Launching today is a company formed to provide cybersecurity, e-discovery, managed review and information governance services to commercial and government organizations, and leading it is the lawyer who formerly served as director of information governance at the White House.

Called Empire Technologies Risk Management Group, the company says its lawyers and technologists have more than 100 years of collective experience in cybersecurity and information governance, with professional staff who have formerly served the Department of Defense, the Federal Trade Commission, the White House, law firms and Fortune 500 companies.

Kenya Dixon

The company’s general counsel and chief operating officer, Kenya Dixon, served until June as director of information governance in the White House. She was formerly at the Federal Trade Commission, where she was assistant director of the Division of Litigation Technology & Analysis.

She was recently among the finalists in voting for the Stellar Women in E-Discovery award, the winner of which will be named by e-discovery company Relativity during its Relativity Fest conference slated for Sept. 21-23.

The company is based in Washington, D.C., and says its plans to soon open additional offices in Chicago and New York.

I was not able to speak with anyone from the company prior to this morning’s announcement. Its LinkedIn page lists no employees other than Dixon and its website also provides no further information about company executives.

A spokesperson told my by email that ETRM Group is a holding company for multiple companies in the data and legal industries, with an overarching cybersecurity focus. It is privately owned and has financial backing from private investors.

The spokesperson said that the company has multiple executives, many of whom are industry executives and some of whom are silent partners. The company’s board of executives consists of executives from the entities rolling up under the ETRM Group Company. Those acquisitions will be announced over the next six months, as will be other strategic partnerships.

Focus on Cybersecurity

In a statement provided by the company, Dixon said:

“The legal marketplace is facing an unprecedented number of cyberattacks and breaches because the data security industry has focused only on secure networking – not a secure working environment. At ETRM Group, we believe that cybersecurity is the foundation of every successful legal process or technology – whether it’s eDiscovery, managed review or adapting to new standards like a remote workforce.”

The company’s website says that the customers it serves are corporations, law firms and government agencies.

The services it provides include:

  • Risk management and fraud investigations.
  • Cyber security, including development of cybersecurity protocols and information technology governance, design and monitoring of network defense systems, incident response and containment, and remediation.
  • Discovery services, including discovery management, data hosting, digital forensics, managed review and paper discovery.

Although the company is officially announcing its launch today, it appears to have soft-launched in May and been operating since then.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.