Legal Ops Leaders Share Tips for Streamlining DSARs and Investigations

Last week, Reveal hosted the webinar How In-House Teams Triaged eDisclosure, Investigations, and DSARs Smarter, Faster, and On Budget, a conversation featuring seasoned legal operations leaders from Booking Holdings, Informa, and Kiwi.com.

The discussion highlighted not only the tactical challenges of today’s data-heavy compliance environment—but also how forward-thinking in-house teams are rewriting the playbook with modern tooling, smarter workflows, and leaner teams.

Meet the Speakers

Moderator:
George Socha – Senior VP of Brand Awareness, Reveal

Panelists:  
Tom Gilsenan – Owner/Director, Informa
Pallavi Thakur – eDiscovery Manager, Booking.com
Oliver Švolík – Senior Corporate Counsel & Data Protection Officer, Kiwi.com

If you missed it, here are the key takeaways from the session, along with some thoughts on what they signal for the future of legal operations.

Building In-House Capacity Is a Competitive Advantage

Relying entirely on external providers for investigations and compliance is no longer sustainable. Legal teams are developing internal expertise, gaining proficiency in analytics and business intelligence tools, and managing data collection and review processes internally. This shift isn’t just about cost savings—it’s also about speed, autonomy, and building repeatable workflows. When DSAR or investigation requests come in, teams that can self-serve data from internal systems are better positioned to respond promptly and defensibly.

Rather than waiting on external timelines and fees, in-house teams are now issuing legal holds, collecting from platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams, and even completing first-level document review themselves, cutting both costs and bottlenecks.

Modern Tools Are Essential for Handling Modern Data

Legal data no longer resides in tidy archives—it lives in Slack threads, Teams chats, cloud storage, Zoom transcripts, and other collaborative tools. Locating relevant information in this space is increasingly challenging. The legal teams making real progress are those investing in tools that integrate natively with these platforms, allowing for targeted data collection while preserving context such as reactions, emojis, edits, and conversation threads. These capabilities not only improve review accuracy, but they also prevent metadata loss and misinterpretation of digital communication.

The ability to collect and review messages as they originally appeared, rather than raw text dumps, is a major leap forward, and more so now when communication is increasingly informal and emoji-driven. As the nature of communication evolves, it becomes a must to invest in tools we can rely on to make sense of it accurately, efficiently, and in full context.

Showcasing ROI of Legal Tech to Leadership

Whether for DSAR compliance or internal investigations, legal ops teams still face the challenge of justifying investment in tools and personnel. Demonstrating return on investment (ROI) requires more than just general metrics; it means showing cost avoidance, reduced risk, and aligning the case with leadership priorities.

The teams that consistently showcase exactly how much time they save, how much risk they mitigate, and how much money they keep in-house. Especially by comparing their performance side-by-side with outsourced alternatives, they build a compelling case for their own leadership. Leadership should focus on these successful cases and bring attention to how moving operations in-house can significantly save time, reduce costs, and optimize headcount. When backed by evidence from other companies who have made the switch, this approach strengthens the argument for securing trust, buy-in, and future investment.

Practical Steps to Build Control In-House

The panellists shared actionable advice for legal teams looking to improve their eDisclosure and data response workflows:

• Audit existing processes. Map out current workflows and identify bottlenecks or areas of risk.

• Understand your data landscape. With more tools in play than ever, Slack, Zoom AI, Miro boards, knowing where your data resides is critical.

• Invest in scalable technology. Select platforms that integrate seamlessly with your data sources and allow for automated, repeatable processes.

• Standardise and document. Build playbooks, create templates, and document procedures so your team can respond quickly, even as tools evolve.

Conclusion: In-House eDiscovery Has Proven Its Value — and It’s Here to Stay

This webinar made one thing clear: in-house teams aren’t just responding to change—they’re driving it. By adopting modern platforms, legal departments are cutting outside counsel spend, reducing turnaround times, and managing risk on their own terms. They're no longer waiting weeks for productions, offloading all responsibility to vendors, or spending months building bespoke workflows for each matter. They bring control back in-house with automation, integration, and transparency.

As data volumes and regulatory demands continue to grow, the winners will be those who invest in the right tools, embrace practical automation, and embed repeatable, resilient processes across teams. Not every organization will be ready to make that leap today, but those who start building now will be far ahead tomorrow.

Missed the live session?

‍‍Watch the on-demand webinar to explore practical strategies for modernizing your eDisclosure and investigation processes.

Rethinking how your team handles eDisclosure, investigations, or DSARs? Reveal can help — let’s talk.