Meghan A. Podolny

Meghan’s practice focuses on strategic counseling for clients on information governance and eDiscovery planning for complex commercial, high-profile litigation matters. Meghan is counsel in the firm’s litigation practice and the head of the Information Governance & eDiscovery Group, which focuses on providing state-of-the-art data management and eDiscovery advice and services to corporate clients across multiple industries. Her experience includes developing and implementing best practice guidelines on enterprise-level information governance and approaching her clients’ eDiscovery challenges with innovative and cost-effective technology solutions that promote efficient handling of complex data management projects.

Meghan is highly skilled in assessing the client’s data capabilities and procedures and benchmarking the results against industry best practices to determine potential legal and operational risks. She advises corporate clients on the development of tailored protocols to streamline discovery preparation and response by controlling the costs associated with electronic information and meeting the desired risk level.

Meghan’s clients frequently seek her counsel and strategic advice and trust her leadership in managing their most challenging and complex discovery response plans, often due to internal investigations or governmental subpoenas. She regularly leads presentations advising clients and lawyers alike on preservation obligations and strategies, defensible data disposition, predictive coding and cross-border discovery issues. Meghan is also a frequent speaker and writer on a number of issues related to electronic discovery, data preservation, privilege waiver, and employee communication privacy concerns. 

Information Governance:

• Counseling clients on defensible data disposition and risks associated with reduction of legacy and departing employee data.
• Advising Fortune 500 oil refining company on the vetting of new technology for email retention and related migration project.
• Assessing a company’s existing litigation/investigations portfolio, corporate culture, policies, processes, documentation, preservation practices (legal holds), technology solutions, and resource allocations against market practices and evolving case law to recommend improvements to reduce legal risk and operational inefficiencies.
• Assisting Fortune 100 company with the development of comprehensive IT system profiles.
• Drafting policies concerning legal holds, data retention, employee communications, mobile devices (BYOD), and social media and providing the training necessary to roll out these policies

eDiscovery:

• Serving as national eDiscovery coordinating counsel for a major telecommunications company.
• Counseling corporate clients in the design and implementation of company-wide legal hold and eDiscovery policies and protocols for preservation, collection, and production of multiple data sources.
• Counseling a product manufacturer on protocols for leveraging analytic technology in document review processes.
• Designing and supervising the collection, review, and production of documents for Fortune 500 companies in response to class action defense, state attorney general investigations, Federal Trade Commission civil investigative demands and Department of Justice grand jury subpoenas.
• Defending a major European bank against securities fraud claims arising from the Madoff Ponzi scheme by designing and supervising discovery response, including collecting and reviewing volumes of documents internationally.
• Advising a Fortune 500 financial services company on enterprise-wide preservation activities in response to government subpoenas and related civil litigation, including preservation at hundreds of locations across the country.
• Leading discovery response for an aerospace company engaged in both FTC and civil litigation antitrust action challenging exclusive dealing agreement, involving the protection of highly classified information.
• Coordinating electronic discovery, collection, and culling issues and managing large-scale review and deposition preparation related to significant Department of Justice Second Request for a client in the transportation industry.

Investigations:

• Representing a national bank in an internal investigation, federal civil actions, and bankruptcy proceedings in connection with losses incurred on behalf of Ocala Funding, an asset-backed commercial paper facility that was defrauded in connection with the multi-billion dollar collapse of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. and Colonial Bank.
• Leading an internal investigation into data network security and potential breach for a national transportation company.
• Participating in internal investigations regarding cyber theft of credit card and other personal data in network security breach cases.
• Investigating and mediating a contractual business dispute for top US defense contractor.
• Representing several financial services institutions in connection with cybersecurity issues and related crisis management.
• Designed FCPA and anti-corruption training for a global company which included risk assessments and targeted training for executive leadership, marketing/sales and operations in Latin America.

• Recognized as a Runner Up for Litigator of the Week, American Lawyer, Litigation Daily, April 2022

• Member, Women in eDiscovery, Richmond and DC Chapters
• Member, DC Bar Committee on Ediscovery
• The Sedona Conference, Working Group 1 Steering Committee