Adam D. Airhart is Associate General Counsel—Intellectual Property at Brunswick Corporation, a manufacturer of pleasure boats, marine engines, fitness equipment, and bowling and billiards equipment. At Brunswick, Adam's responsibilities include intellectual property portfolio management, licensing, and litigation oversight. Before Brunswick, he worked at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to law school, Adam worked as an engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

 

Colleen Batcheler was named executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for ConAgra Foods in 2009. In this role, Colleen oversees all legal activity for the company. Colleen joined ConAgra Foods in June 2006 as vice president and chief securities counsel, and, in September 2006, added corporate secretary responsibilities. She was then promoted to senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary in 2008.

Prior to ConAgra Foods, Colleen was vice president and corporate secretary at Albertson’s, Inc., associate counsel with The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and an associate with the law firm of Jones Day. Her practice has focused on securities regulation, corporate governance issues, executive compensation matters, mergers and acquisitions and other general corporate matters. She earned a B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from the State University of New York College at Fredonia and her J.D. from Case Western Reserve University, where she graduated Order of the Coif and served as executive notes editor of the Law Review.

 

Vicki Baue is Vice President and General Counsel of Cosi, Inc. and serves as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, a position she assumed in September 2004.  In addition to being responsible for all legal matters and counseling the CEO and executive management team at a strategic level, she also counsels management on operational legal matters as well as on issues relating to risk management, ethics, corporate governance, securities, franchise and intellectual property.  Vicki is responsible for the coordination of legal resources and outside counsel and acts as secretary to the Board of Directors.  From 1998 to 2004, she was an associate in the Chicago office of the law firm of Piper Rudnick, LLP (now DLA Piper US LLP), where her practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and securities, and franchise.

 

Joseph W. Bauer was the general counsel of The Lubrizol Corporation, a publicly traded global producer of chemical ingredients, for 20 years before forming Bauer Advising LLC.  He advises large companies and law firms on commercial insurance terms and alternative legal fee arrangements, and hosts educational programs on these subjects.  He is a member of the Conference Board's Council of Chief Legal Officers, and a trustee of Providence House, a crisis residence for infants and young children in Cleveland, Ohio.  Early in his career he practiced with Jones Day.

 

Charles A. Berardesco is senior vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer of Constellation Energy, a Fortune 200 diversified energy company.  He has primary responsibility for the company’s legal strategies and policies, including corporate governance, legal compliance and ethics, corporate finance activities, mergers and acquisitions and litigation, as well as executive responsibility for corporate and information security. 

Mr. Berardesco received his J.D., with high honors, in 1983 from George Washington University, where he was the managing editor of The George Washington Law Review, and his A.B., magna cum laude, in 1980 from Duke University. He is active in a number of charitable organizations, including having served as chairman of the board of the Woodbourne Center, president of the Presbyterian Home of Maryland, chair of the Church Council of Foundry United Methodist Church and a member of the board of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.  He is also a member of the Business Council of the Human Rights Campaign.  In 2010, Mr. Berardesco was awarded the “Out & Proud” Corporate Counsel Award from the National LGBT Bar Association and was named one of the top 10 “GC’s to Watch” by Corporate Board.

 

Ted Best is Director of Product Management for LexisNexis. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Product Management for the corporate e-Billing and Matter Management solution, CounselLink.  This includes developing the strategic product roadmap, supporting sales, marketing and business development efforts and acting as a product expert for service engagements.  As an active member of LEDES standards committee he helped develop both the LEDES 98B-I and the LEDES XML Ver.2 e-billing standards. Best brings over 20 years of technical, marketing and product management experience from companies such as AT&T, Pandesic (Intel/SAP joint venture) and Propel Software. While at Propel Software, Best helped launch the first Java based e-commerce platform design to solve reliability, scalability and performance challenges faced by large scale online commerce sites.

Best holds an MBA from the University of California, Davis and a BA in Management Science from the University of California, San Diego.

 

Blaine D. Edwards was the Associate General Counsel-Litigation for BJ Services Company, U.S.A. responsible for handling worldwide litigation and disputes. BJ Services is an international oil and gas service company operating in over 50 countries worldwide.  Prior to joining BJ Services, he was a Partner with the law firms of Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P. and Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P. and a Participating Associate with Fulbright & Jaworksi, L.L.P.  Mr. Edwards earned his B.B.A. degree in 1984 in Accounting and Finance from Texas A&M University and his J.D. degree, magna cum laude, in 1990 from St. Mary’s University School of Law.

