Featuring: Jerry Bui, SVP of Digital Forensics and Steve Davis, VP of Forensics and Investigations
The hardest problems in eDiscovery are not always the headline tasks like collecting a mailbox or exporting a tenant. They show up in the handoff, that messy middle where forensic collection has to become reviewable evidence without losing context, metadata, or defensibility. Jerry Bui and Steve Davis dig into that “workflow glue” and why the data solutions role is closer to a chef de cuisine than a back-office utility: it keeps the kitchen running, prevents collisions, and gets everyone to a clean final product faster.
We’re joined by Mike Johnson from Purpose Legal’s data solutions team to unpack what actually breaks in real matters, especially with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. We talk modern attachments as a moving target, why exports that look fine on day one can shift after an update, and how a scientific testing mindset in a proper sandbox helps you answer client questions with evidence instead of guesses. Mike explains how changes like direct exports, review sets, and even simple CSV field-name shifts can force retooling across scripts, ingestion steps, and QC checks.
From there we get practical about options: when tools like Metaspike Forensic Email Collector (FEC) help, where Purview exports shine, how other collectors fit, and why some problems demand internal utilities to normalize native formats for downstream review. We also tackle the question clients care about most when stakes are high: versioning. If a dispute hinges on what a document looked like years ago, “latest version” is not good enough, and retention settings may be the difference between possible and impossible.
We close by widening the lens to chat data, third-party apps, and AI chat artifacts from tools like ChatGPT and Claude, plus one clear takeaway for client-facing teams: loop data solutions in early, communicate constantly, and do not assume “we’ll just collect everything” is the safest plan. Subscribe, share this with a teammate who lives in M365 exports, and leave a review. What part of your evidence workflow breaks most often?
Evidence Matters with Bui & Davis is a podcast for litigators, in-house counsel, legal operations professionals, and eDiscovery teams navigating today’s complex data landscape. Hosted by digital forensics experts Jerry Bui and Steve Davis, the show explores digital evidence, investigations, mobile devices, AI, defensibility, data governance, and the evolving challenges shaping modern litigation and discovery. Practical insights, real-world experience, and conversations that help legal teams make better decisions when evidence matters most.
Visit www.purposelegal.io for more information
