Solving an e-discovery challenge opened the door to a new line of business for the law firm Last year, CTO Matt Kesner put his reputation on the line when he asked the senior partners at Silicon Valley-based law firm Fenwick and West to “turn the business model on its head.” Kesner’s big idea: Spin off the forensics and e-discovery group he founded six years ago into a practice that helps clients navigate the intersection of IT and the law.[ Discover what insights you can take advantage of from the other 2008 InfoWorld CTO 25 winners. ]Actually, Kesner received a big boost for his argument. As he was trying to convince partners, several high-tech and bio-tech clients requested consulting services for dealing with massive amounts of data in relation to regulations and internal governance policies — services EIM could offer. The partners signed off on EIM, which included eight lawyers, two IT professionals, an IT director who acts as the lead forensics investigator, and Kesner. So far, EIM has garnered repeat customers and referrals, and it’s tracking toward seven-digit revenue this year.The seeds of Kesner’s groundbreaking idea were planted six years ago in the fertile Silicon Valley culture of technology and entrepreneurialism. At the time, a Fenwick and West client, Compuware, was facing a case against IBM — and Big Blue dropped 125 million documents on Kesner’s proverbial desk.Kesner formed a forensics and e-discovery group to handle the task. The group evolved over the years, developing proprietary processes for dealing with massive stores of data. As the amount of data among Fenwick and West’s clients continued to grow, along with new regulatory issues coming to the fore, Kesner saw an opportunity to turn part of the group into a full-fledged practice that would consult in these areas. “IT departments and in-house lawyers don’t often talk, and we know about this tension,” he says. Kesner says his boss encouraged him to come up with new ideas for the law firm and the legal profession in general. Her support convinced him to pitch EIM to the partners. Kesner also says Fenwick and West’s Silicon Valley roots played a role in helping him come up with the idea.“Our clients were some of the earliest to get out of the paper world, and so we hit the data problem early,” Kesner says. “We got a head start because we got to rub shoulders with Silicon Valley companies.” Careers