LitSmart News

Kilpatrick Townsend’s LitSmart® E-Discovery Team Announces the Addition of 5 New E-Discovery Experts

Katie King February 12th, 2018
LitSmart Logo

Kilpatrick Townsend’s LitSmart® E-Discovery Team is pleased to welcome five new e-discovery experts to its team: Senior E-Discovery Attorneys Virginia Ring and Jim Hefferan; Senior Project Managers Phil Moon and Dave Welch; and Senior Analyst Shazell Bush.

Virginia Ring joined the team as a Senior E-Discovery Attorney in early January 2018 in the Firm’s Atlanta office. Prior to joining LitSmart, Virginia was a Senior Associate with the Firm’s Insurance Recovery team for 8 years. She has extensive experience in e-discovery, including data mapping, data preservation strategies, early case assessment, conducting custodian interviews, data collections and managing complex document reviews. She is currently managing one of the team’s largest cases with dozens of data sources, more than 10 TBs of data and hundreds of custodians located throughout the world.

Jim Hefferan joined the team as a Senior E-Discovery Attorney in early January 2018 in the Firm’s Winston-Salem office. Jim has more than 14 years of experience in commercial litigation. He assists with the management of document review teams, develops review protocols and conducts high level QC and privilege review. He also conducts legal research and drafts pleadings for discovery-related issues that arise within cases throughout the Firm’s footprint. Prior to joining LitSmart, Jim was a law professor at several institutions, where he taught courses on commercial law, constitutional law, contracts, sales, secured transactions, sports law and Native American law.

Phillip Moon joined the team as a Senior Project Manager in December 2017 and is in the Firm’s San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. Phil has more than 20 years of experience in e-discovery and is highly certified in Relativity, having reached the level of Relativity Certified Administrator. In addition, he has extensive experience handling data collection and processing outside of the US, specifically in Asia. Prior to joining LitSmart, Phil managed the day-today operations of an e-discovery technology start-up with offices in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, New York and Seoul. 

David Welch joined the team as a Senior Project Manager in early January 2018 in the Firm’s Denver office. With more than 20 years of experience in project management, Dave has a wide-range of expertise in early case assessment strategies, developing best practices, improving efficiencies and streamlining workflows. He also has a background in forensic examination, having achieved the level of Certified Computer Examiner by the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE). Previously, Dave was the owner/partner of a start-up litigation support company in Denver, Colorado, and a Senior Litigation Technology Specialist with an east coast law firm. 

Shazell Bush joined the team as a Senior Analyst in February 2018 in the Firm’s Houston office. Shazell has more than 18 years of experience in e-discovery in law firm and vendor settings, in both analyst and project manager positions. He is an expert in Relativity, having reached the level of Relativity Certified Administrator. He is also well-versed in SQL Query and database manipulation. Within the LitSmart team, Shazell’s primary focus is on database design and maintenance, processing, productions and quality control.

The award-winning LitSmart® E-Discovery Team has now grown to 26 permanent employees stationed in offices across the US and plans to continue to grow over the next year. The team is made up of seasoned attorneys, paralegals, project managers and technology specialists. In addition, the team regularly engages 50+ contract attorneys to assist with document reviews in the team’s 6,000 square foot dedicated Document Review Center in Winston-Salem, NC. Under the leadership of Kilpatrick Townsend’s Global Discovery Counsel Craig D. Cannon, LitSmart provides the full range of e-discovery services (from preservation and collection through production); consultation on the development of enterprise-level strategies for e-discovery and information governance; and guidance on compliance with international privacy laws. In addition, the LitSmart team serves as Discovery Counsel to some of the world’s largest corporations. In the Discovery Counsel role, LitSmart is able to capitalize on valuable institutional knowledge to provide guidance on e-discovery strategy, minimizing risk, streamlining data processes and controlling costs.

Subscribe to the E-Discovery Newsletter

Related Posts

Newest Posts

  • Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Ephemeral Messaging Challenges

    The emergence of ephemeral messaging applications to communicate with friends, family, and coworkers quickly, securely, and effortlessly has boomed over the past decade. In that time, users of ephemeral messaging apps have risen significantly, from millions to billions of active users! Ephemeral messaging is an integral and evolving part of both individual and company communications with advantages and challenges impacting companies and the legal industry. Companies must consider the ramifications of their employees' use of ephemeral messaging and adopt policies and procedures to best protect themselves and comply with requirements relating to litigation and regulation. Courts have already begun addressing the failure to preserve relevant ephemeral messages and have been issuing sanctions in a myriad of legal challenges. Ephemeral messaging is here to stay, and companies, courts, and attorneys must understand and adapt to evolve with this emerging technology.

  • Generative AI E-Discovery Tools and the Importance of Prompt Engineering

    The explosion of LLMs (large language models) and other Generative AI tools designed to increase workplace efficiency and productivity has created a new lexicon of jargon and definitions. The term “Prompt Engineering” may be the most widely used new term to describe the method of using LLMs and Generative AI tools. Prompt engineering is the creation of text-based instructions or cues that a person uses to direct LLMs or other generative AI tools. These instructions are then interpreted by the AI tool. Learning to harness the power of e-discovery AI Tools like Relativity’s aiR for Review through prompts specifically constructed to produce the output you desire in your case can increase your efficiency. Implementing these prompt creation and iteration tips and tricks will help you use Relativity’s aiR for Review tool to more effectively to assist with litigation, document review, and deposition or trial preparation.

  • Solving the “‘Privilege Log’ Problem”: Proposed Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16 & 26

    Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16(b) and 26(f) are projected to come into effect in December 2025 that have been promulgated to address what proponents refer to as the “‘privilege log’ problem.” December 2025 is still relatively far in the future and whether the proposed amendments to Rules 16(b) and 26(f) are actually adopted is still subject to additional approvals, including approval by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, bear in mind that nothing in the current Federal Rules of Civil Procedure prevents the parties from implementing the more proactive approach the proposed amendments seek to achieve.