No Data is Too Big - No Challenge is Too Great

James Sheppard is a Senior Litigation Attorney at Southwest Airlines and handles all facets of commercial litigation, ranging from class actions to aviation disputes to customer claims.

James also works closely with internal clients on technology-related litigation and cyber insurance issues. James and his team also manage the company’s e-discovery program and focus on best practices for collection, review and production while leveraging the most efficient review technology tools.

Before law school, James was a high school teacher and rowing coach in the Dallas area.

Matthew Gasaway is the Director and Senior Counsel for eDiscovery and Records Management at AbbVie. In this role, Matt is responsible for designing and implementing AbbVie’s eDiscovery processes, and provides advice to AbbVie’s Legal, Information Technology and Corporate Records groups regarding the company’s eDiscovery and record-keeping practices, both prior to and during litigation.

Matt graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1998, and earned his JD at the University of Iowa School of Law in 2001. After law school, Matt was a trial litigator in Chicago for eight years, initially practicing with the Chicago law firm of Peterson & Ross, and then with the law firm of Chittenden, Murday & Novotny. In 2009, Matt left private practice and became a Senior Counsel for the UnitedLex Corporation, focusing entirely on eDiscovery and Litigation Operations.

Matt joined AbbVie at the time of its spinoff from Abbott Laboratories in 2013. As the Director and Senior Counsel, Matt is responsible for all aspects of AbbVie’s eDiscovery efforts, overseeing its responses in active litigation and its ongoing management of legacy data.

Matt also works as an adjunct professor at the Northwestern Law School, teaching a course on eDiscovery and Litigation Operations in the Masters of Science and Law program.

James Sherer is a Partner in the New York office of BakerHostetler, where he co-chairs the Information Governance practice team and serves as part of the E-Discovery and Management and Privacy and Data Protection groups. James assists with oversight of discovery and Electronically Stored Information issues for firm clients. James is also tasked with “deep dive” technological and case law-related assignments for omnibus motions and case strategy. James’s work focuses on advising on merger & acquisition due diligence; information governance practices and policies for clients; and client corporate structure and business offerings regarding international data privacy requirements.

Prior to joining BakerHostetler, James worked as an in-house litigator with a Fortune 500 company and previously practiced litigation in New York. James holds the CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, and FIP data privacy credentials, the CIP and IGP designations, and the CEDS eDiscovery specialist credential.

James attended the University of Michigan, Central Michigan University for his MBA in finance, and Columbia Law School. James is a member of The Sedona Conference? Working Groups One, Six and Eleven and served on the Search, Achieving Quality, and Data Privacy and Security Drafting Teams. He is also a member of the New York State Bar Association EDiscovery Committee as well as the New York eDiscovery Counsel Roundtable. James writes, speaks, and lectures on ediscovery, information governance, privacy, investigation and merger and acquisition issues.

Ed Stelzer is Senior Vice President & Counsel and Head of Litigation at Zurich Financial Services, Centrally Managed Businesses. In that role, he is responsible for a wide array of litigations and investigation issues around the globe, including federal securities and antitrust class actions, complex financial products litigations and international arbitrations.

Prior to Zurich, Ed was associated with the firms of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. While in private practice, he represented public companies, boards of directors, senior executives, and creditors' committees in commercial transactions and disputes relating to mergers and acquisitions, securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, internal corporate investigations, white-collar actions and other securities and finance-related litigation and regulatory matters. Mr. Stelzer broke free from the law for a stint when he was head of business development at a high-growth wireless technology company in Silicon Alley.

After graduating summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, Mr. Stelzer received his J.D. with honors from the New York University School of Law where he served as Notes & Comments Editor for the NYU Law Review. Ed also was a law clerk to Justice Stewart Pollock on the New Jersey Supreme Court. Mr. Stelzer is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

As Special Counsel in Pillsbury’s Litigation practice, Rachelle possesses a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of technology, and has a proven track record of assisting clients in leveraging technology and process to reduce information management and discovery costs and risks.

Rachelle counsels clients on data and information technology issues— from data governance and disposition, litigation readiness and hold procedures, defensible document review methodologies and all aspects of eDiscovery, enabling technologies, and data privacy and security issues.

Rachelle received her JD at the Boston University School of Law in 1999.