 

Frederick Felman's career in marketing technology and related services spans 25 years. At MarkMonitor, he is responsible for defining and promoting the company's brand protection product offerings as well as leading Business Development. He and his team created the Brandjacking Index®, an often-cited measure of the trends in online abuse targeting the world's largest brands. As part of the MarkMonitor commitment to securing brands online, Fred also leads advocacy initiatives for brandholders' rights issues that intersect Internet governance. Before joining MarkMonitor Fred and hismarketing team at Zone Labs were early pioneers in creating the “freemium” model of software distribution in 1999.  Ultimately Zone Labs created a community of over 100 million users of their ZoneAlarm product that was acquired by CheckPoint. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

 

D. Cameron Findlay was named Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, on August 24, 2009. In this role, Cam leads Medtronic’s 120-lawyer global legal department and its government affairs department.

Cam joined Medtronic from Aon Corporation, the world’s largest insurance broker, where he served from 2003-09 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel.  In that role, he oversaw Aon’s global law department, compliance department, regulatory affairs, and government relations, and was a member of the company’s Executive Committee.

From 2001-03, he served as Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There, he served as the number-two official and chief operating officer of a cabinet department with a $70 billion budget and nearly 20,000 employees.  Before that, he was a partner at the international law firm of Sidley Austin LLP. Additional career experience includes serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Chief of Staff at the White House in the administration of George H. W. Bush, a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia, and a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for Judge Stephen Williams.

Cam received his bachelor’s degree in political science summa cum laude from Northwestern University in 1982. He received a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics with First Class Honors from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, in 1984. He received his juris doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1987.

Cam has been active in numerous philanthropic and professional organizations.  He serves on the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University and on the Executive Committee of that Board; as Chairman of the Board of the Children’s Home and Aid Society; and on the Boards of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

 

Peter Florian drives product marketing strategy and programs for corporate legal and law firms at IntraLInks, the world’s leading SaaS provider of critical information exchanges and business process collaboration. Peter has a successful 20 year track record of driving growth at both consumer and business-to-business companies.

Prior to joining IntraLinks Peter was SVP Sales & Marketing for Inference Data, a next generation litigation review platform based on Autonomy conceptual analytics. Peter was also Vice President of Product Management and Strategic Planning for the Corporate Legal Services division of Wolters Kluwer, which included CT Corporation governance and compliance services, CT Summation litigation management software, CT TyMetrix e-billing and CT Corsearch trademark research services.

Prior to CLS, Mr. Florian was Chief Marketing Officer for Thomson Financial, a $1.5 division of Thomson Corporation (now Thomson/Reuters), where he led the global integration of the marketing and created programs that established Thomson Financial as a leading firm in the global financial information market.

Peter also ran his own marketing firm with clients including Bloomberg, McGraw-Hill, Credit Suisse and theStreet.com. He started his career at Pepsi USA, where he managed the breakthrough Pepsi Challenge program and key soft drink brands.

Peter is a graduate of Vassar College and received an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business.

 

As senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, Tim Geckle oversees Ryland's legal representation and manages all legal matters for the company.

Mr. Geckle joined Ryland in January 1991 to start Ryland’s legal department.  He was promoted to his current position in August 1997.  Previously, he worked for Ryland’s outside legal counsel, DLA Piper, handling Ryland’s legal matters and transactions and specializing in corporate, securities and real estate law.

Mr. Geckle earned his law degree from the University of San Francisco.  He also is a graduate of Catholic University of America, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in religion and religious education.

Mr. Geckle and his wife, Bernadette, reside in Westlake Village, California.  They have two children.

With headquarters in Southern California, Ryland is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders and a leading mortgage-finance company.  The Company currently operates in 15 states and 19 homebuilding divisions across the country and has built more than 285,000 homes and financed more than 240,000 mortgages since its founding in 1967. 

 

As Vice President, eDiscovery and Compliance with Autonomy, Jack Halprin serves as a subject matter expert and assists clients with building best practices and defensible processes around electronic discovery and compliance related issues. Additionally, he manages the product line strategy for Autonomy’s Legal Hold and Early Case Assessment solutions, speaks frequently on enterprise legal risk management and eDiscovery at industry events and seminars, and has authored articles on eDiscovery, legal hold, and knowledge management. He is actively involved in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) forum, leading the EDRM Metrics 3 working group and participating in other working groups. With a BA in Chemistry from Yale University, a JD from the University of California-Los Angeles, and certifications from the California, Connecticut, Virginia and Patent Bars, Mr. Halprin has varied expertise that lends itself well to both the legal and technical aspects of electronic discovery collection and preservation.

