Right Discovery Staff Writer
For years, legal technology has been defined by platforms. Choose your discovery platform. Choose your review technology. Choose your research system. Choose your document management solution. And then, build your workflow around it.
Artificial intelligence is changing that model. The next generation of legal technology will not necessarily be defined by a single platform doing everything. Instead, it will be defined by interoperability: the ability to bring together specialized AI capabilities, trusted data, sophisticated analytics and human expertise to create a better way of working.
That shift is already happening. And a major announcement from Everlaw, a technology partner of Right Discovery, offers a compelling look at where the industry is headed.
This week at ILTACON, Everlaw announced new partnerships and integrations with Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal, Harvey, Google Gemini Enterprise for Legal and Microsoft 365 Copilot, adding to its existing work with AI leaders including Anthropic and Legora. At first glance, these may look like technology partnerships. The bigger story is what they represent, as these platforms bring different strengths to legal work. Some excel at legal research and reasoning, while others bring powerful generative AI capabilities, enterprise productivity, specialized legal workflows or agentic technology.
Everlaw's strategy is not to force legal teams to choose one. Instead, Everlaw is positioning itself as an “evidence layer” for legal AI, allowing the evidence and analytical capabilities within its platform to connect with the AI tools legal professionals choose to use. That is a significant distinction, because the future of legal AI may not be about asking; “Which AI platform should we use?” but rather it may be about asking: “How can we connect the right AI capabilities to the right information at the right point in the legal workflow?” And that’s food for thought…
There is enormous excitement around what generative AI can do. It can summarize. Analyze. Draft. Classify. Identify patterns. Answer questions. Generate insights. Automate repetitive work. But legal work has one requirement that makes it fundamentally different; The answer must be grounded in the facts. A beautifully written answer is not valuable if it is based on incomplete information. A fast analysis is not useful if the underlying data cannot be verified. And an AI-generated insight is not enough if a legal team cannot trace it back to the evidence supporting it.
That is why the connection between AI and the underlying evidentiary record matters so much. Everlaw's approach recognizes that distinction. Its platform is designed to keep evidence within a governed system of record while allowing AI tools to securely access and work with that information. The goal is to make AI more useful without losing the security, permissions, auditability and defensibility legal teams require. In other words:
AI can provide the intelligence. The evidence provides the foundation.
And legal professionals provide the judgment. That combination is where the real value lies.
This is also where the role of a legal technology partner is changing. The old model was relatively straightforward, only two steps! First is the selection of a platform and next, learn the platform and execute the workflow within it.
The new model is more nuanced. Legal teams have access to an expanding universe of AI-powered tools, each with different capabilities. The challenge isn't simply knowing what each tool does. It is knowing when, where and how to use it. And that requires orchestration.
At Right Discovery, we take a technology-agnostic approach because we believe the technology should follow the needs of the matter, not dictate them. First, we start with the objective that answers the questions of:
• What information needs to be found?
• What questions need to be answered?
• Where can automation create meaningful efficiency?
• Where does human judgment remain essential?
• What needs to be defensible?
• What technology can best support the work?
Then we build the workflow around those answers. That may involve Everlaw; it may involve another discovery or review platform; or, it may involve multiple technologies working together. The right solution is the one that best serves the matter.
For our clients, the promise of AI isn't simply doing more work faster. It is getting to meaningful information sooner while giving experienced professionals more time to focus on what matters.
AI-powered workflows can help legal teams:
• Accelerate early case assessment and matter understanding
• Surface relevant evidence across massive data collections
• Reduce manual review and repetitive tasks
• Identify patterns, relationships and key players more efficiently
• Prioritize information for human review
• Ask questions of large data sets using natural language
• Support deposition and trial preparation
• Improve consistency across high-volume workflows
• Reduce the time between collecting evidence and developing case strategy
Everlaw's AI capabilities, including Deep Dive, are an example of this evolution. Deep Dive allows legal teams to ask natural-language questions across their document corpus and receive answers grounded in the underlying evidence, with citations that allow users to verify the source. That matters because efficiency without confidence isn't efficiency at all in legal work and the objective isn't to remove humans from the process, it is to remove unnecessary friction from the process.
There is a tendency to frame AI adoption as a choice between technology and people. We see it differently as the most effective legal AI workflows will combine machine speed with human judgment. AI can process enormous volumes of information. Experienced legal professionals understand context, nuance, strategy and risk. AI can identify patterns; people determine what those patterns mean. AI can surface evidence, while attorneys decide how that evidence affects the case. AI can accelerate the workflow, yet people remain accountable for the decisions. That is why our approach combines technology with experienced professionals who understand discovery, litigation support, data and the practical realities of legal matters. The goal isn't less human involvement, instead, it's more valuable human involvement.
The rapid expansion of legal AI makes one thing increasingly clear. No one knows exactly what the legal technology stack will look like five years from now. New models will emerge, existing platforms will evolve, AI agents will become more capable, firms and legal departments will develop their own workflows, and lawyers will gravitate toward the tools that best fit the way they work. That makes flexibility increasingly important.
Everlaw's growing ecosystem reflects this reality. Its partnerships with Google, Microsoft, Harvey, Thomson Reuters, Anthropic and Legora are not simply a collection of integrations. They reflect a broader belief that legal teams should have choice in how they access and use AI while maintaining a trusted foundation for their evidence. We believe the same principle should apply to legal technology strategy more broadly. Don't build your practice around a technology; build your technology strategy around your practice.
The first wave of legal AI asked what machines could do and the next wave will ask how those capabilities can be connected. Discovery data can inform AI analysis, AI analysis can inform legal research, legal research can inform drafting, drafting can inform case strategy, case strategy can drive the next questions asked of the evidence; making the boundaries between these activities begin to blur.
And that, is where the real opportunity lies! Everlaw's latest partnerships are an important signal of this shift: the future isn't necessarily one AI platform replacing another. It is an interconnected ecosystem in which specialized technologies can contribute their strengths while remaining grounded in the evidence and governed for the demands of legal work. As for legal teams, that creates a much more powerful proposition than simply adopting AI. It creates the ability to choose the best technology for the task, connect it to the information that matters, and put it to work within a workflow designed around the outcome.
Founded on a commitment to innovation, service, and defensibility, Right Discovery is a leading legal technology and business consulting firm serving law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies globally. The company provides comprehensive litigation support services, including eDiscovery, managed review, forensics, legal staffing, legal operations, cybersecurity, and data analytics solutions designed to help clients navigate complex legal and regulatory challenges with confidence and efficiency.
Everlaw helps legal teams navigate the increasingly complex eDiscovery landscape to chart a straighter path to the truth. Trusted by Fortune 100 corporate counsel, 91 of the Am Law 200, and all state attorneys general, Everlaw's combination of intuitive experience, advanced technology, and partnership with customers empowers organizations to tackle the most pressing technological challenges—and transform their approach to discovery and litigation in the process. Founded in 2010 and based in Oakland, Calif., Everlaw is funded by top-tier investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, HIG Growth Partners, K9 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TPG Growth. Follow them on LinkedIn.
Topics: legal AI, legal artificial intelligence, AI in law, legal workflow automation, legal process automation, legal innovation, Everlaw, legal technology, Right Discovery, eDiscovery, partnership, ILTACON