David C. Shonka is a partner at Redgrave LLP in Washington, DC.  With his outstanding record as a trial and appellate litigator and legal strategist, David is considered a thought leader in the broader legal community.  His practice focuses on all things Information Law including privacy, security, eDiscovery, cross border data transfers, government civil law enforcement investigations, and information governance.  Prior to joining Redgrave LLP, David served three terms as the Acting General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and ten years as the agency’s Principal Deputy General Counsel.  In both roles, he oversaw the Office’s Litigation, Legal Counsel, and Opinions and Analysis Groups, as well as FOIA, Employment Law, and Energy Counsel Staff.  David is currently a member of the Sedona Conference® Working Group on Data Security and Privacy Liability (WG11), serves on the Steering Committee for International Electronic Information Management, Discovery and Disclosure (WG6), and is a former member of the Steering Committee for Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1).

“Working for consumers and investors who have suffered a financial loss or wrong has been very appealing to me.  Doing what I can to rectify some of the inequities in the lives of individuals or groups of people is gratifying, particularly in very large, complex cases.  .  .  .   I also enjoy cases that are not just about the recovery of monies lost but that also play a role in changing practices that companies engage in that are unfair to consumers and investors.” —Ariana J. Tadler, Lawdragon 500

In the often opaque and self-interested world of corporate decision-making, Ariana J. Tadler is an antidote—a “leading light” helping individual consumers and institutional investors expose corporate misconduct and secure multimillion- and multibillion-dollar recoveries.  A nationally recognized member of the plaintiffs’ bar, Ariana has 20+ years of experience litigating and managing the full spectrum of complex securities and consumer class actions, including high-profile, fast–paced cases.

Ariana is also renowned for being one of the nation’s leading authorities on electronic discovery in plaintiffs’ litigation—an area she and Milberg helped pioneer.  She chairs Milberg’s E-Discovery Practice Group, has authored numerous publications on E-Discovery, and is regularly invited to speak on a variety of litigation- and discovery–related topics to educate the bench and bar.  Ariana is actively involved in the development of the law and best practices, including amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and various pilot programs. 

An AV® Preeminent rated (Martindale Hubbell’s highest rating) lawyer, Ariana has been recognized by several prominent legal industry rating organizations, including 2014 Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as “a leading light in the plaintiffs’ Bar” and a “fearless and tenacious” advocate who wins praise for her in-depth e-discovery knowledge and efficient approach.   Clients also praise her ability to “navigate all the e-discovery issues.”  For four years in a row, Lawdragon included her in its select list of 500 Leading Lawyers in America, describing her as “one of the nation’s most talented plaintiff-side securities litigators” and crediting her with building Milberg’s “team of lawyers and technologists armed with the necessary hardware and software to provide a solid and reliable service.” Benchmark Litigation has also included her in its 2014 Top 250 Women Litigators in the U.S. and she was named in Super Lawyers 2014 “Top 50: Women Lawyers” in the New York Metro-area.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

• Steering Committee, In re Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation. Representing consumers in a class action accusing Target Corp. of failing to protect customers from a massive data breach during the holiday shopping season.
• Interim Lead Counsel, Frito-Lay North America, Inc. “All Natural” Litigation, In re ConAgra Foods, Inc., Bevans v. General Mills, Inc., and In re Kellogg v. General Mills.Representing classes of consumers in a series of cases involving the alleged misrepresentation of GMO food products as “all natural”; the cases involve front-line legal issues, cutting-edge discovery negotiations and complex disputes and motions.
• Lead Counsel, Ener1 v. PricewaterhouseCoopers. Recently represented an alternative energy company in its claims of negligence against one of the Big 4 accounting firms.Case settled on confidential terms.
• Co-lead Counsel, Ironworkers District Council of Philadelphia & Vicinity Retirement & Pension Plan v. Andreotti. Representing a pension fund in a stockholder derivative action brought on behalf of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company seeking relief due to the former and present members of DuPont’s board of directors’ and executive officers’ breaches of fiduciary duties, misrepresentations, and corporate waste relating to its infringement of Monsanto’s patent, which resulted in a trial and $1 billion judgment and involved an order for sanctions.
• Special Discovery Counsel, Republic of Colombia, et al. v. Diageo North America, Inc. Represented the government of Colombia, serving as Special Discovery Counsel, in its pursuit of claims alleging smuggling and illegal sales of alcohol by several international companies for violation of United States RICO statutes and other common law claims.Engagement encompassed identifying relevant information responsive to defendants’ requests, confirming and guiding preservation practices, and interviewing and collecting data from more than 100 custodians in 23 Colombian Departments (Colombia’s equivalent to our States in the U.S.).Team also reviewed and produced data in the ongoing litigation, and was tasked with ensuring compliance with the various privacy laws of Colombia and the United States with regard to personal data, controlled data and the transfer of sensitive information -- all hot topics in the area of E-Discovery today.
• Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel (court-appointed), Lead Counsel and Executive Committee Member, Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation. Represented investors in 300+ securities class actions alleging a market manipulation scheme involving hundreds of initial public offerings and 55 prominent defendant investment banks.Through aggressive litigation, plaintiffs’ counsel obtained a settlement totaling $586 million.This case is notable for the unique strategies that were employed to manage this mammoth litigation.Milberg was at the forefront of dealing with complex discovery issues and crafted innovative tools to streamline the process.As a member of the court-appointed Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and as a court-appointed liaison counsel, Ms. Tadler oversaw the efforts of approximately 60 plaintiffs’ firms in combating some of the most well-respected defense firms in the nation.The case was so large and included such extensive discovery that it required its own off-site headquarters, including approximately 100 personnel from various firms dedicated solely to the prosecution of the matter and supervised and managed, in substantial part, by Milberg personnel.
• Lead Counsel, In re MicroStrategy Securities Litigation, one of three cases litigated in the Eastern District of Virginia (a/k/a the “Rocket Docket”) in less than four years. Negotiated settlements valued at more than $150 million.

