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.

 

Alexander Arato is the Vice President and Associate General Counsel of CA, Inc. In that capacity, Mr. Arato is responsible for managing relationships with outside counsel as well as assisting the general counsel in formulating and implementing internal policies and strategies. He is also primarily responsible for CA, Inc.’s eDiscovery and overall records management policies and procedures. Further, Mr. Arato is primary counsel to two CA business units and has managed various M&A transactions.

Mr. Arato has also served as CA’s Managing Attorney and been responsible for managing aspects of CA’s trade secret, contract, employment and tort litigation in federal, state and bankruptcy courts.

Prior to joining CA, Mr. Arato was counsel to and associated with the firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe in Los Angeles, California, where he represented clients in complex trade secret, product liability, contract, tort and class actions before federal and state courts. Prior to that, Alex was associated with the firms of Weinhart & Riley and Manatt Phelps & Phillips.

Mr. Arato has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D, magna cum laude, from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.

 

Steve Bennett is executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of USAA.  He and his staff provide legal counsel to the management of the association and its subsidiary companies in all areas of operations.  He also is responsible for performing corporate secretarial duties, is USAA’s chief compliance officer and oversees government and industry relations which includes directing USAA’s governmental affairs and lobbying activities both in the states and in Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining USAA in 2003, Bennett was a private practice attorney in Columbus, Ohio.  Before that, he served as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Cardinal Health, Inc. a Fortune 25 company headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.  Before Cardinal Health, Bennett served as senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Banc One Corporation until its merger with First Chicago Corporation in 1998.

Bennett holds a juris doctor degree from the University of Kansas where he was associate editor of the Kansas Law Review.  He is also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he received his bachelor’s degree.  He is a member of the Texas and Ohio bar associations and is licensed to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States and a number of other courts.  He is a fellow of the American Bar Association, among others.

 

Daniel Connolly, managing partner of Bracewell & Giuliani’s New York office, is a seasoned trial and appellate attorney with a unique background that includes high-profile positions in New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s administration and significant business consulting experience in regulatory compliance and crisis management and recovery. Mr. Connolly’s practice focuses on representing clients in such diverse industries as banking and pharmaceuticals in a wide spectrum of white collar defense and regulatory compliance investigations and related matters. He also litigates complex commercial cases.

In addition to representing clients in federal and New York State trial and appellate courts, Mr. Connolly regularly appears before numerous federal departments and agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, as well as various state investigatory and enforcement agencies.

Mr. Connolly began his legal career as a prosecutor in the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney, where he served for eight years. During his tenure as an Assistant District Attorney, Mr. Connolly tried more than 50 cases to verdict, including homicides and other complex criminal matters, and was involved in the prosecution of a number of controversial cases that garnered significant national attention, including the Tompkins Square riot case.

In 1995, Mr. Connolly was appointed General Counsel in the Office of the Criminal Justice Coordinator for the City of New York. In that position, Mr. Connolly participated in developing and defending the significant criminal justice reforms enacted by Mayor Giuliani.

In 1997, Mr. Connolly was appointed Special Counsel to the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, where he served on the Executive Staff of the nation's largest municipal law office. During his tenure as Special Counsel, Mr. Connolly successfully defended, both at trial and on appeal, a number of First Amendment and other constitutional and statutory challenges to the city’s law enforcement efforts, including litigation involving the Million Youth March and Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan v. Safir, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld an injunction sought by the city to bar members of the Ku Klux Klan from rallying with their faces shielded by masks. As Special Counsel, Mr. Connolly also was responsible for direct oversight of 40 lawyers defending the city in civil rights actions litigated before the federal courts in New York, and served as the office’s spokesperson.

Prior to joining Bracewell & Giuliani, Mr. Connolly was a partner at Giuliani Partners, a management consulting firm, where he assisted Fortune 100 companies in developing regulatory compliance programs, crisis management and recovery, and related matters.

Mr. Connolly is an experienced public speaker who has addressed both professional and business groups on such topics as criminal justice issues and regulatory compliance in the pharmaceutical industry. He also serves on the Criminal Justice Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and he is a member of the Board of Trustees of St. David’s School in New York City.

