How law firms can grow, address artificial intelligence and tackle other challenges in 2025
Ari Kaplan. (Photo by Tori Soper)
Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Lynn Tubalinal, the director of litigation support at Dykema, and Julia Voss, the director of litigation support and e-discovery at UB Greensfelder.
Both are among the industry leaders who contributed to the recently published report Advancing Litigation Support to Fuel Growth in a Changing Legal Market, supported by Opus 2.
They discussed the effect of the increasing volume and variety of data, how a team knows that it is time to upgrade its technology, successful strategies for driving adoption, and effective generative artificial intelligence use cases.
Ari Kaplan: Tell us about your background and your current role.
Lynn Tubalinal: I started my career as a paralegal and leveraged my technical background into a litigation support role. I began to lead teams at Sidley Austin, where I spent eight years, and three and a half years ago, I moved to Dykema.
Julia Voss: I am an antitrust litigator turned e-discovery professional. Twenty years ago, I had one of the more significant cases in the firm, while the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were changing. I was tasked with figuring it out and then started teaching my peers about those developments. So in 2014, when the firm decided that a lawyer should lead litigation support, they asked me to move into that role. I have been the director of litigation support and e-discovery for 11 years.
Ari Kaplan: Did anything in the Advancing Litigation Support to Fuel Growth in a Changing Legal Market report surprise you?
Lynn Tubalinal: What is really surprising to me, and it’s not necessarily related to the content overall, is that we are all going through the same issues and figuring this out as we go. In these roles, you tend to feel like you’re on an island and don’t hear about what everyone else is experiencing until you begin talking to them. In this fast-paced industry, we don’t always get to speak to one another and connect. Through these reports, I could relate to the perspectives of my peers and identify strategies that could work for us internally and as an industry.
Lynn Tubalinal is the director of litigation support at Dykema, and Julia Voss is the director of litigation support and e-discovery at UB Greensfelder.
Ari Kaplan: One theme in the report was the increasing volume and variety of data. What effect do you expect this trend to have?
Julia Voss: The growing data volumes are driving more litigators to realize they need a technical solution to manage their dockets. When they had small cases with a few hundred documents, they could manage, but that is no longer possible. The variety of data is the most complex issue today because many different data sources are available. Every day it seems as if there’s a new app or an update to the phone or Microsoft. Litigation support professionals are constantly chasing updates and developing new methods for collecting data. There was a time when we felt like we knew e-discovery because we could effectively collect emails. Then Teams came along, followed by Slack and then WhatsApp, and now, it feels like a never-ending cycle of chasing the newest app.
Ari Kaplan: What advice would you offer to others who are managing these changes?
Lynn Tubalinal: Don’t get overwhelmed. We are all going through this at the same time. Identify what works best for your team. Meet with your peers, and discuss specific issues, like processing unique data types and learn which solutions you can offer to the case team. It is typically not a single solution. You may need different applications for some instances, such as those with modern attachments. We focus on understanding the case team’s challenges to help develop a holistic strategy, rather than solely provide technical support. They are our internal clients, and we need to help them communicate more effectively with the firm’s external clients. It can really be easy to get overwhelmed because there are many different data types, and you will not be the expert on everything, but rely on those who are the experts and get information from them.
Ari Kaplan: Outdated technology, specifically case management, was another theme in the Advancing Litigation Support to Fuel Growth in a Changing Legal Market report. How do you know when it’s time to explore a new solution, and what are your tips for others as they select new applications?
Julia Voss: You start to realize it might be time to look at a new solution when people aren’t using the one you have or there is better technology that can provide more support. Focus on listening to the people around you to understand their evolving needs better. The hardest part of exploring a new solution is finding people with time to test the options and help determine the best way to move forward, especially with all the technology available due to developments in generative AI. With many things changing at once, you need a group of people who understand what your technology is doing and what a new product could improve.
Ari Kaplan: Does outdated technology contribute to a lack of adoption?
Lynn Tubalinal: Litigation support teams must always balance the use of outdated technology with the cost of moving to a newer, faster and better solution. Getting teams to buy into that upgrade can be a challenge. As technologists, we are enthusiastic about improving our tools, but cost, adoption and other variables factor into the ultimate decision to change.
Ari Kaplan: What strategies have been successful in encouraging adoption in your firm?
Julia Voss: Presenting the attorneys with the benefits instead of highlighting features alone is essential. The most effective strategy is to begin with a small team that pilots the application and presents the results to influence adoption. Once users see results, they are more likely to take advantage of the new tool.
Ari Kaplan: Generative AI has been and will continue to be a hot topic. How are you using AI in your firm, and what have you learned from your experiences so far?
Lynn Tubalinal: There are different types of AI, not just generative AI, and we have been utilizing more traditional AI in our workflows for years. We just purchased a generative AI component for our e-discovery document review platform and are excited to deploy it. I’m trying to identify my champions, who can use it in their matters and provide honest feedback. Most lawyers want to see results, rather than the nuts and bolts of how the technology works. Based on the impressions of generative AI that I have heard, everybody’s waiting to see what others are doing. Nobody wants to be behind the curve, and we want to adopt it, but we’re cautiously treading into the arena.
Julia Voss: We have also been using different kinds of AI for a long time, but generative AI is the obvious new shiny toy. We had been testing generative AI in our document review platform for a few months and are starting to expand access to grow adoption. For resources and training, we need to persuade the professionals on our team to allocate the time to update their skills using generative AI products, so that the great people we have can continue to help the legal teams move forward.
Ari Kaplan: What is your team doing in 2025 to maintain its competitive edge?
Lynn Tubalinal: Ensuring that the talent that we have can utilize our full suite of tools and be our champions. Education and marketing are paramount. I spent much of 2024 marketing my team because not everyone fully understands what we do. My team is just trying to get the work done but may not necessarily know how to market the team while they are supporting others. I have been working on that internally by encouraging more direct support, such as a phone call over an email or Teams chat. We are moving back to basics to better showcase our talent and capabilities.
Julia Voss: What didn’t surprise me about this report is that we’re all trying to do some of the same things. We are internally rebranding our group as the data intelligence team. We are showcasing the skills of our technologists and e-discovery counsel to raise their profile and highlight where they can provide support, so the trial teams can focus on the merits of their cases.
Listen to the complete interview at Reinventing Professionals.
Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change and introduce new technology at his blog and on Apple Podcasts.
This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.
