About DiscoverItLegal
Discovery software shaped by three decades of experience.
Our tools exist because we spent thirty years seeing what goes wrong in discovery, and fixing it.
We build software that gets you from raw data to a production you can defend, and then through review, without the gaps.
Who we are
The people who build it support it
When you call us, you talk to the people who build and support the software. Ask us anything about support and continuity; we'd rather answer early than have you wonder.
William Hooper
Founder and CTO, since March 2016
Has built litigation technology since 1994 and creates innovative solutions. The track record below is his.
Randall Burgess
Developer (remote), since September 2024
A software engineer for more than thirty years and in litigation support since 2011. Helped build the electronic audit file viewer accepted by the SEC and PCAOB, the tool that exports a Big 4 firm's documents for review in Relativity, and a Word add-in that builds a brief's Table of Authorities.
Holden David
Technical Support and Data Processing Manager, since February 2020
Looks after support for our customers and runs the processing of their data.
Haven Brook
Customer Relations, since October 2024
Looks after our customers.
The track record behind it
Not a first attempt
DFYCollect, DFYReview and DFYAI are not a first attempt at this problem. They are the current one.
The Exxon Valdez litigation
1994–1996A trial exhibit database tracking over 20 million photographs, videos, depositions and transcripts, with full-text search across all media, and trial presentation software with a custom voice control module for use in court.
Hosting, and 40 million pages
1996–2003One of the first remote litigation document hosting environments, built around seven geographically dispersed law firms: shared coding, imaging on demand, redactions, and integration with trial presentation systems. Custom OCR to get past the limits of what existed, then the contract to image and OCR a physical archive of 40 million pages. On-site trial support for 20 federal proceedings, several arbitrations, and a hearing at The Hague.
Edge, then DiscoverFY
2003–2016Edge, one of the first near-native review platforms, and hosted processing for over 300 legal matters. Then DiscoverFY, an end-to-end processing, review and production system designed to run on minimal hardware, sold commercially and given free to educational institutions.
A Big 4 firm's General Counsel
2016–presentA full replacement for their Nuix processing pipeline that cut processing times and eliminated the licence cost; an electronic audit file viewer accepted by the SEC and PCAOB; an evidence database tracking location, usage, origin and preservation mandates; and a reverse-engineered reader for a legacy bulletin board and email format nothing else could open.
Wrote the chapters on litigation support, and the hands-on exercises using our software that was bundled with the book, for Using Computers in the Law Office (Delmar Cengage Learning, 2012).
How we build
Judged on whether it can be defended
So the things we treat as non-negotiable are the unglamorous ones.
Nothing goes quiet
Every file accounted for, every decision recorded with its reason, and a report of what could not be read rather than a silence where those documents should be.
The tools go to the data
Our software runs on the computers where the evidence already is, so less of it has to be copied, moved or uploaded, and the work starts sooner.
The limits are published
Partly honesty and partly self-interest: a limitation found during evaluation costs a conversation, and the same one found during a production costs considerably more.
Get in touch
Talk through your matter
We're happy to talk through a specific matter, a specific corpus, or a specific limitation.