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These Halloween costumes are specifically designed to strike fear into the hearts of legal professionals, both in-house and at law firms. Sure, ghosts and vampires can be frightening — but for lawyers, they've got nothing on regular terrors like AI hallucinations, phishing attacks, or disappearing ediscovery data.
So whatever your reasons for wanting to give legal professionals a scare, here are some ideas.
For law firms
1. “Spinning wheel of death”
Painful document load times or search speeds cause this loathed computer icon to appear all too often for many legal professionals. DISCO Ediscovery users may have forgotten about it, given the platform’s snap-fast load and search times -- but this will give a scare to legal teams who aren't so lucky!
2. Vexatious litigant
Wear whatever you want -- but end every conversation with several threats to sue.
3. Email from your boss saying: “Can we chat?”/“Pls fix”
Bonus points if your Halloween party is on a Friday at 4:30 p.m.
4. Non-billable hours
RIP to the hours of document review lost to redoing work from missed QC or making clients happy. (If write-offs are a persistent problem, check out DISCO Review.)
5. The Reply-Allpocalypse
A close cousin of the phishing attack, but the horror comes from inside the house. To create this costume, cover yourself in printouts of emails marked “ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL.” Then, wear a giant, glowing “REPLY ALL” button on your chest. You’re just one mistaken click away from sending the entire firm’s settlement strategy to opposing counsel.
For in-house/corporate legal teams
6. An invoice
Make yourself into an impossibly long piece of paper — think, longer than a CVS receipt — with the most inane line items you can think of (deduplication fee, expanded data fee, analytics add-ons, hundreds of hours billed to manage a review, etc). Fortunately, those used to DISCO Ediscovery’s flat-rate pricing will be able to have a laugh at this costume.
7. The company holiday party
The infinite number of legal issues that can arise at any holiday party make it a liability nightmare for an in-house lawyer. Feel free to get creative in which ones you choose — a favorite we’ve heard was “stuck in a corner with your boss at a party.”
8. Phishing attack
Get a name tag with your last name misspelled by one letter, and urgently ask people to open an attachment to your costume.
9. The unreviewed track change
Dress in a business suit, but attach a giant, red Microsoft Word comment bubble to your side that reads, “Partner note: Let’s hope they don’t notice we removed this clause. We can add it back if they push.” This costume embodies the small, terrifying oversight in a 100-page contract that keeps GCs up at night.
10. Scope creep
Start with a simple, well-defined costume, like “Contract Review.” Throughout the night, continually add more and more pieces to your outfit. First, a hat that says “Vendor Dispute.” Then, a scarf labeled “New Privacy Regulation.” Then, a blinking light for “Urgent HR Investigation.” By the end of the party, you should be an unrecognizable, overburdened mess of legal tasks that were absolutely not part of the original plan.
All legal professionals
11. AI-hallucinated case law
Varghese vs. China Southern Airlines, Shaboon vs. Egypt Air, and more! Much like these nonexistent cases made up by ChatGPT and cited by attorneys in court (ouch!), this costume can be whatever ChatGPT says it should be -- just wear it with authority.
Still getting your arms around GenAI? Check out our "what you really need to know" guides -- GenAI for Litigation and GenAI for Corporate Legal Teams.
12. Math
At the risk of perpetuating a stereotype, many choose this field specifically to avoid math. Paste some numbers and equations on yourself and watch legal professionals avoid you all night.
13. Banker’s box
Perhaps more targeted towards those scarred by the days of paper, even the sight of one Banker’s Box makes veteran legal professionals wonder how many rooms full of boxes are hiding in the wings. Better yet, create a train of Banker's Boxes trailing behind your costume, or make it a group costume so you can gang up on your unsuspecting colleagues.
14. Slack data
Seriously, have you ever seen a .JSON file? It’s the stuff of nightmares.
Fortunately, DISCO has your back. Check out our article on making collecting Slack data easy for legal holds and recreating a more natural review experience in ediscovery.
15. A simple “choose your own adventure” costume
Short on time and need a costume? Construct a black bar across your person and you have myriad options to frighten lawyers. A redaction? An appointment with the Bar Association? Make it red and you can be a redline.
16. The Unending Privilege Log
This is the document review nightmare that never ends. Create a costume that looks like an infinitely long spreadsheet scroll. The columns should be labeled: "Bates Number," "Document Date," "Author," "Recipients," "Description of Contents," and "Privilege Claimed." The true terror is in the details—fill the description column with thousands of agonizingly similar entries like, “Email chain re: draft agreement” and “Internal communication regarding legal advice.”
17. Any legal software that isn’t DISCO
We saved the scariest for last! Imagine the horrors that can emerge without DISCO — from time wasted on manual processes to battered deposition binders with sticky notes to an overblown bill from a provider estimating based on unexpanded data and charging based on expanded data. If your legal technology is giving you nightmares, give us a call.
