Withers LLP

Withers LLP, a global law firm handling complex high-stakes disputes, routinely manages document sets spanning years or decades of accumulated records. A compounding challenge is that these documents are frequently intertwined with clients' personal files — making indiscriminate collection a privacy liability. In dispute matters where document volume is both a strategic asset and a logistical burden, the firm needed a way to collect, process, and organize large document sets rapidly without breaching client confidentiality. Without capable technology, manual review at this scale creates delays, increases cost, and risks producing a document database that opposing counsel can successfully challenge in court.

Withers deployed DISCO's AI-optimized e-discovery platform to address the dual challenge of speed and defensibility. The platform uses semantic search and retrieval to move beyond keyword matching, allowing lawyers to surface contextually relevant documents across large, heterogeneous datasets. DISCO's collection tools enabled the team to gather and refine a vast document corpus while respecting privacy boundaries — isolating legally relevant materials from clients' personal records. The interface was designed for legal professionals rather than technical specialists, reducing the onboarding burden on Withers' lawyers. The result was a structured, searchable document database built at what the firm described as unparalleled collection speeds, ready for use in active dispute proceedings.

The document database produced through DISCO's platform survived legal challenge, establishing its defensibility under scrutiny — a critical threshold in litigation contexts where opposing parties routinely contest the integrity of collected evidence. Beyond defensibility, the platform delivered collection speeds that Withers characterized as unparalleled for document sets of this complexity. The intuitive interface measurably reduced friction during review, supporting broader adoption among the firm's lawyers without requiring specialized e-discovery training.

• Document database held up against legal challenge in active dispute proceedings
• Collection completed at speeds the firm described as unparalleled
• Lawyer adoption improved due to reduced interface complexity

• Legal defensibility is non-negotiable: In dispute work, the document collection process itself is subject to challenge — platforms must produce an auditable, defensible record of how data was gathered and filtered.
• Privacy-aware collection is a firm requirement, not a feature: When client documents are intertwined with personal records, collection tooling must be capable of targeted extraction without broad intrusion.
• Lawyer adoption depends on interface design: Technical capability means little if fee-earners avoid the platform — simplicity directly affects how effectively AI tools are used in practice.
• Speed is a strategic advantage: In time-sensitive disputes, the ability to collect and search large document volumes quickly can affect litigation outcomes.