Build an eDiscovery process for the team you have.
Most eDiscovery “best practices” were written for BigLaw: review teams, six-figure technology budgets, deep-pocketed clients, and matters that run for years. They don't translate cleanly to a 10-attorney firm with two staff members and a rotating docket.
Spark builds eDiscovery processes for the ways small and mid-size practices actually work. That means making real choices — which platform fits your practice, which team members can be responsible for which aspects of discovery, which workflows work for collection, review, and production in your practice area(s) — rather than handing you a “comprehensive” playbook that gathers dust on a shared drive.
As an attorney, Sara Jones has handled eDiscovery from inside of BigLaw and small firms. She knows what enterprise playbooks miss, when the “best practice” isn’t proportional to your case, and conversely, which shortcuts aren’t worth it. That's the foundation for every Spark consulting engagement.
Let’s start here:
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Find the Right Technology for Your Practice
Every eDiscovery vendor will tell you they're the right fit. Spark's advice is different because while we do offer a platform option, our goal is to figure out what actually fits your practice, your budget, and the kinds of matters you take.
We evaluate platforms for user-friendliness; support and accessibility; cost; and scalability. Maybe you want the ability to set up and run your own productions, or maybe you want backup when it comes time to push the button. Maybe your clients only need the economy model. Maybe you’re shooting for bigger cases in the future. Maybe you’ve decided that AI can handle everything from here on! (Not yet.)
The result: a technology decision you made with the information you needed, with a trusted advisor who has her eye on innovation in the industry and experience working on practically every platform.
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Build Processes that are Both Defensible and Practical
Ad hoc eDiscovery isn't just inefficient — it's a liability. When opposing counsel asks how you collected documents, or a judge wants to know how your search terms were chosen, ‘we did what we usually do’ is not an answer that holds up.
Spark works with your firm to improve and document how you handle eDiscovery from intake to production: collection protocols, review workflows, search term development, quality control checkpoints, and privilege log standards. We look at where things have gone wrong for your firm in the past and design processes that address those failure points specifically.
You'll come away with the documents your team actually needs: ESI Protocol templates, review guides, and production checklists — built for your practice, not copied from a form bank.
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Train Your Team So They Don't Need Us Anymore
Spark wants to make itself obsolete — at least for the routine work. The goal of every consulting engagement is to leave your attorneys and staff confident enough to handle day-to-day eDiscovery without calling us every time a new case opens.
That means hands-on training on the platforms you've chosen, walkthroughs of the processes we've built together, and practice runs before your team faces a real deadline. Everyone who touches discovery — partners, associates, paralegals, legal assistants — should understand what they're responsible for and how to do it.
The novel issues and the genuinely unusual matters? Those are exactly what Spark is here for. We'll still pick up the phone.
Every firm is different, and Spark doesn't start with a template. We start with a conversation about what your practice looks like, what's worked, and what hasn't. From there we will build with you to design something that fits.
Sara Perkins Jones
Sara Jones is a practicing litigator in Boston with 10 years of eDiscovery experience in civil litigation.
Sara began her career at an AmLaw 100 firm, where she learned from attorneys, paralegals, and litigation technology analysts how to manage document collection, review, and production for civil matters and government investigations. In 2019, she moved to a smaller Boston firm to represent insurance policyholders in coverage disputes, and assisted teams across the firm with eDiscovery issues.
Sara founded Spark in 2022 with the goal of helping small and mid-sized litigation firms realize all the benefits of eDiscovery technology, while avoiding the pitfalls.
Sara is a Certified E-Discovery Specialist and a member of ACEDS. Clients rely on Sara for her practical advice, technical savvy, and will-do attitude.
Sara lives outside of Boston with her spouse, their daughter, and a border collie mix who will never give up trying to herd them.
EXPERIENCE
ANDERSON & KREIGER LLP, BOSTON, Massachusetts, 2019-2022
As a senior associate in the firm’s insurance practice and its litigation group, Sara represented corporate policyholders in coverage disputes with insurers over first- and third-party coverage; defended a major captive medical malpractice insurer facing a claim of bad-faith failure to settle; advised other practice groups and clients on insurance issues; and managed communications with insurers in order to obtain coverage for the firm’s litigation and environmental work.
Sara managed eDiscovery on a number of cases across the firm. In that capacity, she helped attorneys and clients navigate common (and not so common) pitfalls, including: collection of archived emails from legacy systems; transfer of a document review database between two review system vendors; inadvertent production clawbacks; and mid-review changes to responsiveness decisions affecting large swaths of documents.
Sara advised clients on the legal standards for the use of technology to prioritize documents for review and to cut off review of non-responsive documents. She successfully defended motions to compel the production of privileged and work product material.
ROPES & GRAY LLP, BOSTON, Massachusetts, 2013-2019
Beginning as a summer associate in 2011, Sara worked on cases across Ropes’ diverse litigation & enforcement practice, including: international internal investigations; SEC examinations, investigations, and enforcement actions; securities and other class action defense; insurance coverage arbitrations; and employment, contract, and trade secret disputes.
Sara started out as a member of review teams on large document-intensive cases. Later, as a mid-level and senior associate, she managed her own reviews, prepared discovery requests and responses, negotiated discovery issues with opposing counsel, and took depositions.
Sara clerked for the SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT in Boston after graduating from NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW. In her previous life, she was a newspaper reporter in McAllen, Texas. She made it through BROWN UNIVERSITY and Milton Academy without ever attending a football game.