Michael Donlan Email & Phone Number

Senior case project manager assisting case teams in creating, designing, and executing e-discovery document review. Consulting with firm attorneys and clients a about strategies to defensibly mitigate e-discovery costs. Also responsible for training sessions on various litigation support applications.

Reston, Virginia, Us

Head of litigation support program servicing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Herndon, Virginia, Us

• Provide technical leadership in the design, implementation and management of multiple applications including Relativity, Ecapture and Nuix.• Collaborate with IT, business stakeholders and end users to holistically design and own support for the Line of Business applications.• Proactively look for ways to improve uptime, alerting, and efficiencies of systems.• Provide high-level escalation support to colleagues across the organization for applications and complex process implementation.• Write and distribute communication relating to system outages, patch\upgrade notices and new feature documentation.• Coordinate across multiple departments on software patching and upgrades to ensure client success.• Identify and recommend product customizations, enhancements or work-around(s) to meet business requirements.• Author all standard documentation as well as specifications for both functional and technical requirements.• Monitors project progress by tracking activity; resolving problems; publishing progress reports; recommending actions.• Work closely with project management and other team members on completing complex projects in a fast pace, deadline driven environment• Additional duties assigned by manager including general IT functions

Satellite Beach, Florida, Us

• Providing litigation support and information governance on a contract basis • Creating value and reducing costs by leverage experience and leadership to support clients on matters.• Advised and partnered with clients to manage workflows, oversee reviews, and ensure superior client delivery.• Maintained superior technical skills across multiple platforms, and substantially grew skills in Linux operating system.

Us

Founded and led new firm litigation services department. Took the firm from having four part-time employees involved in systems-based litigation support to 15 full-time employees with over 175 years combined experience. Planned, guided through firm approval, and implemented entirely new network, from the ground up, to contain the firm's e-discovery ESI processing and document review systems. Migrated all firm cases from older legacy systems to SQL-based enterprise systems, all entirely administered in-house. This change involved acquisition of infrastructure (data center evaluation and cage/power/internet rental specification & contract negotiation, purchase of Netapp storage system, switches, servers/ESX hosts), application licensing negotiation and purchase, representing to total firm commitment of over $2,500,000 initial spend plus in excess of $1,500,000 annual costs. Implemented firm’s first security protocols for reviewing documents, and procedures for encrypting all data exchange in/out of the Litigation Services network. Assisted attorneys in developing litigation holds and recommending client electronic document retention policies to minimize potential e-discovery costs. With firm general counsel and senior litigation shareholders, formulated standard policies and procedures for litigation teams. Developed new procedures for defensible handling of internal document collections. Obtained firm certification as a US/EU Safe Harbor. Advised firm lawyers on litigation document review and collection practices and strategies in the European Union. Created the firm’s first in-house trial logistics and presentation support capability. Supervised two subordinate managers. Initiated billings and billing budgets for litigation support, both for staff and for in-house data storage, processing, analytics/TAR. Responsible for annual department budget in excess of $1.5 million, and responsible for Litigation Services department overall profitability.

New York, Ny, Us

Developed and implemented DC and European in-house electronic discovery solution (LAW in US, eCapture in Europe) to reduce dependence on outside vendors and increase firm revenue from electronic discovery processing and review. Reviewed transatlantic bandwidth and domain gateway issues. Assisted in the development of data collection and review practices and procedures for processing European electronic data in ways that comport with European data privacy laws. Spearheaded an Attenex Workbench beta test project to determine feasibility of high-volume in-house electronic data processing and formulate recommendations for processing/review workflow. Also, assisted in the processing and review of large volumes of electronic data for production to the European Commission and various US federal and state agencies. Spearheaded the creation of a secure and isolated electronic document processing network in the firm’s Brussels office, with access to data for review purposes being provided by VMWare virtual workstations inside the secure, isolated network.

Washington, Dc, Us

Manager of Electronic Discovery, November 2007-June 2009Founded and led new firm department focusing specifically on technical electronic discovery issues. General firm-wide responsibility for technical electronic discovery issues, including managing and administering the firm's e-discovery systems and personnel. Assisted attorneys in advising clients on matters relating to litigation holds and collection, review, and production of electronic documents. Also assisted attorneys in developing and recommending client electronic document retention policies to minimize potential later litigation e-discovery costs. Selected and managed migration to a new in-house Microsoft SQL-based electronic document processing solution (LAW); development of technical standard operating procedures for electronic discovery processing. Acquisition, management, and administration of an in-house forensics solution (EnCase).Manager of Practice Technologies, August 2003 – November 2007General firm-wide responsibility for all systems-based litigation support and all practice-specific applications. Managed twelve employees in the department. Reorganized department from a flat Manager/Analyst structure into three teams (two discovery management teams and a trial support team), each reporting to a supervisor, who in turn reported to myself. Created Venable’s first Trial Department to handle trial presentations and trial site set-up/breakdown. Reorganized litigation support application delivery to a case-focused rather than application-focused methodology, integrating LANDesk jobs and Active Directory groups to centralize and control application delivery and access to case materials. Centralized firm document image repository and changed to client/server model of image delivery. Negotiation and project management of a migration to a new, Microsoft SQL-based intellectual property prosecution docketing system. Selection of a new discovery management system and implementation firm-wide.

Manager, Practice Area Support & Document Technology, October 2001-July 2003Duties of Practice Area Support Manager (below) plus responsibility for the firm’s Records Department. Manage Records Supervisor and three Records Assistants. Design and customer negotiation of a records retention policy for both electronic and hardcopy records. Administration of offsite storage contracts. Design and implementation of firm disaster recovery plan. Test rollout of project concept for digitization of intellectual property and international trade practice group document filings. Annual budgeting for Practice Area Support and Records Departments. Overall case management for several litigations, including supervision of case paralegals and temporary attorney document reviewers.Practice Area Support Manager, December 2000-October 2001Conducted training sessions on practice area support applications and on document production methodologies. Conducted discussion groups for attorneys to increase awareness of electronic discovery issues (both logistical and legal issues). Created, designed, and maintained litigation support databases in Concordance, IPRO, JFS, and LiveNote. Performed trial presentation creation, design & editing using Trial Director, Sanction, and MS PowerPoint. Managed all litigation support functions for the firm. Administered NetWare and NT domain groups and Lotus Notes servers and developed application desktop delivery solutions.

Washington, Dc, Us

Managed all of Steptoe’s Litigation Support operations for main office and one regional office. Expanded the department from a small, one-person operation to a full-fledged department with a growing staff and caseload. Technical responsibilities included: design, creation, and maintenance of document and fact management databases and associated image enabling software and hardware; joint responsibility for Novell NetWare and Lotus Notes administration, i.e., creation of users, assignment of access rights, user desktop development; joint responsibility for mass storage devices and associated servers (also jointly responsible for selecting the hardware purchased by the firm as well as operating software); coordination, installation, and maintenance of trial site systems, both software and hardware (including workstation configuration, network and Internet connectivity, internal e-mail, remote network access, and Lotus Notes server and client configuration). Developed legal assistant certification program for litigation support applications. Supervised legal assistants and data entry personnel.