Though the COVID-19 pandemic is straining litigation workloads, legal professionals aren't expecting their industry to become more knowledgeable about e-discovery. But they do see changes in the way many manage e-discovery work and the third parties they employ in that effort, according to the "State of the Industry Report" from eDiscovery Today.

The report, which was also sponsored by EDRM, is based on a survey of 183 respondents, most of whom were U.S.-based legal and legal technology professionals from e-discovery software and service providers, law firms or consultancies.

Around 80% of respondents said their organization is already seeing or expects to see a greater litigation workload due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid this new reality, respondents predicted the top business-related e-discovery trends in 2021 will be continued corporate restructuring to address post-pandemic e-discovery work, reduced e-discovery budgets for organizations, and consolidation of e-discovery providers through investment and attrition.