The Future of Analytical Strategies

Thomas Barnett is Special Counsel, Chief, Data Science, Analysis & Investigation at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Mr. Barnett is a widely-recognized eDiscovery expert and experienced litigator. He assists global corporations, law firms, and governmental entities with process and technology development and improvement in eDiscovery, document review, and information governance programs. Mr. Barnett frequently serves as a consulting and testifying expert on all aspects of eDiscovery, information and data management, and regulatory compliance issues in large complex litigation and enforcement matters. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the areas of advanced data analytics, predictive coding, and technology-assisted review.

As an industry innovator and entrepreneur, Mr. Barnett has helped found and lead transformative companies in the eDiscovery industry, created and implemented new service and product offerings related to optimizing legal review, eDiscovery, regulatory response, and litigation preparedness; he led a multi-country R&D effort that designed and brought to market one of the industry’s first predictive coding legal review solutions. Mr. Barnett was the founding member and senior executive in charge of the eDiscovery division of the largest business process outsourcing company in Asia. This company was an innovator in the area of complex analytical and conceptual data processing as well as predictive and iterative document review technology. His academic white papers on data analytics and machine learning are cited numerous times throughout the landmark 2012 Rand study, Where the Money Goes: Understanding Litigant Expenditures for Producing Electronic Discovery.

Mr. Barnett served as Special Counsel in the litigation department of another global law firm where he founded, created, and led the firm’s Electronic Discovery & Compliance Department. In that capacity, he built the team, developed and documented best practices, and oversaw the firm’s first-of-its kind practice. He also served as a consulting expert on client matters involving electronic data in civil discovery, regulatory and criminal enforcement, and internal investigations.

Mr. Barnett led a 75-person global consulting team for a major storage and information management company that designed and implemented records and information management programs and policies for public and private companies and governmental entities. The group also managed complex international eDiscovery matters involving civil litigation, regulatory, and criminal enforcement actions.

Mr. Barnett was an original co-author and a member of the editorial board of the influential treatise, The Sedona Conference Principles on Electronic Document Production. He was an original member and continues to serve on the Board of Editors of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project; he previously served on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Law Center Advanced eDiscovery Institute and was a Co-chair of the E-Discovery Certification Committee, the BNA E-Discovery Expert Witness Directory Committee, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution.

Kathleen McConnell is Senior Counsel in the eDiscovery and Information Governance group at Seyfarth Shaw. Her practice focuses on issues associated with electronic discovery, data analytics, information governance, and data privacy. She regularly assists clients by developing cost-effective strategies for the preservation, collection, review, and production of electronically stored information, including for cross-border matters. In addition, she focuses on leveraging data analytics and visualization for litigation and labor & employment matters. Her team’s expertise in rapidly developing statistical software for litigation and client counseling allows them to process large volumes of data, respond to changing needs with speed and accuracy, and identify and provide important information that would otherwise be too labor intensive or time-consuming to discover. Their ability in this area regularly enables them to undermine claims and debunk theories of liability, thereby aiding in mediations and settlement negotiations, as well as provides the capacity to construct damages analyses based on reasonable and well-founded assessments of potential exposure.