Matt Lines

Matthew is an eDisclosure/eData Executive in the eData team at Travers Smith, bringing 14 years of hands-on experience across the full lifecycle of electronic data in litigation, investigations, and regulatory matters. He began his career at a Magic Circle law firm, where he developed a strong grounding in managing complex, high-stake matters and collaborating closely with fee earners to design defensible, proportionate discovery strategies. He later moved to an external eDiscovery provider, gaining a deep appreciation of scalable service delivery, cross‑industry workflows, and the operational realities of running large, multi‑jurisdictional projects.

Matthew has also completed an eData secondment within the financial sector, embedding with a client team to align discovery approaches with their risk appetite, compliance obligations, and data governance practices. This combination of in‑house law firm, service provider, and client‑side experience gives Matthew a rare, rounded perspective on what different stakeholders need from eDisclosure. He is adept at bridging priorities between instructing teams and delivery partners, anticipating pinch points, and tailoring workflows that are practical, defensible, and cost‑effective.

He has a keen focus on generative AI workflows and has spent the past two years researching industry use cases and benchmarking them against Travers Smith’s ways of working. He uses this research to pinpoint where repeatable tasks can be streamlined and strengthened—improving efficiency and consistency not only for the eData team but also for the wider firm and its clients. Alongside this work, Matthew has extensive experience with leading eDiscovery platforms, including RelativityOne, Everlaw and Ringtail, and has trialled a range of alternative tools. This breadth of exposure enables him to scope matters from the earliest discussions, recommending the most appropriate hosting approach and feature set to meet each case’s requirements while maintaining defensibility and value.

Drawing on a broad toolkit of eDisclosure platforms, technology‑assisted review, AI‑enabled analytics, and automation, Matthew focuses on building clear, outcome‑driven processes—covering preservation, collection, processing, review, and disclosure—that reduce risk and enhance quality. He works collaboratively with colleagues and clients, translating technical detail into actionable advice and maintaining a continuous improvement mindset through training, knowledge‑sharing, and the adoption of emerging best practice.

• Develop and deliver training, playbooks, and repeatable automations for fee-earners and clients; lead pilots and firm-wide initiatives that standardise best practice and elevate the effective use of legal technology across the business.
• Lead end-to-end eDisclosure on complex, multi-jurisdictional matters—including high-stakes disputes, regulatory inquiries, and internal investigations in the financial services sector—covering defensible preservation and collection, analytics-led culling, managed review, and compliant production.
• Design and validate advanced analytics and generative AI-assisted workflows (including TAR, clustering and summarisation), with robust sampling, QC, and audit trails to deliver measurable reductions in review effort while maintaining defensibility.
• Scope projects from inception and translate requirements into platform and hosting strategies—drawing on experience with RelativityOne, Everlaw, and Ringtail—complete feature and review recommendations.