Prior to joining Autonomy, Mr. Halprin was with Guidance Software as Senior Product Marketing Manager/Product Manager for eDiscovery, where he developed business partnerships, drove product development, conducted research, and created integrated marketing efforts for EnCase eDiscovery. While at LexisNexis Applied Discovery, Mr. Halprin served as Corporate Electronic Discovery Specialist, increasing company knowledge of eDiscovery-related topics and delivering Continuing Legal Education sessions for corporate legal departments. Prior to working in the eDiscovery field, Mr. Halprin worked for BAR/BRI Bar Review, where he created and launched a Patent Bar Review program and delivered lectures for both the patent bar exam and state bar exams, and was a litigation associate at Santa Monica’s Haight, Brown & Bonesteel.

 

Vivek is a seasoned and experienced legal professional with over 10 years of extensive experience in complex litigation cases before federal and state courts.  As a Senior Manager--Legal Solutions at CPA Global, Vivek works with corporations and law firms to create, manage and deliver cost-effective solutions in large litigation matters and in day-today support of the legal needs of in-house legal departments.

Vivek coordinates client transitions from current legal resources to onshore and/or off-shore legal teams and receives and responds to client inquiries regarding legal outsourcing.  He also supervises the delivery and assures the quality of legal products to corporations and law firms, including legal memoranda, contract revisions, and document reviews.  With respect to the latter, Vivek’s experience includes the oversight of entire projects from initial planning, analyzing staffing requirements, developing document review rules and guidelines, supervising review and quality control, supervising privilege review and production of privilege logs, and fact development through the preparation of custodian and factual memoranda.

Prior to joining CPA Global, Vivek litigated complex commercial, financial, and products liability cases before state and federal courts at the law firms of Spriggs & Hollingsworth and Arter & Hadden.  These cases involved breach of savings and loans capitalization and accounting agreements, breach of contracts for the storage of spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, complex pharmaceutical and medical device products liability cases, and other litigation involving creditor/ debtor, asset recovery, securities, federal claims, toxic and environmental torts, and directors’ and officers’ liability.  Vivek’s experience includes arguing motions, pretrial hearings, preparing fact and expert witnesses, preparing cross-examination, preparing pleadings in all stages of litigation, drafting and responding to dispositive and discovery motions, and negotiating and drafting settlement agreements.    

 

Virginia P. Henschel is vice president of e-discovery affairs for Applied Discovery, a division of LexisNexis. In this role, she works with law firms, government organizations, corporations and industry leaders to educate the legal community on the continually evolving law and technology of electronic discovery. With the specialized knowledge gained while managing complex litigation as a former E-Discovery Counsel at a Fortune 100 corporation, Ms. Henschel is able to draw upon her experience to help clients develop processes and cost-saving strategies in matters involving the collection, processing and review of large amounts of email and other electronic data.

In addition to her broad market and client education roles, Ms. Henschel leads the company’s SM-ART social media consulting practice and the company’s Financial Crisis Response Team. As a steward and driver of the company’s thought leadership vision, Ms. Henschel’s highly relevant corporate and legal background have served to uniquely groom her for these critical company roles.

Ms. Henschel’s distinguished career prior to Applied Discovery includes serving as counsel for Sunoco, Inc., where she managed all facets of ESI for litigation, including designing and managing defensible data collection and production for large, complex legal matters. Ms. Henschel couples this experience with additional corporate experience as assistant general counsel at a global Fortune 500 corporation where she honed her skills in global risk management and complex litigation. Ms. Henschel’s background is rounded out with experience at several law firms, where she advised clients in matters as diverse as mergers and acquisitions, chapter 11 bankruptcy, corporate restructuring negotiations, and federal investigations in a variety of industries.

Ms. Henschel’s professional affiliations include being admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Middle Districts of PA. She is a member of The Sedona Conference, the ACC, ARMA, the ABA and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In addition to being a member of various e-discovery organizations, Ms. Henschel is a recognized legal panelist and speaker on e-discovery topics.

Ms. Henschel holds a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude from Dickinson College and received her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Wake Forest University School of Law where her academic honors included: Faculty Scholar, Law Review, and National Trial Team.

