Sidley E-Discovery Team, Including Practice Founder, Heads to Redgrave

A 10-person e-discovery and data analytics team is moving from Sidley Austin to Redgrave.

Redgrave, the information law and e-discovery firm, said on Wednesday that it's adding Sidley's Washington, D.C.-based data team, including the co-chair and a founder of the Sidley practice, Robert Keeling.

The group move also includes partner Ray Mangum and counsel Kristen Knapp, both of whom will join Redgrave as partners. The move brings Redgrave up to 46 lawyers and 63 total timekeepers.

The group move comes as the volume and complexity of data in regulatory and litigation cases grow and as firms continue to increase spend on tech-savvy personnel.

For its part, Sidley Austin's e-discovery group spans multiple cities. After the group exit, the firm will have about 29 lawyers remaining in its e-discovery and data analytics team, including Chicago-based Colleen Kenney, the other practice area head, according to its website. A Sidley representative didn't comment on the group exit.

Keeling said in an interview this week that the move didn't have anything to do with a policy or strategy shift at Sidley, and that the D.C. group is "leaving on the best of terms." 

Instead, he said, it was about the opportunity and alignment with Redgrave as regulatory work and litigation remain hot and as data collections grow more voluminous and challenging to navigate. He said that is "the biggest trend that we are all facing. The biggest trend is that e-discovery and information law continues to evolve and become more complex, the volume of data continues to increase."

Firm leaders also noted increasing client needs along with the proliferation of collaborative platforms like Microsoft Teams or Google Spaces in the workplace, and as generative AI promises major changes to work and recordkeeping.

"My practice focuses on e-discovery and information law. Redgrave's practice focuses on e-discovery and information law. Accordingly, we have significant alignment on the practice going forward as a focused boutique firm in the information law space," Keeling said, adding later that the move "was not about Sidley in any way. I have deep respect and admiration for the firm and its leaders. This was about Redgrave, and what Redgrave can provide."

Redgrave said the lateral group serves as discovery counsel on matters such as antitrust and environmental litigation, advises across industries on discovery and technology issues, and specializes in meeting government requests for information during significant transactions, which often involve a wide range of documents and data on a compressed timeline. The firm said the transactions the group works on can total "billions in value."

Keeling said the group will continue to be based in Washington, D.C., and that they have "a number" of longstanding clients they expect will continue to seek out their services as they switch platforms.

He added that while the team has done "significant" work on generative AI, many clients are still simply looking for practical, actionable advice on risks and opportunities on their matters related to data or technology.

"So this includes leveraging technology effectively, but it also includes kind of leveraging our skills as information law attorneys to get to a more reliable and accurate understanding of the client's data for a more predictable result, ultimately at a lower cost," Keeling said.

Erica Zolner, partner and co-chair of the management committee for Redgrave, said the firm does business in all 50 states and will continue to hire talent wherever it's located. She also said information governance and data disposition, which can involve processes for retention and retrieval of data, continue to be focal points for the firm's clients.

"Just figuring out where that information resides, and coming up with a go-fetch strategy, is complicated and takes time and expertise that clients sometimes don't have," she said. "That's an area I continue to see peak and grow."

She and executive committee partner Jonathan Redgrave said the firm counts many Am Law 50 firms as collaborators and the firm has clients in the Fortune 100. And like many large firms, 2024 has been a good year for Redgrave. But they see 2025 as likely even better, with Redgrave saying he doesn't think that they've seen a year "that looks as strong as what 2025 will be, in terms of firm services."

"We were looking at a very strong 2025 even before the [Sidley] group was coming over," he said. "Now we without a doubt know that 2025 will be our strongest financial year."

By Andrew Maloney