This week we sat down with Orianne Auger, Luminance’s Head of Discovery. Orianne joined Luminance in 2019 as a Legal Product Expert, quickly climbing the ranks to be part of Luminance’s management team. She is responsible for overseeing the company’s eDiscovery product division, building customer relationships and ensuring they get the most from Luminance’s AI technology. This includes world-leading law firms such as Dentons and Burness Paull, as well as leading supermarkets, fashion sites and manufacturing companies.

Luminance: Orianne, can you tell us about your academic and career background?

Orianne: I read Law at the University of Birmingham. I enjoyed learning about law but was particularly fascinated by modules which focused on legal technology and particularly the complex and often underrated relationship between AI and the legal industry. It amazed me that innovation could help lawyers in so many different use cases. For example, how technology could help lawyers trawl through the immense volumes of data they face on a day-to-day basis, and free up incredible amounts of time for tasks which add more value to their firm and their clients. When I left University, I wanted to start a career in something I was passionate about, so the legal technology industry was an obvious choice.

Luminance: How did you find out about Luminance and what drew you to the company?

Orianne: I found out about Luminance when I was researching legal technology for some of my final year modules at university. I immediately thought that the technology looked absolutely genius and at the same time had so much room to expand even further, and I knew that one day I had to join the company.

Luminance: What does your role at Luminance involve?

Orianne: I head up the team for our eDiscovery product at Luminance. To me, the key part of my role is to grow our business, firstly by getting new customers signed up to use our revolutionary AI-powered eDiscovery tool and secondly, but no less importantly, helping our current customers make the most out of the technology. At Luminance, our job does not end once we have sold the product; in fact, we have a close relationship with our clients and truly work in partnership with them. This really motivates me as we are working with people with real challenges, who turn to us and our technology to try to solve them. For example, when I heard about the influx of Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) that arose in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to show clients how Luminance could be used to expedite and enhance these otherwise burdensome reviews. For our in-house clients, this meant removing a huge burden on the human and financial resources of their legal teams, while creating new streams of revenue for some of our private practice clients who previously would have been reluctant to take on a DSAR for a client.

Luminance: Can you tell me about a high point in your career?

Orianne: My entire career at Luminance has been very rewarding, and so much can happen in one day that it is hard to pinpoint one specific thing! After working at the company for just 18 months, I grew the Discovery product division by 30%, signing customers that include ‘Big Four’ accounting firms and the world’s largest law firm, Dentons. But I think that my biggest achievement was in 2020, when I was given the opportunity to lead the Discovery product division and be part of Luminance’s management team. I find it so rewarding and exciting now having that responsibility and such an active role in where the product and business are going. I genuinely feel like I learn something new every day, which is exactly how I always envisaged my dream job to be.

Luminance: What skills and traits do you think have helped you progress in your career?

Orianne: The first thing that comes to mind is creativity. This is very important in any sales-oriented position where you need to be creative in every aspect of the job. You can never just stick to what you know, whether it's in how you present the technology, how you reach out to people, engage with customers or find new applications for your technology, creativity is vital. Also, I think that always listening to advice and really observing how my most successful colleagues operate is something that has really helped in my career development. One of my favourite things about Luminance is that we have a very intelligent, dynamic team of overachievers who are always willing to give each other advice and learn from one another.

Luminance: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Orianne: I’m so proud to say that in the nine months that I have been Head of Discovery, our customer base has grown by 75%. Given how quickly our numbers have grown in nine months the prospect of where we will be in five years is very exciting to me. I think we’re extremely lucky that we have a real market-leading product that is constantly developing.