Barnes & Thornburg Appoints New Legal Operations Advisor

INDIANAPOLIS – Deepening and enriching its focus on legal operations excellence, Barnes & Thornburg has announced the appointment of Brendan Miller as the firm’s legal operations advisor for practice innovation. Miller has been a practicing attorney with Barnes & Thornburg for more than a decade and will shift his primary focus to legal operations.

Earlier this year, the firm formally launched its Legal Operations Department led by Jared Applegate, chief legal operations officer, and comprised of business professionals with advanced degrees to meet client needs. The team has expanded with Miller in this new role.

As legal operations advisor, Miller will assist the firm’s attorneys, matter teams and client legal operations professionals in leveraging best practices in legal project management (LPM) and technology tools to help build sustainable, outcome-driven partnerships with clients.

Miller’s legal practice has focused on complex business and commercial litigation, including disputes involving contracts, warranties, business torts, class actions, multidistrict claims, trade secrets, antitrust, product liability and tax. He is experienced in the various phases of litigation and the dispute resolution process – from pre-suit negotiations to prosecution and defense of claims, discovery, motion practice, preparation for trial and the preservation of issues for appeal.

Miller was vice chair of the firm’s eDiscovery and Knowledge Management team, and he has advised clients on all facets of e-discovery and management of electronically stored information in connection with litigation and investigative inquiries. When the firm launched its LPM initiative in 2015, Miller served as one of the original LPM trainers, where he brought to bear his interest and strengths in emerging technology and project management.

“We continue to have an obsessive focus on our client needs around our pricing, scoping and matter management capabilities and to execute matters in innovative ways that demonstrate our value and expertise,” said Applegate. “With Brendan in this role, his collective experiences and relationships will be an invaluable resource for our attorneys looking to implement cutting-edge legal technology and processes to support client success.”

Prior to his legal career, Miller worked for a decade in the nonprofit sector, where he worked with clients to achieve organizational and community outcomes. He remains active with several philanthropic and community organizations, including the Indiana 211 Partnership (past board member) and United Way of Central Indiana (volunteer), among others. He earned his J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law, his M.S.W. from Indiana University, and his B.A from Manchester College.

With more than 600 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from 14 offices in Atlanta, California, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, Ohio, Texas and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com or on Twitter @BTLawNews.