Matt McCormack believes in New London, which is why he's acquired commercial buildings downtown and along Ocean Avenue near Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.

He also believes in his young company, Quantum Discovery LLC, which is why he bought a two-story building on Ocean Avenue with plenty of space for the firm's anticipated expansion.

McCormack, who has more than two decades of experience in the litigation support arena, says his new company has a small roster of employees - currently six besides himself as the chief executive officer. He expects to vigorously grow the staff soon and says the first few months in business have produced positive bottom line results.

"We're continuing to hire," he says. "We're growing much faster than I anticipated."

The firm already has a handful of large corporate clients - McCormack won't disclose names, citing legal and proprietary concerns - and he expects that roster will grow, as well.

He says the firm caters to "document intensive" litigation of so-called "serial litigants" - those companies or organizations that often face multiple, large-scale lawsuits. He uses the Enron debacle as an example of a troubled corporation that faced a plethora of high-profile civil and criminal lawsuits.

The optimistic 40-year-old explains that litigation support is essentially collecting, documenting and organizing the thousands or millions of pages of legal documents associated with such large-scale lawsuits. It remains a growing industry and while there are more competitors than there used to be in the industry, McCormack believes his New London firm's prospects are strong.

McCormack is from Ledyard but now lives in Mystic, and he says his early experience with the Ledyard-based Atlas Systems, founded by Roger Tamer and Doug Barrett, who later founded the Norwich-based Daticon, gave him a deep background in the litigation-support industry, as well as vital contacts - including at some of this country's largest, and most active, law firms.

He began in the trade when he was 18 and a new student at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, "at the lowest position" literally pulling staples out of the boxes of legal documents so the pages could become microfilm copies. "I was the best staple puller at Atlas," he quips, adding that he's a hard worker and will put his full energies into his work, no matter the task.

Equity partnership

After leaving Daticon as an executive, he began working for the West Coast-based Daegis litigation support firm as an equity partner. Last summer, McCormack and his equity partners sold the company, which provided McCormack with the financing he needed to create Quantum Discovery.

"I sat out my non-compete (which expired May 15) and then formed Quantum Discovery (on May 16)," he says, hiring some of his industry veterans from Daticon.

Today, that painstaking technology of scanning paper documents into microfilm-like copies has been replaced by the digital age, meaning that millions of legal documents can be sent via hard drive or email to firms such as Quantum Discovery.

Once those files arrive, the specialists at Quantum Discovery begin the often arduous, detailed process of organizing the files - which in decades past would fill hundreds of legal-sized document boxes - so they can be searched, read, printed or sorted into separate, specific files by attorneys pursuing a particular case.

Litigation-support services are essential in this era of mega lawsuits, where large corporations are sued in class-action suits or face government investigations for everything from computer crime to stock manipulation or adverse pharmaceutical reactions.

While some might lament America's increasingly litigious nature, it is a boon to litigation-support firms that provide a valuable service to the often huge teams of attorneys pursuing a case against a global corporation or defending a corporate client against the prosecutorial might of, say, a U.S. Department of Justice.

Inside the Ocean Avenue headquarters of Quantum Discovery, which once housed medical suites catering to the nearby Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, there are offices, conference rooms and back-office space for the computer-driven business. And, says McCormack, because of the relatively young staff, there is a family room, with comfortable couches, toys and a video game console for children who might need to come to the office with mom or dad, perhaps for a sick day. "We're a family oriented company," says McCormack.

"We're trying to create a cool culture," he says, adding "we all have little kids."

As he guides a visitor around his firm, he shows off the fresh paint, remodeling and interior and exterior touches that give the building a polished look along Ocean Avenue, with its nearby doctors' offices and single- and multi-family homes. McCormack says he's put plenty of capital into the building - the newly paved parking lot itself was a five-figure expense. But it's all worth it to McCormack, who believes in his new enterprise, and in New London.

"There's new heat, electrical, wood panels. We gutted it to fit our technology needs," says McCormack.

Bullish on real estate

The New London entrepreneur also owns property in the city's downtown, at 220 State St., which houses a convenience store, a yoga studio and some professional offices. He says he's impressed with a renaissance of sorts that's occurring downtown, with new restaurants, boutiques and apartments. He's established DNQ Investments (named after his three sons' first names) to coordinate his commercial properties.

He says he has plans to buy more real estate "in the near future." McCormack also lauds the city of New London officials he's dealt with. "Everyone from (economic development coordinator) Ned Hammond to (building official) Jack Cipriano have been instrumental in assisting us over the last six months."

McCormack even expects that his firm could one day expand beyond its needs at the Ocean Avenue location, and he says he'd likely find more space in New London to accommodate the growing business and still keep the Ocean Avenue building.

The privately financed Quantum Discovery has no debt, and McCormack says the company has produced stronger revenues in its first month than it projected for its first three-month period. "That takes a lot of pressure off the company," he says of the positive results. He says the two-story, nearly 45,000-square-foot site can accommodate a staff ultimately of between 20 to 25 data processors, project managers, technicians and consultants.

John Markowicz, who heads the New London-based Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region, applauds McCormack's optimism and his company's reliance on sophisticated technology.

"Quantum Discovery represents the type of cutting-edge technology company that southeastern Connecticut needs to build a successful 21st century economy for the region," he says. Markowicz is involved in this region's efforts to boost students' interest in the so-called STEM skills - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - and in building a STEM-driven local work force.

"Our students and work force, who are being educated and trained in STEM ... will find opportunities for satisfying careers at businesses such as Quantum Discovery," he says.

"We are," he adds, "very happy to welcome them to New London."

McCormack appreciates his warm welcome to the city, and recalls how he wanted to be a certified public accountant when he first enrolled in community college. But those plans changed when he saw an advertisement for the then-Atlas Systems at what he says was a modest $6 hourly wage.

"This is all I know how to do," he says. "But if you're smart, you listen and you learn. That's been my education."

a.cronin@theday.com

Business snapshot

Name: Quantum Discovery LLC

Location: 501 Ocean Ave., New London

Services: Litigation support services

Chief executive officer: Matt McCormack

Website: www.quantumdiscoveryllc.com

Telephone: (860) 271-7080