compliance, and other complex business problems. With a pragmatic approach, she delivers innovative solutions that reduce enterprise risk and operational costs for clients. Her experience spans the entire Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and includes specialized knowledge in Microsoft 365 Purview eDiscovery and Data Lifecycle Management. Click here to learn more.
Customs Solution Team Spotlight
eMerge Custom Solutions is a dedicated team of software engineers, project managers, and data analysts focused on delivering bespoke technology solutions to our clients’ most complex data-related challenges. We develop innovative web-based applications, Relativity enhancements, and data analysis tools in support of eMerge, the firm, and our clients. Leveraging generative AI, machine learning, automation, and advanced workflows, we streamline processes, extract insights, and improve attorney efficiency. Our experience includes integrating internally developed applications with existing systems, transforming disparate data sources into review and production-ready formats, and constantly evolving to meet changing business and litigation needs.
Recent Custom Solutions Successes
AI Analysis of Noncompliant Production
- A third party produced more than 500,000 pages of PDFs with no metadata. eMerge attorneys first used the active learning capabilities of Relativity’s Review Center to identify the most significant documents in the production.
- eMerge then used Flywheel, our award-winning, generative AI-powered Swiss army knife application, to accurately extract essential email metadata from each of those 2,500 documents in less than 30 minutes.
- The fields extracted by Flywheel, including sender, recipients, subject, and date sent, were automatically populated in Relativity, enabling the team to efficiently search, sort, and filter the production.
- Flywheel also automatically summarized each document and reliably differentiated emails from attachments.
- With Flywheel, eMerge provided the case team with vital insights from a 500,000-page PDF production within minutes.
Custom Script to Cull Structured Data by 98%
- Upon receiving more than 85 million records exported from a client database, eMerge promptly built a custom script to distill those records to the 1.4 million most likely to contain relevant information.
- This 98% reduction in record volume enabled the case team to quickly focus its analysis on the most important records, saving thousands in both attorneys’ fees and hosting charges.
These are just two of many examples of the great work of our custom solutions team.
Thought Leadership
Streamlining eDiscovery: The Case for Supervised Collections and Custodial Interviews
Despite the many technological advances in the collection, processing, and review of electronically stored information, it remains vital to conduct custodial interviews focused on data identification to confer a litigation advantage, reduce downstream costs, minimize disputes, and mitigate discovery risk. Undue reliance on back-end keyword searching or custodial self-collections can yield results that are both over- and under-inclusive, increasing the volume of irrelevant data swept into review workflows while missing key information. eMerge offers integrated collection solutions incorporating custodial interviews into remote, supervised collections for this very reason. Click here to read more.
Events and Speaking Engagements
Webinar – Microsoft 365 eDiscovery Updates: Legal and Technical Developments
Please join us for an insightful discussion focused on imminent changes to Microsoft 365 Purview’s eDiscovery solution. Our esteemed panel of attorneys and technologists will delve into the nature of those updates and preparatory steps organizations utilizing Microsoft 365 should consider taking now. The panelists will discuss key areas of common concern:
- Upcoming dates for key changes to the platform.
- Technical and operational impacts for legal and technology teams, specifically related to legal hold, search, and export.
- Best practices for transitioning to the new unified Purview eDiscovery experience.
- Tips to stay up to date on Purview eDiscovery’s roadmap and workflow implications.
The webinar will be hosted June 5 from 2-3 p.m. ET. Click here to register.
Annual eDiscovery Updates
Our team of attorneys and technologists recently discussed practical considerations when balancing legal requirements with rapidly changing AI and other technologies, the ongoing impact of collaboration and messaging applications, and the latest developments in privilege protection and preservation. They also shared practical tips from our experience across an array of matters and industries. Click here to view the recording.
ALM | Law.com Legalweek
Principal Jason Lichter participated in a mock negotiation of an ESI protocol incorporating the use of generative AI at ALM and Law.com’s Legalweek. During his session, the panelists engaged in a debate and discussion on how generative AI, specifically aiR for Review, can be defensibly utilized for first-level document review, including provisions that parties should consider including in an ESI protocol. Click here to read more.
Awards and Recognition
Alison Grounds Recognized as Stand-out Lawyer
Thomson Reuters has recognized eMerge Managing Partner Alison Grounds and 38 Troutman Pepper Locke attorneys as “Stand-out Lawyers.” As part of Thomson Reuters‘ Sharplegal study, more than 2,000 senior legal buyers around the world are asked to nominate up to three attorneys they have worked with within the last 12 months who have stood out above all the other attorneys with whom they interact. Click here to read more.
Chambers Global Guide 2025 Recognizes Troutman Pepper Locke and Troutman eMerge
Troutman Pepper Locke and 15 attorneys are recognized in the Chambers Global Guide 2025. eMerge Managing Partner Alison Grounds is ranked in the E-Discovery & Information Governance section. Click here to read more.
Troutman Pepper Locke Celebrates Alison Grounds’ Win and Firm’s Recognition From Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law
eMerge was named a finalist for Innovations in eDiscovery Technology at Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards. Additionally, eMerge Managing Partner Alison Grounds was named a winner of the Monica Bay Women of Legal Tech Award. Presented by Legaltech News, the awards honor individuals and organizations who have been at the forefront of legal innovation over the past year and across three categories: law firms, legal departments, and technology providers. Click here to read more.