From Marker Pens to Modern Disclosure
How an Addleshaw Goddard Lawyer Used Legal Tech to Accelerate Her Career and Transform Her Practice
Early in her career, associate Reshma Khan encountered a problem that would shape the way she practiced law.
She was working on a matter involving sensitive information that needed to be redacted. The proposed solution was entirely manual: cross out confidential text using redaction markers, then photocopy the documents so the ink wouldn’t be readable when held up to the light.
"There's only 10 documents that we need to do this for. So, that's the easiest way," she recalled being told.
Khan was unconvinced.
"I just found that quite a remarkable way to go about things," Khan said. More importantly, she thought: "I don't want to do this.” Afterall, one doesn’t complete years of training to become a human redaction machine. And then: “How do I do this quicker? Better?"
With support from a tech-minded senior colleague, Khan started experimenting. She realised she could search for sensitive terms and redact them across multiple documents and replace them with substitute code names; but first the files needed to be converted to searchable text. Then searched. Then replaced. Then saved. No one walked her through it. There was no training session or checklist. She spent a couple of hours figuring it out on her own, using multiple technology tools.
"Although I'd invested that initial time, I saved myself loads of time in the future," she said.
At that moment, it felt like a small efficiency gain. In hindsight, it was the first signal of a pattern that would define her career.
Fifteen years later, Khan is a commercial disputes associate handling data-intensive cases including fraud, product liability disputes, and contractual disputes. She is also widely regarded within her firm as a go-to resource on disclosure and ediscovery technology.
That reputation, earned incrementally, not by mandate, has opened doors for Khan to work on some of the most prominent cases in the English legal system.
Her proactive curiosity eventually led her to Everlaw’s cloud-native platform to streamline her workflow and gain efficiencies in the process.
How Solving One Problem Led to Career-Defining Opportunities
The impact of that first problem-solving moment extended far beyond saving time on redactions. By taking the initiative to understand how legal technology worked, Khan became known as someone who could “figure things out,” someone colleagues could turn to when processes stalled.
"It helped me stand out a little bit within the team amongst my peers," she explained. "And I wasn't necessarily good at it because I didn't know how to do it. I just sort of spent time working out how to do it."
That willingness to invest time where others didn’t became a differentiator. Over time, it reshaped how she worked and whom she worked with. She was able to build relationships within her own firm opening doors to work with senior colleagues who she may not have otherwise have worked with including Mark Chesher, a Partner at Addleshaw Goddard. Such working relationships were not initially rooted in legal theory or case law, but in conversations about technology: which document review platforms worked best, when to deploy them, and how to use them effectively.
That shared interest turned into trust.
"Because of that, I've worked on many of his matters now," Khan said. "And I'm not sure if I would have done that had I not built that rapport over the technologies."
Together they have worked on some of the most complex and high profile cases in the English legal system including Sandra Bailey & Others v GlaxoSmithKline UK Limited (the Seroxat Litigation), litigations between Russian Oligarchs including Berezovsky v Abramovich and advising the government in relation to the Post Office Horizon compensation schemes.
Technology didn’t replace legal skill. But it created a shared language that accelerated collaboration and opportunity.
As her contributions were recognised, partners from other departments began approaching Khan with questions, often about Everlaw. Those conversations led to opportunities to meet clients she might not otherwise have met.
"It's a good way to build your professional career and contacts," she said, understating the effect.
Finding the Right Tool for Modern Disclosure
Khan’s path to Everlaw didn’t start with litigation strategy. It started with regulation.
When the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect, companies across the United Kingdom faced a surge in data subject access requests. Anticipating the volume, Addleshaw Goddard began evaluating tools that could handle the work efficiently. Traditional ediscovery platforms were capable, but often too expensive or cumbersome for matters involving hundreds, if not thousands, of documents.
Everlaw stood out.
The firm initially deployed it for Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs), and Khan was among the first to use it. What she found went beyond compliance.
"Everlaw is amazing,” she remembers thinking. “It's got so many capabilities. We don't need to just do it for data subject access requests. We can use it for early case assessment, investigations, disclosures."
She became an advocate. When colleagues hesitated, she'd show them how it worked. That informal evangelism mattered.
"If someone can say, ‘This works, and this is how you use it,’ people are much more willing to try it," she noted. Change management at its finest.
Before long, Khan’s use of Everlaw did expand beyond DSARs to investigations, early case assessment (ECA), and increasingly complex disclosure exercises. Khan became a quiet but effective advocate; not because it was her job, but because the tool solved real problems.
Where Everlaw Made the Biggest Difference
Ask Khan where Everlaw delivers the most value, and she'll point to ECA; that critical phase when a client comes to the firm with a matter but the legal team is still figuring out what actually happened.
"We are not at the stage where we need to do a full review of everything or the disclosure stage,” Khan said. “We just need to understand what's happening to advise the client and what their next step is."
At this point, uncertainty is high and time matters. Everlaw’s quick setup and transparent pricing make it easier to advise clients early. AI prioritization tools help surface key documents fast, and clustering features reveal patterns before the facts are fully formed.
Speed plays a role, too. Khan notes that document review feels materially different; where other platforms may take several seconds to load the next document, Everlaw moves almost immediately.
But what resonates most with her is the design.
"It's quite common sense to use and intuitive whereas other platforms can be cumbersome requiring detailed training and experience to use effectively”.
There are also practical details that matter more than they appear on paper. Khan often works late evenings after full days of meetings and personal responsibilities. Knowing she can reach Everlaw’s help desk at midnight, rather than waiting until the next business day, removes friction when pressure is already high.
"That reliability matters," she said. "You don't want technology slowing you down when you're already under pressure."
A Philosophy Built on Efficiency and Purpose
Khan’s approach to technology isn't about early adoption for its own sake. It's strategic. She doesn't want to spend time on administrative tasks that could be automated.
"That's not why I wanted to be a lawyer. That didn't reflect my image of what I thought a lawyer was."
Her advice to lawyers who claim they're too busy to learn new technology is characteristically direct.
"It's just counterproductive and inefficient to take that sort of attitude. It might take a little bit of time the first time, to work out how to do something. But that initial couple of hours investment will save you countless hours in the long term."
She brings the same pragmatism to artificial intelligence. Concerns about hallucinations and accuracy are real, but they aren’t new. Those risks can be managed through proper validation, she says. The legal profession has long relied on validation when using technology-assisted review.
"When we are using technology-assisted review, we don't just accept it, we quality check it," she explained. The key is testing, sampling, and understanding when to trust the technology and when human oversight is essential.
What Comes Next
Khan plans to keep adopting new technology, not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s becoming inseparable from legal practice.
"Everyone really needs to do this," she said. "It's just becoming part of the job."
She’s already seeing the shift. Clients now ask about AI in early conversations, what tools firms use and how they deploy them. Technology fluency is no longer optional. It shapes client confidence, access to complex matters, and the quality of advice firms can offer.
"If you're a true lawyer," Khan said, the focus should be on "the analytical, 'This is the knowledge that I have. What are the implications of this on my matter?'" Technology handles the rest.
Her career trajectory proves the point. From redacting documents with a marker pen to working on the country's most prominent cases, the through line is simple: she was willing to invest a couple of hours figuring out a better way. That willingness to solve problems with technology such as Everlaw, rather than accept inefficiency, has defined her practice and opened doors she never anticipated.
The marker pen is long gone. The mindset that replaced it remains.