 

Salvador Karottki is Assistant General Counsel/Intellectual Property & Interactive for Tribune Company.  He provides intellectual property counseling to all of Tribune Company’s various business units  and manages intellectual property litigation.  In addition, Mr. Karottki provides general legal counsel to Tribune Company’s interactive business unit, which operates the Web sites associated with Tribune Company’s newspapers, broadcast stations, and entertainment businesses.   

Mr. Karottki has spoken on IP and Internet issues in a variety of legal contexts, including “Intellectual Property Assets in Bankruptcy” at the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Winter Leadership Conference; “Trademarks and the Internet” for the Association of Corporate Counsel; “What’s Happening in the Blogosphere and How It Affects Your Company” for the Association of Corporate Counsel; “Litigate or Arbitrate?” at InsideCounsel’s SuperConference; “Fair Use and Social Networking” for the Copyright Society of the U.S.; and “Copyright and Trademark Injunctions” at Law Bulletin Seminars’ Annual Corporate Intellectual Property Law Conference.

Mr. Karottki is admitted to practice in Illinois and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  He is also a patent attorney registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

 

Mike Kerner is Chief Executive Officer for Zurich Global Corporate in North America, and is responsible for all Zurich Global Corporate business in North America and Latin America.  Mike has held positions with Zurich since 1992.

Previously, Mike was Global Chief Underwriting Officer and Head of Group Strategy for Zurich Financial Services Group, and was based in Zurich, Switzerland.  In those roles, he was responsible for underwriting policy, governance and execution as well as for the development, communication and implementation of the Group’s strategy. 
Mike also served as Global Head of Group Reinsurance with responsibility for buying external reinsurance protections for Zurich’s Global insurance portfolio and using reinsurance as an internal capital and risk management tool for the many Zurich legal entities around the world. His career at Zurich has included the role of Executive Vice President for Group Reinsurance in North America, with responsibility for reinsurance purchasing for Zurich in the US and Canada and various Actuarial, Administration, Finance and Systems Management roles within the Zurich North America Specialties Business Unit. 

Mike is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Economics.  He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

 

Speaker bio coming soon...

 

Matt Myren is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Enesco, LLC in Itasca, Illinois, where he has responsibility for all of the legal matters for the company on an international basis. Matt has particular focus on complex transactions, acquisitions, licensing, logistics, general contracts and business counseling.

Prior to Enesco, Matt was Vice President-Deputy General Counsel of Sears Holdings Corporation in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. In that role, Matt managed a team of 30 people performing the legal counseling and transactional work for Sears Holdings’ merchants and procurement department. He was responsible for several processes to negotiate agreements with key vendors with sale volumes of over $5 billion, as well as leading the legal team in negotiating major acquisitions, divestitures and outsourcing transactions such as the merger transaction between Sears and Kmart, Sears’ sale of its $32 billion Credit and Financial Products business, the $1.9 billion acquisition of Lands’ End and the outsourcing of Sears Holdings’ HR service center. Matt led the legal team at Sears in several business auction sale processes, a restructuring and bankruptcy proceeding involving a major investment, a hostile tender offer transaction and several stock and asset acquisitions, both public and private.

Prior to Sears, Matt was a corporate associate at the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. At Skadden, his practice was focused on corporate transactions, both public and private, and securities law.

Matt is a certified Six Sigma Greenbelt and a board member of the Barrington Area United Way. Matt is also a yoga practitioner and a long distance runner, and he recently completed his tenth marathon and second ultra-marathon.

 

As CEO of DOAR Litigation Consulting and a principal consultant, Paul Neale has leveraged over 25 years of managing complex litigation matters to build one of the industry’s fastest-growing companies. Under his direction, DOAR has become the only company that has centralized all services needed to manage large, complex litigation matters. Paul has assembled a management team of experts in the fields of electronic discovery, jury consulting and trial presentation to create an organization whose scope of services and expertise is unmatched. Nationally recognized as an expert in overall case management with an emphasis on the management and production of electronic evidence and the use of technology at trial, Paul is a published author, speaker and accredited CLE instructor. He consults clients on implementing best practices, the current state of the law as it relates to the evolution of the rules of evidence, and the impact of technology in displaying evidence on jurors’ decision-making.

Paul is a testifying expert in state and federal courts regarding the proper preservation, management and production of electronic stored information (ESI) and routinely supports clients in their negotiations with opposing counsel or regulatory/government agencies. He testified before the advisory committee that drafted FRE 502 dealing with privilege waiver, and his testimony led to the committee’s note regarding the defensibility of the use of alternative technologies in the production of ESI. He has prepared affidavits outlining best practices in the handling of electronic evidence and the defensibility of response programs on behalf of his clients. He is also a member of the Sedona Conference.

