Alison Grounds

Alison A. Grounds is a trial attorney and eDiscovery advocate who combines legal strategy and evolving, leading-edge technology to discover the facts needed to help clients achieve optimal results, win cases and settle at the right value.

With a practical, efficiency-obsessed approach, Alison assists clients in all discovery-related aspects of litigation, internal and governmental investigations, subpoena response, and due diligence, as well as proactive litigation readiness.

Clients across varied industries rely on Alison’s litigation experience and technology prowess to develop and manage the overall strategy and to advocate on their behalf during discovery conferences, meet and confers, and hearings.

She regularly handles discovery disputes across the country to ensure the compliance and responsiveness of her clients’ adversaries, and takes and defends eDiscovery-related depositions in support of her clients.

Alison is the founder and managing director of eMerge, a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm, which provides end-to-end, integrated discovery services for legal matters. eMerge’s attorneys and technologists combine legal strategy with the latest technology to manage data, reduce costs and identify facts needed to resolve disputes.

Their novel approach effectively addresses two common causes of unanticipated costs and risks: disconnected stakeholders and processes. The technologies used regularly include artificial intelligence, technology-assisted review, continuous active learning, predictive coding, analytics, email threading, data visualization and custom applications. eMerge also creates bespoke staffing, technological and project management solutions to ensure clients’ goals are achieved.

Clients rely on Alison for proactive litigation readiness, including the development of repeatable and defensible litigation response plans before litigation arises. She is known for developing effective plans for the preservation, collection, analysis and production of electronically stored information (ESI) that keep the costs and burdens of discovery proportionate to the unique circumstances and needs of each case or matter.

Alison is an authority on eDiscovery law. She is an adjunct professor of eDiscovery and Legal Technology at Emory University School of Law and a frequent speaker and author on eDiscovery issues.

Representative Matters :

• Led discovery advocacy efforts to secure sanctions against an adversary in multiple lawsuits who failed to comply with discovery requirements by withholding key documents and misrepresenting steps taken to respond to requests. Successfully elicited damaging testimony and identification of undisclosed documents through corporate depositions of 30(b)(6) witnesses.
• Coordinated a discovery plan for state and federal regulatory approval of a significant energy industry merger.
• Successfully argued on behalf of clients to prevent a governmental agency from shifting costs associated with discovery to clients in civil actions with the agency.

Professional and Community Involvement :

• Member, Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1)
• Member, Georgia State Bar eDiscovery Task Force (2012-2015)
• Fellow, Leadership Counsel on Legal Diversity (2011)
• Fellow, Atlanta Legal Aid, 2002-2003

EDUCATION :

• University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D., with honors, 2001
• Loyola University, B.A., summa cum laude, 1997

COURT ADMISSIONS :

• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia

BAR ADMISSIONS : Georgia