Need 4 strategic tips for working with clients to collect eDiscovery data? Of course you do! Elizabeth Guthrie of Nextpoint discusses them here!

The article titled (wait for it!) Working with clients to collect ediscovery data: 4 strategic tips, available here) discusses (wait for it again!) 4 strategic tips for working with clients to collect eDiscovery data (duh!).

Working with clients to collect their own data ranks as the third most common firm-level challenge in Nextpoint’s 2026 eDiscovery Landscape Survey, cited by 31% of respondents.

In this excerpt from Nextpoint’s eGuide (downloadable here), 21 Practical Tips to Solve Your Biggest eDiscovery Problems, they break down what survey respondents told them about this challenge, along with 4 strategic tips for working with clients to collect eDiscovery data. Here is one of them:

Set expectations about the collection process at the start of every engagement

The single most effective thing you can do to ensure smooth client collections is explain the process before it begins — what you’ll be asking for, why you need it, how it will be handled, and what happens next. Clients who understand the process are more cooperative and less likely to push back or produce incomplete information. Make this conversation part of your standard matter intake.

“The clients who are hardest to collect from are almost always the ones who weren’t prepared for what collection involves. A fifteen-minute conversation at the start of a matter — explaining what you need and why — pays for itself many times over in time saved during collection.” – Sonali Hanson, Managing Partner, Nextpoint Law Group

Setting expectations for the client is only one piece of the puzzle. These early conversations also present an opportunity to gain a broad understanding of your client’s data landscape and protocols, so that you can set expectations for yourself and your team about the scope of the collection. Determine whether they have existing information governance or records retention policies, and find out if they have an IT team or other individual who can offer more insights.

So, what are the other 3 of 4 strategic tips for working with clients to collect eDiscovery data? Find out here, it’s only one click. Clicking is the way to collect knowledge! 😉

So, what do you think? What are your eDiscovery collection challenges? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using ChatGPT, using the term “robot lawyer rolling a wheelbarrow down a hall in an office with robots putting hard drives and mobile devices in it”.

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Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.