 

Elisa Cooper is Director of Product Marketing for MarkMonitor. With 15 years of experience, she is an expert in the field of online brand protection and domain name management. Elisa has worked closely with many Fortune 1000 companies in assisting with domain and brand protection policy development. She has spoken and written extensively on these topics with articles appearing in Managing IP, eCommerce Law and Policy, eCommerce Law and Strategy and CircleID and is an active member of ICANN’s Business Constituency, the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition and the Online Trust Alliance. She completed undergraduate and graduate studies at San Jose State University in the field of Communications.

 

David G. Curran joined IntraLinks in 2010 as Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, responsible for IntraLinks legal and compliance matters. Dave has held senior leadership positions with several global technology companies including Integrity Interactive Corporation, a provider of SaaS risk management solutions, where he was president and CEO. Previously, he was president and CEO of Data Communique, Inc. a subsidiary of Havas, the global communications and media giant, and group president of Vertis, Inc., a digital solutions and marketing firm. In addition, Dave has held senior legal and compliance positions at Campbell Soup Company and The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Curran began his law career at Satterlee Stephens Burke and Burke, a boutique law firm in New York.

 

Mark C. Darrell is General Counsel of The Laclede Group, Inc., and Senior Vice President and General Counsel of The Laclede Group’s largest subsidiary, Laclede Gas Company.  He is responsible for advising The Laclede Group’s Board of Directors and senior management on legal matters affecting The Laclede Group and its principal subsidiaries and supervises the legal affairs of The Laclede Group companies.  The legal, claims, industrial relations, corporate communications rate, and tariff administration functions of Laclede Gas Company all report to Mr. Darrell.      

Prior to joining The Laclede Group in May 2004, Mr. Darrell was Assistant General Counsel of NiSource, Inc., where he supervised the legal representation and support for NiSource’s supply chain function, the sales and marketing departments of NiSource’s 11 natural gas and electric local distribution companies, and its environmental, health and safety department.  He joined Columbia Energy Group (before being acquired by NiSource) in October 1997 as General Counsel, Assistant Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Columbia Energy Group’s Virginia gas distribution company, Columbia Gas of Virginia.  After NiSource acquired the Columbia Energy Group in November 2000, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Columbia Gas of Virginia for year following the acquisition.

He was with New Jersey Resources Corporation from 1992-97, last serving as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel.  Mr. Darrell was in private law practice in Washington, D.C. from 1987-92, primarily representing clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the District of Columbia Public Service Commission. From 1984 87, he was Counsel, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the American Gas Association and, from 1982-84, he was Attorney-Advisor for the United States Department of Energy.

Mr. Darrell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Syracuse University (1979) and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center (1982).  He is Vice Chair of the Gas Committee and Section Council Member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law, a member of the Executive Committee of the American Gas Association’s Legal Committee, a member of the Energy Bar Association, and serves on the advisory boards of the Corporate Counsel Institute at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C and the Financial Research Institute at the University of Missouri in Columbia Missouri.  He also serves on the boards of the Saint Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, United Way of Greater Saint Louis, Grace Hill Settlement House, Saint Louis Public Library Foundation and Life Skills Foundation.  He resides in Ladue, Missouri with his wife, Vivian, and his two children, Elizabeth and Matthew. 

 

D. Cameron Findlay is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Medtronic, Inc.  Medtronic is the world’s leading medical technology company, with $16 billion in annual revenue, 40,000 employees in 120 countries, and a Fortune-50 market capitalization.  As Medtronic’s chief legal officer and head of government affairs, Findlay  leads Medtronic’s 135-lawyer global legal department and its government relations department, and serves on the Medtronic Executive Committee as a senior member of the company’s management team. 

From 2003-09, Findlay was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Aon Corporation, the world’s largest insurance broker, with nearly $10 billion in annual revenues and 50,000 employees in 120 countries around the world.  Prior to that, Findlay served from 2001-03 as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, the number-two official and chief operating officer of a cabinet department with a $70 billion budget, 17,000 employees and operating agencies such as OSHA, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Wage & Hour Division, and the Employment Training Administration.  While in government, Findlay also served as the President’s appointee to the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

During the 1990s, Findlay was a partner at the global law firm Sidley Austin LLP, specializing in complex litigation for and advice to companies in the telecommunications and energy sectors and other heavily regulated industries.  Before that, he served at the White House during the administration of President George H.W. Bush as a senior official in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. 

