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

Katie King February 12th, 2018
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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.

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