Everlaw is the platform that lets you sell managed ediscovery as a service to small law firms that face large document productions with no in-house ediscovery staff. You handle the setup, the AI-assisted review configuration, and the deliverables. The firm's attorneys get a prioritized hot-docs set and a privilege log. Everlaw's pricing is quote-based — independent 2026 sources indicate $2,000–$5,000/month base plus $18–$35/GB for hosted data. Your markup on top of that, plus the project management fee, is how this becomes a $5,000–$15,000 per-matter service.
Small law firms lose ediscovery jobs every week because they don't have the infrastructure to compete with firms that do. A 50GB document set arriving with a 30-day production deadline is a crisis for a 10-attorney firm with no ediscovery staff. You solve that crisis. The firm gets a vendor they can call on the next matter without hiring someone full-time.
The first engagement earns the relationship. The third engagement earns the retainer. Firms with steady litigation volume will pay $1,500–$3,000/month to have you on call as their outsourced ediscovery project manager — available when a new matter lands, not just when they're already in production chaos.
The tools
Everlaw
Everlaw is cloud-native ediscovery with AI-powered review built in. Upload a document set, and the AI Assistant generates summaries, answers case questions, and builds timelines across uploaded files — without requiring attorneys to read every page of a large production. The real leverage is predictive coding (TAR): once attorneys code a seed set of documents, Everlaw's continuous active learning model extends those decisions across the full set, reducing the volume that requires human review by 60–80% on large productions.
For small firm engagements, Everlaw's strength is the browser-based review interface — no software install, no IT involvement. Attorneys access the review set from anywhere, tag documents with custom issue codes you define, and see a real-time audit trail of every reviewer decision. You set up the production set, configure the predictive coding seed, and hand the attorneys a prioritized queue. They review what matters; the AI handles the volume.
Price: Quote-based. No public price list. Independent 2026 sources indicate $2,000–$5,000/month base subscription plus $18–$35/GB for hosted data, structured as per-case or annual platform subscription depending on volume. Contact Everlaw sales at everlaw.com for a matter-specific quote. What to charge: $5,000–$15,000 per litigation matter for a managed first-pass review (scoping, upload, predictive-coding configuration, and a prioritized hot-docs report plus privilege log). Pass through Everlaw's per-GB hosting cost with a 20–30% markup. Firms with recurring volume become $1,500–$3,000/month retainers as their outsourced ediscovery project manager.
Claude
Claude handles the analysis work that lives outside the review platform. Before configuring predictive coding, use a Claude Project to help the attorney team articulate the key issues in the case — who are the custodians, what document types are likely relevant, what date ranges matter. Claude turns a 30-minute attorney interview into a structured issue outline you can use to build the seed set and configure issue tags.
After the hot-docs pass, Claude synthesizes the findings into a memo: paste in document summaries and issue-code breakdowns, ask for a "key facts and themes" narrative, and deliver it as the written analysis that accompanies the prioritized review set. Attorneys get both the coded documents and a readable summary — the combination is what closes the next engagement.
Claude is also useful for privilege log drafting. Paste document metadata and subject-line summaries, ask Claude to draft privilege assertions using the correct format for the jurisdiction, and run the output past an attorney for sign-off. It doesn't replace attorney review, but it cuts the time to produce a privilege log from days to hours.
Price: Free tier available. Pro $20/mo ($17/mo billed annually). What to charge: Build Claude into the labor cost of every engagement. The $17/mo annual subscription is overhead; the billable value is the hours it saves on issue analysis, summary memos, and privilege log drafting.
Spellbook
Spellbook is the tool for the engagement-letter side of the relationship. Before any matter kicks off, the firm needs a signed engagement letter that defines scope, rates, and deliverables for the ediscovery service. Spellbook drafts contract language inside Microsoft Word — clause suggestions, risk flagging, and playbook enforcement for clients with standard deal structures. For ediscovery consultants, it means the engagement letter for each matter takes 30 minutes instead of an afternoon.