Findlay served as a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1988-89 and for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1987-88.

Findlay is active with numerous civic and professional organizations.  Findlay serves on the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, chairs its Audit Committee, and serves on the Executive, Nominations, and Educational Properties Committees.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Orchestra, one of the world’s leading orchestras.  He is a full member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and Washington.  While in Chicago, he also served on the Boards of the Children’s Home and Aid Society (as Chair), the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. 

Findlay received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude and graduated first in his class from Northwestern University, his master’s degree with “First Class Honours” from Oxford University, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar, and his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Amy, a Harvard Law School classmate, and two teenage boys, Alexander and James.

 

Matt Geekie is Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel for Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical and communications products and related supply chain management and logistics services. A member of Graybar’s Board of Directors, Geekie leads the company’s legal department including risk management.

Some of Geekie’s primary legal functions at Graybar include real estate, sales, distribution and SEC matters. He also handles employment issues, contracts and adherence to federal acquisition regulations and Department of Defense contracting rules.

Geekie started his career as a trial lawyer at St. Louis firm Moser & Marsalek, next moving in-house to Siegel-Robert Inc. and later Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin (now Husch Blackwell Sanders). From there he was appointed to Assistant General Counsel at Emerson Electric, and then served as General Counsel and Secretary at XTRA Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

With more than 20 years of legal experience, Geekie is well versed in corporate law, commercial and securities law, Sarbanes Oxley, domestic and international ethics, intellectual property, product liability, export/import law and environmental law.

Geekie is a native of St. Louis, and received both his law degree and undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University. He and his wife, Karen, have three children.

 

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 Client Director at CPA Global, Vivek works with corporations and law firms to create, manage and deliver cost-effective on-shore, off-shore and multi-shore solutions to in-house legal departments in the areas of end-to-end e-discovery; litigation support, including document review, motions practice, and legal research; transactions support, including buyer and seller due diligence, and post-acquisition integration; and, contract management, including template drafting, contract review and analysis, and contract comparisons/summarization.

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.

 

Carrie J. Hightman is executive vice president and chief legal officer of NiSource Inc. Her responsibilities include all legal functions, as well as compliance, environmental, health and safety.  She serves as a member of the company's senior management team.

Prior to joining NiSource, Hightman served as President of AT&T Illinois (formerly SBC). In that position, she was responsible for all regulatory, legislative, governmental and external affairs activities, as well as community and industry relations, throughout Illinois. During her tenure at AT&T, Hightman led the company through a series of important public policy initiatives that helped AT&T evolve from a traditional telephone company into a provider of diversified communications and entertainment services.

Prior to joining AT&T, Hightman practiced telecommunications and energy law for more than 17 years. She was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Schiff Hardin, where she led its Energy, Telecommunications and Public Utilities practice group. Hightman is Vice Chair of the Telecommunications Committee of the Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law Section of the American Bar Association and past Chair of the Public Utility Law Section of the Chicago Bar Association.

Hightman began her career in the public sector in 1983, serving as Staff Counsel at the Florida Public Service Commission. In 1986, she served as associate counsel at the Florida Office of Public Counsel, handling a variety of public utility cases on behalf of consumers.

Hightman earned her B.A. from the University of Illinois and her juris doctor from Florida State University. Hightman serves as Chairwoman of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois State Universities Retirement System Board. She also serves on the boards of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Urban League and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.

Hightman is based at NiSource's headquarters in Merrillville, Indiana.

 

John H. Kahle is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Kimball International, Inc.

Kimball International, Inc., based in Jasper, Indiana, is a preeminent manufacturer of furniture, furniture components and electronic assemblies, serving customers around the world. The company manufactures and markets a broad range of products under the family of Kimball brand names, as well as manufactures components and products on a contract basis for a variety of industries globally.

