That model works. But here’s what we’re seeing now: the situations that benefit from fractional eDiscovery expertise are far broader than most legal and IT teams realize. Whether you’re a law firm navigating a burst of regulatory work or a corporate legal department trying to get ahead of the next big thing in AI-assisted review, the fractional model opens up possibilities that a traditional staffing approach simply can’t match.
Here are four use cases that are reshaping how our clients think about on-demand eDiscovery talent.
1. M&A Due Diligence & Internal Investigation
Mergers and acquisitions move fast — and so do the data questions that come with them. Before a deal closes, legal teams need to know what’s in the target company’s data environment: what’s been preserved, what’s been deleted, what’s potentially sensitive. That requires real eDiscovery chops, and it needs to happen on a deal timeline, not a hiring timeline.
The same logic applies to internal investigations. When HR or the board flags a potential issue — misconduct, financial irregularities, a whistleblower complaint — you need someone who can stand up a collection workflow, work with forensic specialists, and manage a review platform, fast. Waiting months to hire someone full-time isn’t an option.
“Deal timelines don’t wait for onboarding. A fractional expert who can plug in on day one, configure the workspace, and guide your team through collection and review is the difference between getting ahead of a problem and being behind it.” – Judson Holt, Lucent CEO
A fractional eDiscovery expert can serve as the connective tissue between your forensics team, outside counsel, and internal stakeholders — making sure the data story is told clearly and completely, without blowing up your budget on a matter that may resolve in weeks, not years.
2. Government & Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory scrutiny is intensifying across nearly every industry — financial services, healthcare, energy, tech. When the SEC, DOJ, FTC, or a state AG comes calling, the response process looks a lot like litigation, but with a few important differences: tighter timelines, heightened privilege concerns, and the very real risk that how you respond will define your relationship with a regulator for years.
Many in-house teams aren’t built for the volume and precision these responses demand. And law firms handling the matter may not have an eDiscovery operations specialist on the bench. That’s where a fractional expert fills a critical gap.
- 01 HSR Second Request Support
Antitrust second requests are among the most data-intensive events in corporate life. A fractional eDiscovery manager can own the Relativity environment, coordinate with outside counsel’s review team, and manage productions — freeing your internal team to focus on the business. - 02 FINRA & SEC Exam Response
Financial industry regulators expect organized, accurate, and timely productions. A fractional expert who knows the nuances of financial data — chat platforms, trade surveillance systems, email archiving — can make the difference between a clean response and a follow-up inquiry. - 03 HIPAA Breach & OCR Investigation
Healthcare organizations facing an Office for Civil Rights investigation need to demonstrate exactly what data was involved, who had access, and what steps were taken. eDiscovery expertise helps structure that narrative from the data up.
The fractional model is especially well-suited here because regulatory matters are episodic. You need deep expertise for a concentrated period, then things normalize — until the next inquiry. There’s no reason to carry that cost year-round.
3. Mid-Market Companies New to eDiscovery
Not every company has been through major litigation. For mid-market businesses — say, a manufacturing company, a regional financial institution, or a fast-growing SaaS startup — the first significant eDiscovery event can feel like landing on another planet.
You’ve got data everywhere: Microsoft 365, Slack, Salesforce, cloud file shares, maybe some legacy on-prem systems. Outside counsel is asking questions you’ve never heard before. And someone has just handed you a Relativity license and said “figure it out.”
“The first time a company goes through real eDiscovery, they’re building the plane while flying it. A fractional expert doesn’t just help you land safely — they help you build something you can actually fly again next time.” – Patricia Gardner, Lucent COO
A fractional eDiscovery expert serves two roles here: immediate triage (getting the current matter under control) and institutional capacity-building (creating the workflows, the data map, the preservation protocols, and the vendor relationships your team will use for years to come). It’s a force multiplier, not just a firefighter.
For these companies in particular, the fractional model is transformative. You get someone with enterprise-level experience — the kind that usually only comes with Am Law 100 or Fortune 500 pedigrees — without the full-time overhead that makes no sense between matters.
4. AI-Assisted Review & New Technology Adoption
This one is moving fast. Predictive coding, technology-assisted review (TAR), and now generative AI tools integrated directly into review platforms are changing how eDiscovery gets done. They’re also creating a skills gap.
Many legal teams — at both law firms and corporations — have access to these tools but aren’t getting anything close to their full value. They’re using AI-assisted review the same way they used linear review a decade ago, just with a different interface. That’s expensive and inefficient.
A fractional eDiscovery expert who specializes in AI-assisted workflows can close that gap quickly. They can:
- A Configure and Validate AI Review Workflows
Setting up TAR correctly — training sets, control sets, elusion testing — requires expertise that most review teams simply don’t have in-house. Getting it wrong isn’t just inefficient; it creates defensibility risk. - B Train Your Team on New Platform Capabilities
Relativity and other major platforms are rolling out AI features at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. A fractional expert who lives in this space can bring your team up to speed without the lag of a formal training program. - C Build Defensible AI-Assisted Protocols
Courts and opposing counsel are increasingly asking questions about how AI was used in document review. A fractional expert can help you document your process, anticipate challenges, and respond with confidence.
The velocity of change in this space is actually one of the strongest arguments for the fractional model. Rather than hiring a full-time AI specialist whose skills may be oriented toward today’s tools and not tomorrow’s, you get access to expertise that’s constantly current because it’s working across multiple environments and matters.
The Common Thread
Whether it’s an M&A deal, a regulatory response, a company’s first real litigation, or a technology transformation, the pattern is the same: you need expertise that’s deep, focused, and available on your timeline — not someone else’s hiring calendar.
That’s the core promise of the fractional eDiscovery model. And as the situations that require this kind of expertise continue to multiply, the teams that build a fractional relationship now — before the crisis — will be the ones who navigate it most effectively when it arrives.
At Lucent, we’ve built our practice around exactly this kind of flexibility. Our fractional experts aren’t generalists parachuting in — they’re seasoned professionals with deep platform expertise and real-world experience across industries and matter types. They know how to get oriented fast, earn trust quickly, and deliver results that hold up.