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Reimagining Deposition Review: Protecting Realization Without Sacrificing Defensibility

August 26, 2026 Jeff Cox, Esq.

Deposition review is one of the most expensive and least standardized parts of a firm's litigation work. Ask how long it takes, how thorough it is, or whether two associates working the same record would flag the same testimony, and most firms can't answer with confidence.

That variability has a price. Clients scrutinize review hours. Write-downs absorb the difference. And a missed contradiction, or a summary no one can trace back to the record, is a cost that never shows up on an invoice until it surfaces on cross.

Jeff Cox, Director of Brand at Steno, and Damien Riehl, Solutions Champion at Clio, sat down for a candid conversation on AI-assisted deposition review that protects both the work product and the economics behind it: faster, more consistent, and built to hold up to partners, to clients, and to cross-examination.

What the session covered:

Where review time was eroding realization, and how verifiable AI recovers margin without a write-down conversation
What "verifiable AI" means in practice: source-level citations, checkpoints, and summaries anchored to the record
How supervising partners verify and stand behind AI-assisted work, rather than just trusting it
A practical standard for evaluating any AI you let touch your litigation work

The firms asking these questions now will be the ones answering them for clients later.

About the Contributors

Jeff Cox, Esq.

Jeff Cox, Esq. is Director of Brand at Steno and a Florida-barred attorney with a career bridging legal operations at Citigroup, legal data and analytics at UniCourt, thought leadership strategy at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and AI product marketing at vLex. A prolific writer with over 100 bylines in Above the Law, Legaltech News, ABA journals, and other leading publications, he served as 2025 Board Chair of Bay Area Legal Services and currently serves on its Development Council.

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Damien Riehl

Damien Riehl is a lawyer and technologist with experience in complex litigation, digital forensics, and software development. A lawyer since 2002 and coder since 1985, Damien clerked for the chief judges of state and federal courts, practiced in complex litigation for over a decade, has led teams of cybersecurity and world-spanning digital forensics investigations, and has built AI-backed legal software. Co-Chair of the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Connected and Automated Vehicles, he is helping recommend changes to Minnesota statutes, rules, and policies—all related to connected and autonomous vehicles. Damien is Chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association's AI Committee, which is establishing an AI Sandbox to promote Access to Justice (A2J).

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