Trudy Tessaro is the newest member of the firm’s e-discovery analysis and technology (e-DAT) group, focusing her practice on developing e-DAT’s Litigation & Trial Support and Corporate Due Diligence & Post-Merger Contract Management key products.
Trudy has worked with the firm in various roles since 1997. Most recently, as Counsel in the Commercial Disputes group, she collaborated with litigation partners on a wide variety of litigation matters, planning strategies and estimating litigation budgets, drafting all manner of pleadings and motions, conducting fact and expert discovery, and preparing for and conducting trial. A quick study, Trudy was approached at critical points in litigation – often just before or during trial -- to analyze thorny legal issues, draft complex jury instructions and verdict forms, evaluate documents, or select relevant deposition testimony to present in support of our clients’ claims or defenses. She has extensive experience in all types of civil litigation, at all stages on the litigation continuum, and has managed large projects with teams of more junior lawyers.
With over 25 years’ experience in civil litigation, Trudy is particularly adept at project management in complex cases. She has overseen the preparation of initial disclosures and production of documents served on the same day in 35 related cases, and has orchestrated the filing of multiple, successful motions for summary judgment in an environmental case involving hundreds of properties and plaintiffs. As a trial team member, she has worked closely with trial consultants to frame issues, design exhibits, prepare witnesses, synthesize and analyze juror information for use in voir dire of large pools of potential jurors, and develop materials for presenting deposition testimony to the jury. As part of a trial support team in another case, she took the lead on drafting objections and responses to objections during the deposition designation process. In addition, she researched and drafted supplemental jury instructions and contemporaneous motions in limine as the need arose during trial.
Outside of the litigation context, Trudy has helped coordinate antitrust and business sensitivity review of client documents and information disclosed in complex due diligence matters.
She has also spent time focused on e-discovery issues throughout her career. Between 2004 and 2008, Trudy was the sole author and editor of the e-DAT group’s E-Discovery Law Blog (http://www.ediscoverylaw.com). Trudy monitored new developments in this constantly evolving area, researching state and federal decisions and court rules, and writing articles and CLE materials relating to e-discovery. Having analyzed virtually all significant e-discovery decisions from courts around the country, Trudy designed the group’s searchable E-Discovery Case Database, and implemented a major re-design of the database after the 2006 E-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure went into effect. Trudy has continued to assist with e-discovery projects and articles periodically.