The legal services cluster works because each tool handles a different phase: Spellbook covers the agreement, Everlaw covers the review, and Claude covers the analysis. Clients who see you using professional-grade legal tooling at each stage trust you with larger matters faster.
Price: Starter ~$99/user/month (50 AI-assisted drafts, AI clause suggestions in Word, standard clause library); Professional ~$149/user/month. 14-day free trial. What to charge: Fold the Spellbook subscription into overhead. The engagement letter it produces is what justifies your $5,000+ per-matter pricing — a professionally drafted, scoped agreement signals that this is a real service, not a favor.
Jotform
Jotform is how you intake new matters without scheduling a discovery call for every inquiry. Build a matter intake form — jurisdiction, case type, custodian count, estimated data volume, production deadline — and share it as your first touchpoint with new clients. The intake form filters out matters that don't fit your scope before you spend time scoping them, and the structured data it collects feeds directly into your Everlaw setup workflow.
For recurring clients, the same Jotform becomes the new-matter notification system. The firm's paralegal fills it out when a new production arrives; you get a notification and can respond with a timeline and quote within an hour. Intake automation is what makes the retainer model scalable — you handle 3–5 active client relationships without a new-matter kickoff call for every request.
Price: Free Starter (5 forms, 100 submissions/month). Bronze $34/mo annual ($39 monthly). What to charge: Jotform is infrastructure overhead. The ROI is the hours saved on new-matter intake across every client relationship.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc handles engagement letters and per-matter SOWs once Spellbook has drafted the language. Create a master engagement letter template in PandaDoc, pull in the scope and pricing fields for each matter, and send it for e-signature in one click. Clients sign on their phone. You have a timestamped, signed agreement before the first document gets uploaded to Everlaw.
For active relationships, PandaDoc's content library stores your standard ediscovery SOW language — what's included, what's pass-through, the per-GB hosting markup, the payment terms. Each new matter becomes a 10-minute document generation task rather than a drafting job.
Price: Essentials $19/user/mo annual ($29 month-to-month). Business ~$49/user/mo annual adds CRM integrations and approval workflows. 14-day free trial. What to charge: PandaDoc is overhead. The signed SOW it produces protects you on scope creep — the single most common billing problem in per-matter ediscovery work.
A workflow that scales
The managed ediscovery service, from matter intake to final deliverable:
- Intake via Jotform. Share your matter intake form with the client. They submit: jurisdiction, case name, opposing counsel, estimated custodian count, data volume, and production deadline. You receive a structured summary in your inbox. If the matter fits your scope (typically 5–200GB, with a 2-week minimum lead time), respond with a quote within 24 hours.
- Scope and agreement via Spellbook and PandaDoc. Use Spellbook to draft or review the engagement letter against your standard clause playbook. Pull the scoped letter into PandaDoc, fill in the matter-specific fields (data volume, estimated Everlaw hosting cost, your project management fee, production deadline), and send for e-signature. No signature, no data upload.
- Issue analysis in Claude. Before touching Everlaw, interview the lead attorney (30 minutes by phone or video). Use a Claude Project to turn the call notes into a structured issue outline: key custodians, relevant time ranges, document types most likely to contain responsive material, and the 5–7 issue codes you'll use in review. Share the outline with the attorney for approval before you configure Everlaw.
- Upload and configure Everlaw. Process the client's data into Everlaw's native cloud environment. Run deduplication and NIST filtering. Build the issue-tag structure from the Claude outline. Request a seed set of 200–300 documents from the attorney team — their coded seed set trains the predictive coding model. Once the model runs its first pass, review the initial accuracy statistics and refine the seed if needed.
- Managed review. Run the AI-assisted first pass. Surface the top-ranked documents for attorney priority review. Monitor reviewer consistency and flag coding conflicts. A 50GB set with predictive coding typically takes 2–4 weeks with 3–5 hours of project management per week.