Mr. Kahle joined Kimball in 1987 and was named Vice President and General Counsel in 1988. He was promoted to Executive Vice President in 1997 and in 2001, he was appointed Secretary.

Mr. Kahle's current responsibilities include oversight of the secretarial, legal, human resources, public and governmental relations, and facilities functions of Kimball International.

Prior to joining Kimball, Mr. Kahle was in private legal practice in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has experience as a CPA with national and regional accounting firms.

Mr. Kahle is a member of the American Corporate Counsel Association and a prior President of the Indiana Chapter. He is a past Chairman of the Corporate Counsel Section of the Indiana State Bar Association and the Indiana Manufacturers Association. He serves as a Director of the Dubois County, Indiana Area Development Corporation and is an appointed member of the Jasper Redevelopment Commission.

Mr. Kahle received a BS in Accounting from Indiana University and his JD from Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. He is also a CPA and CMA.

 

Joshua Kubicki is the Senior Director for Legal & Corporate Practices at Applied Discovery, a division of LexisNexis.  The Legal & Corporate Practices program supports the legal technology services industry’s continued change and growth by creating a dialogue with local and international commercial and private organizations to promote sound technology, information governance, and compliance practices.

Joshua is a legal process expert and engineer, an attorney licensed in the District of Columbia, and a regular speaker and writer.  With more than eleven years of experience within the legal services arena, Joshua’s expertise is legal project management, legal services unbundling and supply chain management, and the overall integration of business and technology with legal practice and process.  He regularly applies his process and technology skills to design and execute new workflow practices and departmental and project management. In short, he focuses on transforming legal services to better perform within today’s business climate by capturing costs and improving productivity.

Prior to joining Applied Discovery, Joshua held a variety of senior leadership positions with various businesses and operated his own strategic consulting shop serving the international legal market.  He regularly engaged Global 100 corporations and global law firms in preparing for and responding to various high-stakes legal events, such as Department of Justice and congressional investigations and complex multibillion-dollar litigation.  

Joshua actively participates in the Sedona Conference, where he recently cofounded an initiative examining the role of fully integrated information management and its potential ROI on an enterprise-wide scale. He also contributes to the Sedona Working Group on International Electronic Information Management.

In addition, Joshua is an Expert Contributor to the Legal Transformation Study. First published in early 2008, the study presents the findings of a group of industry insiders consisting of practitioners, experts, and academics tasked with examining potential scenarios for the legal profession in the year 2020. This ongoing study continues to track and examine the industry and market trends affecting the legal profession.

 

Nikhil Lala is a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting and part of Deloitte’s Strategy & Operations Practice, in the areas of business process outsourcing (F&A, Legal, Contact Center), IT (infrastructure and applications) service delivery planning and outsourcing, and mergers / acquisitions / divestitures (M&A).  Nikhil leads Deloitte Consulting’s Legal Process Outsourcing Advisory service offering.  He has 10+ years of consulting experience serving clients across multiple vertical industries.

Nikhil has extensive hands-on experience with advising on end-to-end outsourcing transactions from initial assessment to the transition and measurement period of an outsourcing journey.  He has also set up vendor governance models, built retained organization designs, and created transition roadmaps and  plans to facilitate successful transactions.

In Nikhil’s previous experience, he also worked closely with offshore modeling in India where he formulated strategies to grow the outsourcing (BPO), consulting (ADM), and managed services practices for business and IT solutions. This operational experience has provided a real world view of how outsourcing and other service delivery solutions must be planned, implemented and managed to achieve operating results and the realization of business benefit. Nikhil’s diverse experience includes work as a service provider designing solutions for clients and executing delivery of services.

 

Gene Landoe recently retired as president and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services (CLS). Landoe had executive oversight of CLS's day-to-day operations, which included running its five business units. Under Landoe's direction, CLS built on its renowned service foundation to transform into a legal technology solution and service leader. Landoe led CLS through a reorganization in early 2006 to further focus the company's business on customer workflows. In his seven years as president and CEO, Landoe has overseen CLS's evolution and growth into an end-to-end provider of legal workflow solutions spanning corporate compliance, corporate governance, lien management, litigation management and trademark and brand life cycle practice areas.

