Michelle M. Newcomer is eDiscovery Counsel to the Firm. She focuses her practice on discovery issues, from preservation through production, and provides counsel to litigation teams across the Firm on matters arising in the Firm’s securities, consumer, antitrust, and other complex actions. Michelle is adept and experienced in managing all aspects and phases of the discovery process. She regularly leads discovery conferences and negotiates protocols governing electronically stored information, and helps litigation teams navigate complex issues regarding the preservation, collection, search and production of electronically stored information, including developing effective technology-assisted review protocols. Michelle also briefs and argues discovery motions where necessary.
Michelle was appointed to the Sedona Conference Working Group (WG) 1 Steering Committee, which works to develop principles, guidance, and best practice recommendations for information governance and electronic discovery in the context of litigation, dispute resolution, and investigations. She also has served as a Faculty Advisory for Sedona’s E-Discovery Negotiation & Training workshop, a panelist at various e-discovery conferences where she has helped shape the broader dialogue on e-discovery issues, and is an active member of the Complex Litigation e-Discovery Forum (CLEF), which provides educational and networking opportunities to practitioners in the plaintiffs’ bar who handle complex cases.
Prior to serving in this role, Michelle focused her practice in the area of securities litigation, where she represented individual and institutional investors and Sovereign Wealth Funds in class actions, direct actions, and non-U.S. collective actions asserting violations of U.S. and foreign securities laws. She has been involved in dozens of securities class actions in which the Firm has served as Lead or Co-Lead Counsel, through all aspects of pre-trial, trial, and appellate proceedings, and was part of the trial team in the Firm’s most recent securities fraud class action trial, which resulted in a jury verdict on liability and damages in favor of investors.
Michelle began her legal career with the Firm in 2005. Prior to joining the Firm, she was a summer law clerk for the Hon. John T.J. Kelly, Jr. of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.