Everlaw does everything I need as a solo practitioner. I believe it would do everything a larger firm needs as well.
Pros
- It is extremely fast rendering documents. There has never been a time where I clicked "next document" and felt like I was wasting time waiting for the document to load.
- Customer service is excellent. Sometimes you receive a document production and it isn't "quite right." Customer services is quick to let you know what the problems are and exactly what you need to request your adversary to do to fix the problem. If you ever get "lost" on how to do something, they are very good at helping you out.
- I usually get a response same business day, though sometimes it takes until the next business day if they need to research an issue.
- It is intuitive to use the basics while offering granular control for more advanced uses. As a document reviewer you want to be able to easily highlight, tag and sort your documents. Everlaw makes this very easy to do.
Cons
- Not everything is as I would like it to be. For example, while it is easy to copy work product (highlights, issue tags, comments) from one project to another, for some reason they don't allow you to copy "storybuilder" objects. It would be nice if they allowed this. What this means is if you have the same set of documents in two projects, you can carry over the issue tags, highlighting, etc., if you want. But, if you created a deposition outline in "Storybuilder" in Project A, you can't copy that deposition (with exhibits) over to Project B.
- The Storybuilder "outline" function is not easy to use and does not export well to word. That said, once you get the hang of it, it really works beautifully for organizing exhibits.
Most Important Features
- I need a platform that lets me find the documents I want quickly and easily. Everlaw lets me do this.
- I love that you can just "duplicate" a browser tab and open up as many documents as you please, and even work on multiple stories. It helps to have at least two monitors, but the more the merrier.
- It is important that the work product is always saved. I've never had a "glitch" where I lost work.
- It is easy to allow clients or employees to have access to any set of documents, and you can have "discussions" with them over the platform. You can see what your they are reviewing and see what they are tagging. I like to be able to search for those documents marked as hot by a particular reviewer.
Return on Investment
- Unfortunately, I do not have any hard numbers to share. The platform costs what it costs and you either eat that cost or pass it on to the client. The platform certainly makes you a more efficient attorney and saves a lot of time, so even if the monthly fee is kind of high, the client gets a lot of value out of it.
Alternatives Considered
KLDiscovery Relativity and AccessData Summation
