At the height of witness examinations for the UK government’s Covid-19 inquiry in 2023, Norton Rose Fulbright was receiving thousands of documents a week, which it was handling as part of its pro bono work for charity Save the Children.
The inquiry, launched in 2022, was examining decision-making in government during the pandemic, and the charity had wanted to look at how children’s rights had been considered in policy decisions.
“Even with a fairly substantially staffed review team — which comprised paralegals, Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers and barristers — [there was] absolutely no way we could get through that amount of material and find the stuff that was actually relevant,” explains David Wilkins, e-disclosure technical lead at the firm.