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.
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.