Khrys McKinney shares how AI is changing eDiscovery careers, why fresh perspectives matter, and what it takes to recognize emerging talent.

[EDRM Editor’s Note: This article is based on Illumination Zone Episode 244, sponsored by EDRM Trusted Partner K L McKinney.]

Like many people in eDiscovery, Khrhysna “Khrys” McKinney didn’t set out to work in legal. Today she is the founder of EDRM Trusted Partner K L McKinney, a boutique consulting and staffing firm focused on the people who apply technology to the practice of law. She brings more than 30 years of experience in legal technology management, serves as a trustee of EDRM’s AI Ethics and Bias Project, is a LegalOps.com Houston regional leader, and has seven years of leadership experience on the Women in eDiscovery Houston Chapter Board.

On Illumination Zone Episode 244, Khrys joined EDRM’s Mary Mack and Holley Robinson to discuss where new eDiscovery professionals come from, what she believes helps them stand out as AI changes the work, and the importance of recognizing emerging talent. The conversation also touched on the inaugural Rising Stars of eDiscovery Awards, with nominations open through November 6, 2026.

An Unplanned Path, and New Ones Opening Up

After completing an engineering internship at NASA, Khrys took a clerical role at a law firm at a friend’s encouragement to support paying her way through school. Intrigued by the business applications of technology, she changed her study program to technology. When assigned projects for her degree program, she began looking for practical ways to help lawyers use computers or work differently as her project subject matter. More than 30 years later, she is still in legal.

Unplanned arrivals are still common. “People are still kind of falling into it,” she said. But in her recruiting work, she is seeing more people choose eDiscovery on purpose. Paralegals are increasingly interested in more technical work, and some paralegal schools now teach eDiscovery. Recent cybersecurity graduates, who often find that field hard to enter without significant experience, are trying to find their way in through digital forensics and data collection. In some cases, they are landing roles on incident response teams.

Solving for the Organization, Not the Task

Khrys has seen a shift over the past year. Many senior, specialized professionals are seeking new opportunities, while some organizations are increasingly focusing on entry-level staff. “I believe that some of that is cost-driven,” she said, adding that newer staff may be expected to be more comfortable diving into AI. She described it as a balance: experienced professionals who have driven AI efforts are finding a niche in their current organizations, or creating one as they move on.

So what helps an early-career professional stand out? Khrys believes there aren’t truly any AI experts yet. “Some of us are trying really hard, me included,” she said. In her view, what’s getting people ahead has less to do with understanding AI and more to do with “thinking about how to use AI differently.”

She said organizations face the question of whether to use AI to do the same work faster, better, and cheaper, or to change how they work altogether. Newcomers may not arrive with the notion that “this is the way we’ve always done it.” The skill she sees paying off is being inquisitive: understanding the operation’s overall goal and finding “new solutions for the organization, not for the task.”

Mary noted that this is a real culture shift for legal, where a newcomer proposing a different approach might once have been seen as an outlier. Khrys agreed, highlighting a challenge that comes with this shift. When the goals themselves change, there is no precedent for verifying accuracy or measuring performance, so “the entire framework is being rebuilt as part of this process.” She said people who understand colleagues’ business goals and problems “are probably going to do better” than those who only know the old steps.

The Moment Someone Saw Her Potential

Khrys was 19 and working at the firm to pay for college when an IP attorney needed a paralegal to collect documents at a client’s office. None were available. The two often talked about technology, and, as she recalls, he said, “Hey, spunky kid, come go over with me to this client’s office.” She had never handled a document production.

She said his confidence in her gave her confidence in herself. She learned that her offering wasn’t to have the answers, but to listen to the problem and find a solution. Looking back, she said, “I think it really did change my view of myself as a professional.”

That instinct to listen for the question or problem rather than arrive with the solution closely resembles the inquisitiveness she now sees paying off with AI. Her story also shows how much early recognition can shape a career.

Helping a Rising Star Stand Out

eDiscovery Day, founded by EDRM Trusted Partner Exterro in 2015, is launching the first Rising Stars of eDiscovery Awards this year with ACEDS, EDRM, eDiscovery Today, and LegalOps.com. Five winners will be announced at the December 3 keynote, where Khrys is one of four practitioners arguing assigned sides in a live debate on AI in eDiscovery.

Nominees must work in-house, at a law firm, or in government in the United States or Canada. They must practice eDiscovery, legal operations, litigation support, or a related discipline and have five or fewer years of eDiscovery experience as of December 3, 2026. Employees of software and technology vendors, service providers, ALSPs, consultancies, and the founding partner organizations are not eligible. Self-nominations are welcome, and the nomination form lists “External Partner” among nominator relationships. See the full program rules for details.

Judges from each partner organization will score nominees on craft, impact, judgment, contribution to the field, and career trajectory. Khrys’s advice fits those criteria well. “I have so many conversations with people from day to day where they just kind of don’t recognize their unique contributions,” she said. If you nominate someone, she suggests sitting down with them to help them identify those contributions. Helping a nominee see their unique value, she said, “is the true gift.” If you nominate yourself, she recommends thinking through your value with a trusted friend or mentor.

She also encourages people to consider what they bring from outside the legal field. She once advised someone with a real estate background and database experience to look for an organization that would value both their real estate and legal work, like a tech-enabled commercial real estate practice or a practice with goals to get there.

The nomination form reinforces that advice, emphasizing that “specific outcomes beat general praise.” A strong nomination shows what someone has contributed and why it matters, not just their job responsibilities. Winners will be featured across partner channels, including podcasts, webinars, and published interviews.

The Importance of Recognizing the Uniqueness of the Next Rising Star

Asked for a fun fact, Khrys said she doesn’t have a favorite anything: no favorite color, music, or book. What she favors is new experiences. That might be one of her unique characteristics. That curiosity shows in her career. At the law firm where she began her career, she held five job titles and wrote the job descriptions for four of them herself, because she kept finding problems nobody was tackling.

Khrys’ experience shows how recognizing someone’s unique potential early can make a lasting difference. The Rising Stars of eDiscovery Awards offer an opportunity to recognize early-career professionals for their contributions. If someone comes to mind, consider nominating them, or yourself, by November 6.

Submit a Rising Stars of eDiscovery Nomination

Assisted by GAI and LLM Technologies per EDRM’s GAI and LLM Policy.