Earlier this year and essentially overnight, law firms made the transition to remote work. Although many had adopted cloud-based technology solutions prior to 2020, the quick transition forced an accelerated, full adoption for those that had yet to migrate. How will the shift to remote work affect e-discovery moving forward? In the coming year, e-discovery will be impacted by a variety of factors, including the continued expansion of data, cloud adoption, iPhone operations and more.

As we look ahead to 2021, keep these e-discovery trends in mind to achieve optimal litigation outcomes.

• More firms and corporations will broadly adopt Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 has incorporated a large number of advancements to bolster large enterprise operations' abilities to manage e-discovery processes. What 2021 will bring, though, is broader adoption in the small to midsize corporate space, positioning organizations at the front of the e-discovery process and empowering them to guide their outside counsel in preserving, identifying and collecting relevant ESI. With the continued development of the features available in E3 and E5 licensing models, Microsoft's e-discovery module and compliance console will help these organizations better control the costs they've traditionally incurred by engaging outside vendors or investing in e-discovery-specific platforms launched and operated behind the corporate firewall.