Paul graduated from Temple University with a BA degree and has taken advanced courses at the Wharton School of Business. He is a member of the board of directors of Vacamas Programs for Youth, which provides educational and vocational programs for underprivileged youth in NY, NJ and PA.

 

Sarah Padgitt is Senior Counsel at Baxter International, Inc. in Deerfield, IL.  Baxter is one of the world’s leading health care companies, operating globally in over 25 countries with over 45,000 employees.  Ms. Padgitt’s is responsible for a wide variety of litigation and pre-litigation matters for Baxter’s Medication Delivery Division.  She manages a diverse docket of cases including commercial litigation, product liability litigation and government investigations.  She is also responsible for the management and oversight of Baxter’s e-discovery program.  Before joining Baxter, she served as Assistant General Counsel at Aon Corporation in Chicago, IL, where she managed complex commercial litigation and employment litigation.  Prior to joining Aon, she practiced litigation at Winston & Strawn in Chicago, IL.  Ms. Padgitt received her undergraduate degree from Colgate University and a juris doctorate from Northwestern University School of Law. 

 

Speaker bio coming soon...

 

Phil Petti is the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the USG Corporation, one of the world leaders in building systems for residential and commercial construction.  Phil joined USG in 2008, after 23 years in private practice, and now is responsible for all of USG’s intellectual property portfolio management and intellectual property litigation, worldwide, including the protection of USG’s well known SHEETROCK® brand building products.  Before joining USG, Phil was a senior partner of the intellectual property law firm Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery in Chicago.  Phil was one of Fitch, Even’s lead trial lawyers and, also devoted substantial time to client counseling, patent prosecution and strategy.  Phil is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the nation’s largest IP organization with over 16,000 members.  Phil also is a frequent speaker on intellectual property matters is an adjunct professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

 

Michael J. Regan is the General Counsel - The Americas of CB Richard Ellis, based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Mr. Regan earned his Bachelors Degree at Northwestern University and his Juris Doctor at DePaul University.

Mike has extensive experience in both private and corporate legal practice. The first 17 years of his career were spent in private practice culminating with 11 years at the Chicago based 400 person law firm of Hinshaw & Culberson where he was a partner and member of the firm’s management committee.

Mike left private practice in 1997 and spent the next 7 years with Citibank as General Counsel of Citibank’s Commercial Real Estate Group, Commercial Asset Management Group, Latin American Group and Embassy Banking Group. He is a proven leader with the ability to manage legal staff on a local and national scale.

When Mike isn’t practicing law or busy with his family, he is very active in his community. Mike served as an Alderman in the City of Elmhurst, IL from 2001-2009. In addition, Mike has had extensive involvement with various charitable/philanthropic organizations, including the American Cancer Society, where Mike served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society’s Illinois Division. Mike is currently a member of the Board of Governors of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

Mike joined CBRE in October of 2004 as the General Counsel of the Eastern Division.

 

Matthew J. Revord graduated with a B.A. in Government from the University of Notre Dame in 1985. After a year working in management for General Motors, he then attended the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Illinois. Matt joined the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in 1989. His practice included both litigation and corporate (primarily in private equity). Matt has worked with several Chicago based companies in his career including as Deputy General Counsel of Brunswick Corporation and General Counsel of Brunswick New Technologies, Inc. Matt has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Potbelly Sandwich Works since January 2007.

 

Frank Steeves is the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Emerson Electric Co., a 140,000 employee Saint Louis based Fortune 100 Company. As such, he is responsible for all legal operations of Emerson’s more than 1000 legal entities in more than 150 countries.

Frank is a graduate of Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee and joined Emerson 4 years ago from the Milwaukee law firm of von Briesen and Roper, where he was Chairman of its Litigation Practice Group. Emerson had been a client of Frank’s for more than 15 years.

Frank has been a guest lecturer at many of the Nation’s leading law and engineering schools, a Special Master in the Federal Courts, a member of Best Lawyers in America, has received the highest Martindale and Hubble ratings for the past 20 years and has appeared on behalf of clients in most of the State Courts, Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals and in the U.S. Supreme Court.  He also has managed cases in the UK Court of Appeal and and in the House of Lords in London – which is the Highest judicial body in the United Kingdom.

Frank also founded and chaired, until he moved to Saint Louis, one of the largest new children’s museums in the United States, Discovery World, on Milwaukee’s lakefront. He is currently on the Executive Committee of the Missouri Historical Museum and serves as the representative of the State of Missouri for the Midwest High Speed Rail initiative.

