Tony Mendenhall, the Firm's eDiscovery operations director, blends his background as an experienced technologist and lawyer to oversee and manage the Firm's eDiscovery technology support. Tony's practice is entirely devoted to eDiscovery litigation issues and emerging best practices in this complex and technical field. Clients and trial teams rely on Tony for his practical guidance on all aspects of eDiscovery. Tony's experience spans the entire eDiscovery spectrum: reasonably complying with preservation and legal hold obligations; ensuring proportionality through effective collection and culling strategies; assisting with meet-and-confer negotiations; working directly with clients on ESI collection strategies designed to be efficient and cost-effective; and advising on eDiscovery protocols and legal issues.
Tony actively oversees matters requiring eDiscovery services, supporting clients and trial teams on particular matters that span most of the Firm's litigation practice areas, and focus industries. In addition to providing services for specific litigation matters, Tony consults with clients on broader and more proactive topics, such as eDiscovery risk analysis and mitigation, data preservation and litigation hold process development, enterprise data mapping for litigation purposes, and eDiscovery vendor and technology RFP and selection.
In his role, Tony has principal responsibility to oversee all vendors providing eDiscovery services to the Firm and actively oversees process creation and improvement to ensure all services are provided to the highest standards and industry best practices. The Firm's attorneys and clients value Tony's deep experience and knowledge of the eDiscovery service industry, helping to ensure that clients' eDiscovery needs are being addressed. Because of the complexity of the marketplace, Tony's expertise ensures that all clients get the technology best suited for their case, from a qualified and vetted vendor, at marketplace competitive rates, with the necessary processes and oversight in place.
Tony's prior work experience and management degree have equipped him for his current responsibilities. As a working member of both small and large IT departments, and as an IT consultant, Tony can see the project from the point of view of the in-house technology department. This experience enables him to thoroughly understand client IT systems and infrastructure and effectively communicate with IT personnel. This experience proves extremely useful in bridging the legal-IT gap that often exists at the beginning of an eDiscovery project.