In his 37-year career with Wolters Kluwer companies, Landoe held many senior-level positions. His most recent prior to assuming the helm of CLS in 2001 was as president and CEO of CCH Tax Compliance, Torrance, Calif., the market-leading provider of tax and accounting software. Landoe holds a bachelor's degree from Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, Calif.; an MBA from Chapman University, Orange, Calif.; and a doctorate from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

 

John L. MacCarthy is Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of Nuveen Investments, Inc. and serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. Mr. MacCarthy joined Nuveen as Senior Vice President and General Counsel in March 2006. From 1985 to March 2006 he held various positions at the law firm Winston & Strawn LLP. Mr. MacCarthy was elected a partner of Winston & Strawn in 1993 and served as Chairman of the firm’s 250 lawyer Corporate Department and as member of the firm’s Executive Committee from 2001 to 2006. He is a member of the Illinois Bar since 1985 and holds a JD from Stanford Law School (1985) and a BA from Williams College (1982).

 

Thad Miller joined Calpine Corporation in 2008 as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, bringing almost 30 years of legal experience, the last 20 years in the energy industry. 

Mr. Miller began his legal career an associate and then as a partner in private practice in New York City, specializing in admiralty and commodities trading and representing financial institutions and others. 

In 1994, Mr. Miller joined Goldman Sachs & Co. as a Vice President and focused on energy commodity trading, including wholesale power. In 1999, he helped form and joined Orion Power Holdings Inc., an independent power producer backed by Goldman Sachs’ private equity arm, serving as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary and leading several asset and corporate acquisitions, the company’s IPO and ultimately the sale of the company in 2002.

In 2002, Mr. Miller became a full time consultant to TPG, a private equity firm, until 2004 when he helped TPG, KKR, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman acquire Texas Genco, Inc., where he then served as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until 2006 when he helped lead the sale of the company. From 2006 to 2008 he was a private investor.

Mr. Miller earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and his Juris Doctor from St. John's School of Law. He also served as an officer in the United States Coast Guard from 1973-1976.

 

Tim Moore has served for over eleven years as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE: PAA), a Fortune 100 master limited partnership.  PAA engages primarily in the transportation, storage and marketing of crude oil.  In 2000 and 2001, Mr. Moore was also Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Plains Resources Inc.  From 1995 to 2000, he served in various capacities, including Corporate General Counsel, for TransTexas Gas Corporation. Prior to that, he spent approximately four years as an associate attorney in the Corporate group of the Houston office of Weil Gotshal and Manges. 

Mr. Moore’s professional career began in the upstream segment of the energy business. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a B.S. in geology, and spent seven years as a petroleum geologist.  Motivated at that point to retool, Mr. Moore elected to pursue a legal degree from the University of Houston Law Center, where he garnered numerous scholastic awards and honors, including induction into the Order of the Coif, and served as Editor in Chief of the Houston Law Review.  He graduated summa cum laude in 1990, at the top of his class.  Mr. Moore resides with his family in Houston, Texas. 

 

Ganesh, co-founder of the world’s first legal outsourcing company, has ensured Mindcrest’s position as industry leader since its inception in 2001. Under his leadership, Mindcrest has become synonymous with quality and value to lawyers in the U.S. and Europe.

Throughout his career, Ganesh has acted as an advisor to several Fortune 500 companies in areas, such as market-entry strategies, capital raising activities, joint venture arrangements, strategic alliances and various commercial arrangements, including mergers and acquisitions. His vast cross-border experience and deep insight into international investment issues enabled him to guide U.S. and U.K. clients on investment propositions in India. His keen global legal acumen was instrumental in guiding numerous multi-nationals in making their entry into India.

Prior to Mindcrest, Ganesh was a partner and spearheaded the India practice at McGuire Woods LLP, an international law firm of 900 attorneys. It was there that Ganesh met George Hefferan, and together with Rohan Dalal and Teju Deshpande, they founded Mindcrest.

With his vast and varied experience, Ganesh has become a leading authority in the international legal industry, and has addressed many industry forums, bar associations and law schools internationally.

Ganesh has an MBA from Brigham Young University in Utah and a JD from Washington University in St. Louis. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Bombay and a graduate degree in management from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.

