About this Project
EDRM – Working Group on GenAI
Report on Results of Survey of Working Group Members
General Summary
In 2024, EDRM established a Working Group on Generative AI (the “Working Group”) under the leadership of Co-Project Trustees Dr. Maura R. Grossman and Matthew Golab. The Working Group’s mission was to explore the potential uses and challenges of applying GenAI techniques to various stages within the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (“EDRM”). One of the first projects taken up by the Working Group was to survey Working Group members on their experiences evaluating and using GenAI in the practice of law. The goal was to gain information on the use of GenAI in the legal profession that could inform future directions of the Working Group.
The survey consisted of 42 questions. To this set of questions, EDRM received a total of 19 responses. Those responding tended to be practicing lawyers, but the pool of respondents also included judges, technology consultants and service providers, as well as academics. Six of the respondents agreed to provide further thoughts in follow-up interviews. This report summarizes the results of both the survey itself and the follow-up interviews.
It is important to note that the pool of respondents does not represent a random or representative sample of legal professionals. Respondents were individuals who (1) were already associated with EDRM (hence engaged with issues in legal discovery and legal technology), (2) volunteered to participate in a working group focused on questions raised by the use of GenAI, and (3) had sufficient interest in the topic to take the time to answer the 42 questions included in the survey (and, in some cases, to participate in a follow-up interview). The results summarized here hold only for this self-selecting pool of respondents; attempts to generalize beyond this group would be both fraught with risk and ill-advised.
Among the general observations gained from the responses are the following.
- Readiness to experiment.
- Client disposition.
- Use cases.
- Document review.
- Evaluations.
- The human component.
- Transparency.
- Future directions.
The survey project team will host a public webinar on the EDRM Global Webinar Channel on Monday, March 29, 2026 at 1PM Eastern called The EDRM GenAI Survey Results: Separating Fact, Fiction, Hype, and Reality with Hon. Ralph Artigliere, Maura R. Grossman, Bruce Hedin, and Jason R. Baron introducing the detailed findings. The webinar will be available on demand afterward using the same link.
Read the results in a document offered for public comment here:
Download EDRM Working Group on GenAI: Report on Survey of Working Group MembersUsageSurvey_WorkingGroup_Results_PV2.pdf -- 1.87 MB
The project team requests your thoughts and comments prior to finalization of this public comment version, and welcomes your thoughts for future publications.
Contributors
The project team includes:
- Hon. Ralph Artigliere
- Bruce Hedin
- Dr. Maura Grossman
- Jason R. Baron
- Matthew Golab