Ellen J. Polhamus

Director of Practice Technology

Ellen J. Polhamus is director of Morgan Lewis's Practice Technology. Ms. Polhamus leads the firmwide business unit in the delivery of technology-based services for all practice areas. Services are focused on electronic data and document management in connection with discovery.

As firmwide director, Ms. Polhamus provides operational and strategic oversight for a team that includes project managers and technology professionals. The group is managed regionally and provides coverage for all Morgan Lewis offices. Ms. Polhamus establishes business objectives and oversees compliance with standard operating procedures (SOPs), quality control (QC), and approved practices. She also manages the personnel, financial, and marketing aspects of the business unit. Ms. Polhamus works closely with the firm's Information Technology department to secure data storage and infrastructure requirements.

Ms. Polhamus has held senior leadership positions for several large international firms and has more than 25 years of legal management and operational experience. She began her career as a legal assistant and became a leader in advocating litigation support solutions for large document collections. She spent 10 years in house at a Fortune 500 chemical and healthcare company in Wilmington, Delaware and led initiatives for a legal assistant program and in-house litigation support capabilities. At a large litigation firm in Washington, D.C., Ms. Polhamus designed and developed a litigation support center and an expanded her leadership role to include the legal assistant program, records management, multimedia services, and trial support services. As the vice president of operations at Casecentral.com, she was a member of the management team of an emerging technology service provider.

In addition to her role in Morgan Lewis's Practice Technology, Ms. Polhamus leads a growing group of paralegals and case assistants from the firm's Labor and Employment Practice.