Litigators for Major Businesses

Information Intelligence Team

The Information Intelligence team includes independent leading experts, consultants and technologists with decades of experience in complex, high profile litigation, regulatory and criminal enforcement matters. The team empowers clients to accurately identify, safeguard, understand, and produce needed data efficiently, economically and in full compliance with all legal obligations. The team employs the best-suited expertise, technology, and processes across a full complement of disciplines, including advanced data analytics and visualization, statistical analysis, and computational linguistics.

George Socha

George, co-president at ABIKOS and founder and president of Socha Consulting, is acknowledged worldwide as a leading e-discovery advisor and expert focusing on the full range of electronic discovery activities, regularly serving as an advisor and expert witness to corporations, law firms and their clients, and government agencies. After a successful 16-year career as a litigator, for the past decade George has helped define standards and best practices in the e-discovery industry. He led the effort to create and launch EDRM (edrm.net), which sets the global standard for defining and understanding the e-discovery lifecycle and provides practical frameworks, standards, and resources used to define, guide, and support e-discovery initiatives. George was the co-creator of the Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey, the first survey to focus on e-discovery, which now is Apersee (apersee.com), a web-based resource designed to help consumers better select e-discovery service and software providers suited to their particular needs. For over 20 years, George has served as an attorney, advisor, and consulting and testifying expert in some of the largest and most significant e-discovery matters to date, as well as assisting clients address more routine e-discovery challenges.

David Kittrell

A true technology innovator and visionary in the e-discovery industry, David has led the design, development, and implementation of large-scale, distributed databases for preeminent global technology companies, federal agencies, and major U.S. cities. He has created groundbreaking processes and technology in data analytics, process and workflow, and software architecture for the e-discovery and records management markets. David has been a lead architect and development manager on large scale IT projects for corporations and municipalities including management of both offshore and domestic programmers and consultants. He developed one of the first web-based e-discovery tools and spearheaded use of statistical techniques for search, quality assurance, and process analysis in e-discovery. David served as one of three senior editors and technical contributing author on the first edition of The Sedona Guidelines: Best Practice Guidelines & Commentary for Managing Information & Records in the Electronic Age.

Dan Pelletier

Dan has distinguished himself over the course of a twenty-five year IT career. He holds 12 software and product patents and has led cutting edge technology projects including video surveillance and security for IBM, artificial intelligence and human computer interface for Philips, large scale video processing installations for Nasdaq, and global financial and risk management projects for KPMG. In addition to his expertise in technology, Dan pursued his law degree and was admitted to the New York Bar in 2010. Applying his technology and legal knowledge to the electronic data discovery world, Dan managed e–discovery practice for KPMG’s Office of General Counsel (OGC), leading hundreds of matters yearly with a staff of 20 forensic managers and analysts, developing standards and practices and initiating KPMG’s OGC technology assisted review efforts. Dan also directed strategic accounts and initiatives for a Fortune 150 company, leading client service and technology delivery its largest clients and managing projects for international banking clients including contracts, policy, collections, processing, review and production. Dan’s unique expertise is in the integration of technology and law and his creativity now drives innovation in e–discovery consulting.

Sara Wood

Sara Wood specializes in developing programs that produce high quality, consistent work product for corporate clients through operational efficiency and strong project management. Having held both strategic and tactical roles in software support, client services, and consulting, she understands that driving efficiency in any environment requires determining the appropriate balance of people, process, and technology. Key to the success of these initiatives is developing the knowledge and understanding of the corporation’s own processes and needs, in order to build a strong and successful partnership. Sara has extensive experience in matter management, managing large portfolios of complex electronic discovery projects for Fortune 100 companies. She has defined custom workflows for corporations to support their needs in various phases of the discovery process, from processing and hosting to production. She has built project management offices (PMO) for multiple service providers, including training curricula, programs to support continuous process improvement using internal and client feedback, and the definition of standards and procedures across functional areas. She has led global teams with over 25 members, and recognizes the importance of combining structure and flexibility in order to meet the often changing or unique discovery needs of every corporation. Sara has participated in the Evergreen Project of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, and has given presentations, webinars and co-authored articles on project management in e-discovery. In 2005, she obtained her Certificate in Project Management from New York University and also the designation of Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute.

Mark Lindquist

Mark has over ten years of managing complex technology projects, including technology infrastructure implementations, technology assessments for due diligence efforts and post-acquisition integrations. Mark is skilled at managing a large number of resources, across the suite of information technology services, including large-scale application development projects for the utility industry. Mark is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, CISSP, and Project Management Professional, PMP. As an information security professional, Mark has worked with government entities to enable achievement of compliance requirements. He has directly managed enterprise information security risk through the use of risk and compliance assessments and implemented various security technologies including SIEM, security incident and event management solutions. Mark is a licensed attorney and serves as a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association Law and Technology Section’s Council. He has co-chaired the Privacy and Data Security Committee. Mark holds a Master of Science in Security Technologies and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. He also holds a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law.

Nishad Shevde

Nishad is an expert in complex e-discovery program and matter management for both Fortune 50 corporations and AMLAW 100 law firms. He has years of experience leading large global teams of e-discovery consultants and project managers at industry-leading organizations. Over his career, Nishad has built sustainable discovery response programs for large corporations and managed some of the largest standalone matters of the past decade in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries. Nishad has been focused on driving high-performance execution of short-term discovery projects while helping clients develop long-term programs that reduce overall costs and risk and increase effectiveness. In this role, Nishad has extensive experience in regulatory matters including DOJ/FEC Antitrust investigations (Hart-Scott-Rodino), SEC, FINRA, State AGs and other investigations, as well as securities, products liability, patent, and employment matters. In addition to Nishad’s role as a subject matter expert, consultant, his work as a senior leader at several eDisovery providers includes general business management, software product development, operational leadership, all executed on a client-focused foundation. In those roles Nishad has regularly implemented or revised internal best practices and procedures and helped those providers most effectively and efficiently align themselves with their critical clients.

Matthew Riggs

Matthew Riggs is an e-discovery industry veteran, with over ten years experience at premier global law firms. His passion is developing and implementing custom workflows, best practices and processes that integrate seamlessly and efficiently into client needs in a fully defensible manner. Matthew began programming computers in 1982 at the age of twelve and has been involved in technology ever since. During his graduate study in international relations, he used is technical expertise in data mining, analytics and graphics to analyze and present information. After spending 2 years overseas in the Peace Corps, he began his career in e-discovery and litigation support in New York City, working directly with partners designing and displaying advanced courtroom graphics for trial. Matthew progressed and took on additional responsibilities gaining expertise in a wide array of subject areas including intellectual property, complex financial, environmental, energy, entertainment and internal investigations. He is used to translating complex technical language in regulatory and compliance subpoenas and pleadings into plain English. Matthew’s ability to work with and manage e-discovery and regulatory compliance teams high urgency, high profile matters led to Sullivan & Cromwell naming him head of California operations of their E-discovery & Compliance Department, the first department member to head up satellite offices for e-discovery at the firm. Riggs also has extensive international experience, most recently managing a team of attorneys and vendors operating covertly in South America to collect, process and review on-site for an internal FCPA investigation. Currently Matthew is involved with emerging technologies in e-discovery, focusing on how best to utilize elements of Predictive Coding and other forms of Technology Assisted Review (TAR). His work has led to practical innovations that have greatly improved accuracy and efficiency in document review, quickly identifying key documents, condensing massive volumes of production data into usable knowledge in depositions and hearings, and developing and improving quality control and quality assurance methods for avoiding inclusion of privileged documents in production.