 

Shabbir Wakhariya is a partner in the firm’s New York office and founding member of an independent law firm in India with whom the firm is affiliated.  Mr. Wakhariya’s practice has a dual focus – New York and India.  In New York, he advises clients on commercial litigation and international arbitration.  In India, he advises clients on commercial litigation, arbitration, investment regulations, telecommunication laws and regulations and corporate compliance.

Mr. Wakhariya has represented companies in the fields of pharmaceuticals and vaccines, telecommunications and IT, media and entertainment, hospitality, financial services, metals and mining, civil aviation and aerospace.

Bar Admissions
New York, 1992
India, 1993
England and Wales, 1997

Education
Duke University School of Law, U.S.A.
LL.M, 1991
Government Law College
University of Bombay, India
LL.B, 1990
St. Xavier’s College
University of Bombay, India
B.A., 1987

 

Stephen D. Whetstone, Esq., is Vice President and Leader of Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions (PBLS), which is comprised of on-site, near-site and off-site facilities management (FM) and legal discovery services, a/k/a “Best Site.” Pitney Bowes has been a leading managed services provider to law firms, corporations and government agencies across the U.S. for more than 25 years and also has broad capabilities and deep expertise in complex electronic discovery and traditional litigation support services. Stephen is responsible for all facets of PBLS' business and oversees 1500+ employees who work hand-in-hand each day with PBLS clients.

Prior to joining Pitney Bowes in 2011, Stephen was the General Manager of Iron Mountain Legal Discovery (f/k/a Stratify), a leading cloud-based eDiscovery technology and service provider. Before joining Stratify in 2005, Stephen was an equity partner and litigator at Testa Hurwitz, where for 11 years he represented clients in securities class actions, government and internal investigations, patent and intellectual property matters, and other complex commercial litigation that often turned on analyzing large volumes of electronic and hard copy data. Before joining Testa in 1994, Stephen was a litigator at Skadden, where he spent significant time managing electronic and hard copy document review. Prior to Skadden, Stephen spent several years working in the political arena and with the media, including as former Chief-of-Staff for Massachusetts State Senator (now Congressman) John W. Olver. Stephen has written several papers on legal discovery and technology developments and best practices, which have appeared in, inter alia, the National Law Journal, Legal Times, IP Litigator, Inside Counsel, Privacy Law Journal, and many other prominent publications. Stephen is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and CLE programs on legal discovery developments and best practices. Stephen has a B.A. from Bates College and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

 

Timothy Wilkins is a corporate partner in the New York office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Tim has extensive experience representing European, Asian and US corporations on cross-border mergers & acquisitions.  A Chambers Global highly recommended lawyer in M&A in Japan, Tim has 11 years' experience working in Tokyo as an investment banker and lawyer.  Tim is a founding member of the firm's Global Diversity Committee.  Tim’s recent transactional experience includes advising Zhejiang Geely Holding Group on its purchase of Volvo Car Corporation from Ford Motor Company for $1.8 billion (Atlas M&A Deal of the Year $1-5 Billion) and Solvay on its $7 billion sale of its pharmaceuticals business to Abbott Laboratories.  Tim serves as the Chair of the Steering Committee of The Opportunity Agenda and on the Boards of the Dalton School, Peer Health Exchange and Practicing Attorneys for Law School Students (PALS).  He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College in Sociology and has a JD/MBA from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. 

 

Benjamin Wilner is a litigation services director inGrant Thornton’s advisory practice in Chicago. He has twenty years of advisory, valuation, and general economic & financial services experienceas a consultant, academic & testifier. Dr. Wilner is a Ph.D. economist who has been qualified as aexpert witness at arbitration and in federal and state court on financial, economic & statistical issues. His experience encompasses a broad range of industries and has been performed for numerous purposes including antitrust litigation, bankruptcy and reorganizations, business valuations, creditworthiness assessments, intellectual property disputes & valuations, labor, mergers & acquisitions, personal injuries, securities litigations, statistics, and other corporate and litigation related-matters. Dr. Wilner has served as an expert witness in arbitration, Federaand state court. He also served as an advisor to the United States Department of Defense on competition matters. Dr. Wilner was the recipient of multiple teaching & academic awards, and was a research assistant for a Nobel Prize winning economist. His research has been published and cited in top-tier refereed journals, by governmental agencies (including the National Science Foundation), and in the academic and popular press.

 

Speaker bio to come...