Extract from Cristin Traylor’s article “When the Court Doesn’t Blink: Schulte v. LinkedIn on AI for Review”
A new ruling out of the Northern District of California did not generate headlines about a court approving the use of AI for legal data review. In fact, that debate was never really up for discussion. Notably, that is exactly what makes it worth your attention.
In Schulte v. LinkedIn Corporation (N.D. Cal. 2026), Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued a discovery order addressing three separate disputes, one of which directly concerned LinkedIn’s use of Relativity aiR for Review for their production.
The plaintiffs raised procedural objections to how LinkedIn was using aiR. They challenged LinkedIn’s decision to apply search strings to cull documents before running the data set through aiR, and they moved to compel additional disclosures about aiR’s performance metrics. The court denied both motions.
What the plaintiffs did not do – and what neither party nor the court treated as remotely controversial – was challenge LinkedIn’s use of aiR to make final responsiveness calls.