Ganesh brings 20 years of business and legal experience to Mindcrest.

 

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.

 

Jim Peck is Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Nypro Inc. Prior to joining Nypro in 1999, he served as senior counsel for several global corporations and was an attorney with a major Boston law firm. Jim graduated from Williams College and Harvard Law School. His areas of expertise include corporate, international law, human resources and intellectual property areas. Jim directs all legal responsibilities and staff globally for Nypro, with attorneys in the United States and Asia. He also oversees Corporate Communications and a Marketing Communications Team sharing specialists from Nypro Inc. and Nypro's Product Development company, Radius.  He sits on the board of various internal Nypro boards of directors. Jim also is on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is a Director of the International Business Council of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

With 17,000 employees, $1.2 billion in revenue and 45 locations in 16 countries, Nypro is the leading global precision plastics contract manufacturer.   It is one of the ten largest employee owned companies.  Nypro’s Corporate Mission is to “serve our customers with integrated, innovative and environmentally sound manufacturing solutions, built on Nypro’s global plastics leadership, creating value for our team members, communities and shareholders.”   The company is headquartered and was founded in Clinton, Massachusetts in 1955.

 

Tana Pool serves as vice president and general counsel of Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE: PWR). In her role as general counsel, she manages all aspects of the legal department and oversees all transactional, securities and corporate governance matters, as well as the ongoing legal, contracting and litigation issues faced by Quanta’s operating units. 

Prior to joining Quanta in 2006, Pool served as senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP from August 2004 to December 2005 and counsel at King & Spalding LLP from May 2001 to July 2004. She served as in-house counsel for two public companies actively involved in acquisitions from September 1996 to May 2001, and began her legal career in May 1992 with Andrews & Kurth LLP. 

Pool’s experience has been focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and compliance and other transactional matters.  Prior to earning her law degree, Pool spent seven years as a certified public accountant working in both public accounting and private industry. 

Pool graduated in 1982 summa cum laude from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting.  She earned her juris doctor in 1992 from the University of Houston Law Center and graduated summa cum laude.  She is a licensed certified public accountant in Texas. 

Quanta Services is a leading specialized contracting services company, delivering infrastructure solutions for the electric power, natural gas and pipeline and telecommunication industries. With approximately $4 billion in annual revenues, Quanta has the resources and expertise to complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope.

 

Mr. Posner joined BioScrip in March 1997 as General Counsel and Secretary.  During his tenure at BioScrip, he has had responsibility for various departments and areas including Business Development, including mergers & acquisitions, Human Resources and Investor Relations.  Prior to joining BioScrip, Mr. Posner was associated with the law firms of Finn, Dixon & Herling and Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Lehrer, practicing primarily in the areas of public and private corporate securities, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and real estate law.  He received his B.A. in Economics from Emory University in 1985 and J.D., cum laude, with various academic honors from Boston University School of Law.  Recipient of Corporate Board Member Magazine and Thompson Reuters 2011 “Top General Counsel to Watch” Award. 

 

Ira H. Raphaelson has been Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Scientific Games since February 2006.  He oversees the legal function of the company worldwide and serves as the principal legal advisor to the compliance function.  Ira practiced for almost thirty years before joining the Company – as a law firm partner for 13 years and as a state and federal prosecutor for 16 years before that.  In private practice, he represented some of the world’s largest companies and a number of prominent public officials and executives.  In government, he served in various prosecutor roles until 1991 when the first President Bush appointed and the Senate confirmed him to serve as Special Counsel for Financial Institutions within the Justice Department.    He has worked extensively on cross-border compliance issues including gaming for much of his career and is a nationally recognized author and lecturer on corporate governance and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

 

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.

 

With over twelve years of experience, Stewart has worked with numerous enterprise customers to design, deploy, and support email and file archiving solutions for regulatory compliance and eDiscovery objectives. As the Chief Technology Officer at Nuix, Stewart is responsible for evolving Nuix’s forensic technologies into a leading solution in the eDiscovery and corporate investigation markets. Stewart previously worked at ESI Strategies, the consulting division of RVM, was the Subject Matter Expert for Discovery and Archiving at CommVault and spent seven years at EMC enabling customers to build processes to effectively respond to electronic discovery requests. Stewart is a frequent speaker in both the legal and IT communities regarding the challenges of e-mail archiving, discovery and data management.

