Years ago, before I became a reporter, I worked for a small company that got hit with a lawsuit. It was the dark ages before e-discovery, and as the lowliest clerical worker, it was my job to go through the file cabinets and pull documents that were responsive to a discovery request.

I had never heard of discovery, and couldn’t fathom why anyone would be interested in the endless stacks of sales reports and distribution agreements that I spent days of mind-numbing boredom photocopying.