Minnesota Lawyer
Greene Espel PLLP
No attorney, no matter how talented, can do everything to prepare for a case. It’s a team effort, and Brigid Volk’s job is to prepare the technology and visuals lawyers need to win.Volk has been a primary litigation support manager for 11 years at Greene Espel PLLP. She works with case teams to help them prepare for trial, including exhibits, war room logistics and technology for presentations. She also consults with clients on collection issues, helping them to figure out the most efficient, cost-effective and defensible way to preserve and protect data.
Volk got involved with litigation support in the 1990s and 2000s. Over the years, as discovery has shifted from paper records to digital, Volk has found herself more involved with IT.
“I assist the IT director with projects and with handling all the incoming data,” she said. “Do we keep the database in-house? Send it to vendor business partner for hosting?”
Volk not only supports eDiscovery best practices, but she also trains others to meet them. That means keeping up with a fast-changing field. She keeps a folder on her desk that catalogues cases that set new discovery precedents. “Noom v. Nichols, that was a big one,” Volk said. “If instead of attaching a PDF you include a hyperlink, is that an attachment?” As it turns out, it’s not.
When Volk goes home, she deliberately shuts her brain off. “I avoid looking at screens and try very hard not to be in front of a computer,” she said.
Volk thinks of herself as a problem solver, and she’s never bored. “People come to my door with an issue or problem, and I either help or say I don’t know and find the resources to get the answer,” she said. “I’ve got plenty to do, whether it’s billable or non-billable.”
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