 

Andrew Tavi is vice president, legal and government affairs, and general counsel for Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA). Tavi's responsibilities include providing legal advice and counsel to the corporation on a broad range of corporate governance, business and financial transactions, litigation and legal compliance, as well as oversight of Nissan's government affairs activities. He was named to this position in August 2009.

Tavi joined NNA in June 2009 as assistant general counsel. Prior to that, he was chief executive officer and general counsel at Noble International Ltd., an automotive supplier based in Troy, Mich. He joined Noble in 2005 and his legal responsibilities included governance and compliance matters for North America, Asia and Europe, and oversight of all corporate commercial transactions, litigation and intellectual propery matters.

Previously, he worked at two blue-chip law firms where he focused on corporate law, commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions and real estate matters.

Tavi has bachelor of arts and doctor of jurisprudence from the University of Michigan.

 

C. Joël Van Over is a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.  She has a diverse background developed over 25 years of private practice representing a broad range of technology companies that do business with the federal government, acquire government contractors, or operate in regulated industries, including defense, healthcare, communications, manufacturing, computer technology and services and energy.  Her experience in intellectual property spans strategic planning and protection, licensing, and enforcement.  She represents clients as a first chair trial lawyer in business litigation, litigation with the U.S. government, and intellectual property.  Domestic, foreign  and multi-national clients look to Ms. Van Over in these and other areas, including contracts and due diligence matters and the evaluation of potential government contractor targets, internal investigations, compliance, and advice on the application of myriad statutes and regulations that impact businesses or require risk mitigation or dispute resolution strategies.

Ms. Van Over believes that understanding a client’s business and its strategic goals is critical to effective representation.  She particularly enjoys providing internal seminars and training that complement management strategy and contribute to re-enforcing corporate compliance, corporate culture and best practices.

Ms. Van Over is a Chambers ranked lawyer, her law degree, magna cum laude, is from Boston College Law School, her LLM in Intellectual Property is from George Washington University Law School. Her bio may be reviewed at www.pillsburylaw.com.

 

Speaker bio coming soon...

 

Speaker bio to come...

 

Robert J. (Bob) Zeitler is Vice President and General Counsel for Molex Incorporated, headquartered in Lisle Illinois.  Mr. Zeitler is responsible for all aspects of legal affairs globally for Molex Incorporated, including strategic direction of the legal function, ensuring maximum protection of the company’s legal rights, ensuring the company’s activities are in compliance with regulatory requirements, leveraging Molex’s vast intellectual property portfolio and management and development of legal department personnel.

Mr. Zeitler has held various positions of increasing responsibility within Molex’s legal department.  He joined Molex in 1998 as a Patent Counsel, was promoted to Associate General Counsel in 2002, Vice President and Co-General Counsel in 2007 and to his current position in 2008.  Prior to joining Molex, Mr. Zeitler was an Associate at the Chicago office of an international law firm.  Prior to attending law school, Mr. Zeitler spent eight years as an officer in the Unites States Air Force, where he held various technical, management and leadership positions relating to the military space program.

Mr. Zeitler holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University, a Master of Science degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University Chicago.

 

Steven E. Zipperstein is former vice president – legal and external affairs, general counsel and secretary for Verizon Wireless, responsible for the company’s legal, regulatory, compliance, and federal and state public policy matters.

Zipperstein has served as vice president and general counsel of Verizon Wireless since January 2004. Prior to that he was deputy general counsel for Verizon Communications from June 2000 through December 2003, and previously served as deputy general counsel for GTE Corporation.

Before joining GTE in 1997, Zipperstein served as Chief Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles and held a variety of positions at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. in both the first Bush and Clinton administrations.

Zipperstein also taught for several years as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He began his legal career with Hufstedler, Miller, Carlson & Beardsley in downtown Los Angeles in 1983.

Zipperstein earned his juris doctor degree from the University of California at Davis and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles.