Why I Started JadeDiscovery Blog

If you had told me a few years ago that I would voluntarily create a website so I could talk more about eDiscovery outside of work, I probably would have laughed at you.

And yet, here we are.

I started JadeDiscovery because somewhere along the way, eDiscovery stopped being just my job and became an industry I genuinely love being part of.

My career actually started on the legal side. I worked as a litigation paralegal, managing cases, dealing with discovery, communicating with clients, and experiencing firsthand what it feels like when someone says, “We need to review all of this,” and “all of this” turns out to be an absolutely horrifying amount of data.

Eventually, I found my way into eDiscovery. And I realized pretty quickly that I had found my people.

The People Person of eDiscovery

eDiscovery is obviously a technology-driven industry. We talk about processing, analytics, productions, AI, TAR, search terms, metadata, workflows, and approximately 400 acronyms that make absolutely no sense to anyone outside of our little world.

But the longer I work in this industry, the more convinced I become that the technology is only half of the equation.

The other half is people.

Someone has to translate the technology into something useful. Someone has to understand what the legal team is actually trying to accomplish. Someone has to ask the questions nobody thought to ask, push back when a manual process is going to waste 40 hours and a small fortune, and occasionally explain why clicking the button that looks right may, in fact, be a terrible idea.

That intersection between people, process, and technology is where I feel most at home!

I jokingly started calling myself “the people person of eDiscovery,” but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it actually describes how I approach my work.

I don't necessarily want to be the smartest technical person in every room. I want to be the person who can sit in a room with incredibly technical people, attorneys, paralegals, project managers, reviewers, clients, and sales teams and help everyone understand each other.

I Also Really Like Talking About This Stuff

There is another, much simpler reason JadeDiscovery exists: I cannot shut up about eDiscovery.

Ask anyone who knows me. I love talking about new technology. I love finding a better workflow. I love discovering some tiny Relativity feature that saves me ten minutes and immediately telling everyone within a five-mile radius about it.

I especially love watching how quickly this industry is changing.

AI is fundamentally changing the way we think about discovery. Platforms are evolving constantly. Workflows that felt innovative three years ago are becoming standard practice. Every time I think I finally understand everything happening in eDiscovery, someone announces something new and I am back on LinkedIn trying to figure out what I missed.

I like being curious.

I like asking questions.

I like learning something from someone who has been doing this for 20 years and then turning around and explaining it to someone who has been doing it for 20 days. That's what fueled me to do this!

Paying Forward What This Industry Gave Me

There is also a more personal reason I wanted to build this. I did not get here completely on my own. Programs like Relativity Scholars gave me opportunities early in my eDiscovery career that helped me understand what was possible in this industry. I attended Relativity Fest as a scholar, surrounded by people who knew infinitely more than I did, and soaked up everything I possibly could.

Now, I get to come back to those same spaces as a Project Manager, a mentor, and even a conference panelist. That is still a little surreal.

I have had mentors answer my questions, colleagues teach me things they absolutely did not have to teach me, and people in this community advocate for me and open doors for me.

Now I get to mentor people entering the industry themselves.

JadeDiscovery feels like another extension of that.

I want there to be a place where I can share what I'm learning, talk about the things happening in our industry, highlight the incredible people doing this work, and hopefully make eDiscovery feel a little less intimidating to someone who is still figuring it all out.

So, What Is JADeDISCOVERY?

Part professional website. Part blog. Part career diary. Part excuse for me to make an eDiscovery pun out of my name.

Jade + eDiscovery = JadeDiscovery.

I couldn't resist.

This is where I'll share what I'm learning about litigation technology, AI, project management, process improvement, career development, and whatever new eDiscovery rabbit hole I've fallen into that week.

Some posts will be technical.

Some will be about career development.

Some will probably start with, “So I was clicking around in Relativity the other day…”

And some will simply be about the people who make this weird little corner of the legal industry such a great place to build a career.

I'm still learning. I don't have all the answers, and frankly, I hope I never reach a point where I think I do.

But I have questions, experiences, opinions about workflows, an unhealthy number of browser tabs open, and a genuine love for this industry.

So I figured I might as well write about it.

Welcome to JadeDiscovery.

The people person of eDiscovery has entered the chat.