Best Practices for Managing eDiscovery in Office 365

Rachi cofounded Altorney in 2022. Previously, Rachi worked as a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft in their Corporate, External, & Legal Affairs department. In that role, he managed and promoted the use of advanced technology solutions for the eDiscovery team.

Before joining CELA he spent four years working in the Office 365 Information Protection product group, helping to create and build eDiscovery, Data Governance, and Compliance features. He is an advisory board member of ACEDS and EDRM. Prior roles include being part of the Equivio management team, the founding team at DiscoverReady, and managing eDiscovery at RLS. He got his start in the industry at Merrill Corporation. Rachi is based out of Israel and enjoys hosting a bi-weekly video chat series on the eDiscovery Channel on YouTube.

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.

Chris is the Head of Global eDiscovery, Digital Forensics, and Incident Response Technology for Juniper Networks based out of Silicon Valley. As a leading innovator in the eDiscovery technology space, he is well known for developing custom defensible solutions to execute on large scale discovery requests and federal investigations for Fortune 100 companies. As a Forensic Expert, Chris has assisted Federal and Local Government, as well as many private law firms with their cases. His consulting and expert witness testimony has led to convictions and settlements in numerous cases involving disputes over digital evidence and electronic data. He has recently completed the development of an entirely cloud based eDiscovery and forensic environment which spans the entire EDRM, can process over 1,000,000 emails a minute, and is in compliance with all international data privacy laws.

Michelle Spak is Associate General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel for Duke Energy Corporation. Ms. Spak manages all litigation for Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC, the regulated electric utility in North and South Carolina, including tort, employment, environmental and commercial litigation, and is also routinely involved in complex litigation involving Duke Energy Corporation. As part of her litigation practice, Ms. Spak has led e-discovery projects of all sizes and used various forms of technology to expedite the e-discovery process at lowest costs. Ms. Spak has spoken at e-discovery conferences across the country on the role of in-house counsel in managing e-discovery costs and on the use of technology to lessens the burdens of e-discovery.

Before joining Duke Energy, Ms. Spak was an attorney at Vinson & Elkins LLP in Dallas, Texas, specializing in complex commercial litigation, and served as a law clerk for Judge Michael W. McConnell on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Spak is a member of Texas Bar and North Carolina Bar, and serves on the Board of the Augustine Literacy Project and Northwestern University Alumni Association.

Allan D. Johnson is a Senior Attorney in the Commercial Litigation Section of the Law Department at Southern California Edison Company (“SCE”). Allan serves on SCE’s eDiscovery Support Team, which consults with and assists SCE personnel and outside counsel in matters involving electronic discovery. Allan also conducts training for SCE personnel regarding e-discovery best practices and procedures. Before joining SCE, Allan was a member of the Electronic Discovery & Document Retention Practice at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Allan has authored several e-discovery articles, including California Enacts Electronic Discovery Rules: New Electronic Discovery Act Brings State Practice in Line With Federal Law, BNA’s Digital Discovery & E-Evidence Report (August 2009). Allan is co-author of the practice guide Electronic Discovery Practice Under the Federal Rules (BNA 3rd ed. 2010). Allan is an Adjunct Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and is a regular guest speaker on e-discovery issues in law school courses and continuing legal education seminars.