To many, e-discovery is the original legal technology. That doesn't mean, however, that it hasn't been constantly evolving. In fact, e-discovery has perhaps seen some of the biggest changes among legal tech tools in recent years, as it is continuously adapting to handle new data types—most recently, the likes of Slack, Signal and more. At the same time, e-discovery professionals are tackling novel preservation issues as workforces across all industries have seen wild swings. Going into the new year, it's expected that these challenges will continue, if not increase.

Additionally, e-discovery found its way into the national spotlight in unexpected ways, thanks to incidents like the Alex Jones cell phone debacle and the inadvertent Dropbox disclosure in the Jan. 6 investigation. As such  errors continue to surface, we should expect to see an increased focus on legal tech competence along with them, in e-discovery and beyond.