Columbia Regional Business Report
www.columbiabusinessreport.com
Staff Report 

A subsidiary of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough has moved into 28,000 square feet of office space at Richland Mall.

The unit, Encompass E-discovery, specializes in information management, electronic discovery and document review.

The arrival of Encompass E-discovery at the mall leaves approximately 65,000 square feet of the former 162,500-square-foot Verizon call center unoccupied.

Back in December, Pricewaterhouse Coopers moved 400 workers who handle IT, data processing and administration functions into about 74,000 square feet of office space. Those workers had been located in about 60,000 square feet of office space in two downtown Columbia buildings.
All of the former Verizon call center space is on the second level of the mall. In 2010, Verizon moved its operations to a new building at Interstate 20 and Spears Creek Church Road in northeast Richland County.

Encompass E-discovery moved into the mall to consolidate its operations under one roof, a spokesman for the law firm said.

The number of workers Encompass E-discovery was not announced.

All of the office space on the second floor of the mall is owned by the Spirit Realty Capital of Scottsdale, Ariz. CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, is the leasing agent.

Century Capital LLC, of Columbia, owns 700,000 square feet of mostly retail space, including Belk and Sadie’s American Cafeteria, said Joe Walker, the mall’s general manager. A parcel occupied by TGI Friday’s restaurant is owned separately, Walker added.

Having another office tenant fits into the local owners’ plans for developing Richland Mall, at the corner of Beltline Boulevard and Forest Drive, into a mixed-used facility that offers a range of goods and services, Walker said.

Nelson Mullins announced the formation of Encompass E-discovery in April 2011.

Encompass’ project list covers thousands of matters with well over 20 terabytes of client data under management, the firm said.

The document review work started as an in-house operation and was later offered to other firms.

The subsidiary also helps fulfill Nelson Mullins’ business model to be a full-service law firm, the spokesman added.

Encompass attorneys managed more than 34 million pages for review in 2010 for multiple litigations, internal investigations and at U.S. and foreign government requests.

E-discovery refers to a civil litigation process that deals with the exchange of electronically stored information, according to the law firm.
Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in December 2006 and in 2007 require litigants to comply with rules for proper retention and management of electronically stored information.

Encompass’ lawyers work out defensible electronic discovery readiness and response strategies for their clients.

Attorneys work with clients to create processes for data preservation, collection and production that balance risks and costs for each matter, according to a firm press release. Attorneys also offer legal counsel and technology solutions for the electronic discovery process.

Established in 1897, Nelson Mullins has more than 400 attorneys and government relations professionals practicing from 13 offices in Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.