724,000 Documents, One Weekend: How McDermott Will & Schulte and KPMG Used Assist in Relativity aiR to Surface Key Findings Before Monday

How did they do it?

• Deployed Assist through Relativity’s Advanced Access program, with hands-on expert guidance on prompt design and workflow strategy across a mixed Microsoft 365 and Google data set
• Strategically split 550,000 prioritized documents into two indices by source and custodian
• Surfaced 31 critical findings, plus 137 supporting documents, over a single weekend

No Time for a Traditional Review

When a major investigation landed McDermott Will & Schulte LLP with a compressed timeline and a set of high-stakes custodian interviews demanding careful preparation, the standard playbook wasn't an option. The data set alone – 724,000 documents spanning both Microsoft 365 and Google sources – would have taken weeks to work through using traditional linear review. But the team didn't have weeks. They had a weekend.

Critical custodian interviews were scheduled for Monday. The legal team needed to walk in prepped with specific, document-grounded facts to help guide their interviews. What they needed was a way to ask questions of 724,000 documents and get answers fast.

A New Way to Work the Documents

Assist – Relativity's conversational AI built directly into Relativity aiR – gave the team something traditional review couldn't offer: the ability to query documents in natural language and get synthesized answers on demand.

The team started with some initial filtering to prioritize approximately 550,000 documents, then made a strategic decision to split those into two separate indices organized by source and custodian, segmenting the case along natural fault lines and querying each body of evidence with precision.

What the case team responded to most was the interactive nature of the tool itself: ask a question, drill into the document, validate the result in real time, and use that finding to inform the next query.

KPMG's Relativity experts supported that workflow throughout, designing the review structure and developing the prompt frameworks that kept the team moving efficiently. The Advanced Access program provided the on-ramp – a structured, low-risk path to deploying emerging AI on an active matter.

31 Documents. Every Interview Covered.

By the end of the weekend, Assist helped surface 31 critical documents directly from the team's queries, with an additional 137 documents supporting the broader picture. KPMG managed the wider review concurrently, ensuring full coverage while the McDermott team focused on building the interview record.

When Monday arrived, the legal team walked into their custodian interviews with comprehensive, document-grounded outlines for every meeting – prepared in a way that simply wouldn't have been possible through conventional means in the time available.

"Assist in Relativity aiR helped us cut through 724,000 documents over a single weekend and walk into each custodian interview on Monday prepared. It changes what’s possible under pressure."
Brigid McCarthy, Partner, McDermott Will & Schulte LLP