- Deliver the package. Export the production-ready set and privilege log. Use Claude to draft the written findings memo: key themes, hot documents, and any gaps requiring further investigation. Deliver the coded set, the privilege log, and the memo. Schedule a 30-minute debrief with the attorney team.
First-matter setup takes 4–8 hours of non-review project management. Subsequent matters for the same client are faster because the Everlaw platform relationship, the issue-coding vocabulary, and the intake workflow are already in place.
The money
Ediscovery is one of the highest-margin services in legal consulting because the expertise is scarce, the problems are urgent, and the billing is tied to matter value rather than hourly time.
- Per-matter managed review (5–50GB, first-pass only): $5,000–$8,000. Includes intake, Everlaw setup, AI-assisted first pass, privilege log, and findings memo. Pass through Everlaw's per-GB hosting cost as an itemized line with a 25% markup.
- Large-matter managed review (50–200GB): $8,000–$15,000. Same scope, larger data volume, longer timeline, higher Everlaw hosting pass-through. Add a weekly status call as a deliverable.
- Retainer: outsourced ediscovery project manager (recurring): $1,500–$3,000/month. For firms with 2+ active matters at any time. Covers new-matter intake response within 24 hours, monthly platform management, and one per-matter engagement per month. Per-matter fees apply to any engagement beyond the included one.
Tool overhead per matter: Everlaw hosting (pass-through, billed separately) + Claude Pro ($17/mo annual) + Spellbook Starter ($99/mo) + Jotform Bronze ($34/mo annual) + PandaDoc Essentials ($19/mo annual) = ~$170/mo total fixed overhead. Everlaw's base subscription applies at scale; for project-based work, structure it per-matter with Everlaw.
See AI Tools for Consultants for the full engagement stack this service integrates into, and Audit Automation Software for Consultants for the accounting-vertical parallel service (DataSnipper for financial audit; Everlaw for legal ediscovery).
FAQ
Do I need to be a lawyer to sell managed ediscovery?
No. You are not providing legal advice — you are providing document review project management, platform operation, and AI-assisted analysis. The attorneys make the legal decisions: what's privileged, what's responsive, what goes in the production. You handle the Everlaw setup, the predictive coding configuration, the privilege log drafting (subject to attorney sign-off), and the project timeline. The distinction matters — make it explicit in your engagement letter. Spellbook can help you draft the correct scope language.
How do I price the Everlaw pass-through cost?
Get a matter-specific quote from Everlaw sales before you quote the client. Take the hosting cost (their per-GB rate × the client's estimated data volume), add a 20–30% markup, and include it as a separate line in your PandaDoc SOW labeled "Everlaw hosting — pass-through plus 25% project administration fee." Clients expect this model from ediscovery vendors; it's standard in the industry and transparent.
What's the minimum viable data volume to make this worthwhile?
5GB is a practical floor. Below that, the AI-assisted review leverage doesn't justify the Everlaw setup overhead. Above 5GB, the time savings from predictive coding (60–80% volume reduction) make the economics work at your pricing. The sweet spot for small-firm engagements is 10–75GB — large enough to be a real problem for the firm, small enough that you can deliver within their production timeline.
How do I get the first client?
Small law firms talk about ediscovery vendors in bar association events and practice management groups. Offer one free consult — a 30-minute call where you scope what a managed first-pass would look like on their next qualifying matter. The consult produces a quote. The quote produces the first engagement. The first engagement produces the relationship. Two to three conversations with the right attorneys at a firm's monthly bar association dinner can produce your first matter.
What if the firm already has an ediscovery vendor relationship?
Position as a supplement, not a replacement. Existing vendor relationships often cover large-firm overflow work; small firms frequently have a contact but no formal relationship and no standardized intake process. Offer to handle the matters the existing vendor doesn't prioritize — the 10GB matters that the big ediscovery shop considers below their threshold. That's where the relationship starts.