HONORS & RECOGNITIONS

• ALM:Women Leaders in the Law (2014)
• AVENUE Insider Legal Elite New York City’s Top Women Securities Law Attorneys (2011-2012)
• Benchmark Litigation:Star (2015-2016)
• Benchmark Plaintiffs’ Litigation: New York Litigation Star (2011-2014)
• Benchmark Top 250 Women Litigator (2014)
• Chambers Global Guide:Leading Lawyers in E-Discovery (2015)
• Chambers USA 2015:Nationwide, Litigation: E-Discovery (2015)
• Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2014)
• Development School for Youth Honoree (2013)
• Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America
• Lawdragon 500 (2009-13)
• Manhasset Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2008)
• Martindale Hubbell AV^® Preeminent (highest rating)
• MFY, Partners in Justice Award (2010)
• Super Lawyers (2010-15)
• Super Lawyers “Top 50 Women Attorneys in New York Metro Area” (2014-2015)
• Super Lawyers “Top 100 Overall Lawyer in New York City” (2015)
• The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation (2012)
• Women's Venture Fund Highest Leaf Award (2011)

PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC ENGAGEMENTS

• American Association for Justice, Member
• American Bar Association, Member
• American Bar Foundation, Fellow
• Bloomberg BNA, eDiscovery Board of Advisors
• Cardozo Data Law Initiative, Executive Director
• Federal Bar Council, Member
• Fordham Law Small to Midsize Law Firm Advisory Council
• Georgetown University Law Center Advanced E-Discovery Institute, Advisory Board and Planning Committee Member
• MFY Legal Services Inc., Board Member and Past Chair (2008-2010)
• Milberg Client Development and Marketing Committees, Chair
• Milberg Hiring, Diversity, Technology, and Women’s Committees, Member
• National Association of Consumer Advocates, Working Member
• National Association of Women Lawyers, Member
• New York County Lawyers Association, Member
• New York State Bar Association, Member
• New York Women’s Bar Association, Member
• Seventh Circuit, Electronic Discovery Pilot Program
• Southern District of New York, Advisory Committee of the Judicial Improvements Committee
• The New York Inn of Court, Vice President
• The Sedona Conference^® (the leading “think-tank” on e-discovery), Board of Directors; Chair Emeritus (and Past Chair, 2007-2012), Steering Committee for Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production
• WomenToKnow, Advisory Board

Education:

B.A., Hamilton College, 1989

J.D., Fordham University School of Law, 1992

Admitted:

New Jersey, 1992

New York, 1993

“A leading light in the plaintiff’s Bar”
—Chambers USA 2014

Ignatius Grande is Senior Discovery Attorney at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP. In his role at Hughes Hubbard, Mr. Grande advises case teams and clients on how to best leverage the latest technologies and e-discovery practices to efficiently guide matters from initial document preservation and collection through to review and production. By putting strategic processes in place, he helps clients manage their e-discovery obligations in the most efficient and cost effective manner. Mr. Grande also advises clients on the management of their social media presence and in the preservation and collection of social media information. Mr. Grande has represented companies in all areas of electronic discovery and information management, including advising clients on document retention policies, methods of collection, and representing clients at 26(f) conferences and in e-discovery court hearings.

Mr. Grande graduated from Yale College in 1996 and Georgetown University Law Center in 1999. He previously served as in-house counsel for a commodities company and as an e-discovery consultant for a national e-discovery vendor. Mr. Grande also worked for several years with another major international law firm. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable James M. Munley of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Grande is a frequent writer and speaker on topics relating to e-discovery and social media. He is an adjunct professor at St. John’s Law School, where he teaches a course on e-discovery. He serves as co-chair of the Social Media Law Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Commercial & Federal Litigation Section and serves on the Executive Committee of NYSBA’s Commercial & Federal Litigation Section. He also is a member of The Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production and a member of the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association Compliance & Legal Society.

Jeane A. Thomas is chair of the firm's E-Discovery & Information Management Group and a partner in Crowell & Moring's Antitrust Group.

In her role with the E-Discovery practice, Ms. Thomas has managed many types of E-Discovery matters in both government investigations and civil litigation. She regularly counsels clients on Information Governance, including the development and application of effective information management policies, legal hold practices, and E-Discovery response plans. Ms. Thomas is a participating member of The Sedona Conference Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production and Working Group 6 on International Electronic Information Management, Discovery and Disclosure. She is also a member of the Advisory Board and Faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center Advanced Institute for E-Discovery. She regularly speaks and writes on U.S. and transnational E-Discovery issues, and is a certified Information Privacy Professional, with a focus on European regulation (CIPP/E).

Ms. Thomas is engaged in all types of antitrust representations, including mergers and joint ventures, class and other civil litigation, and civil and criminal government investigations. She also counsels clients on a broad range of antitrust issues, including intellectual property and licensing issues, trade association law, the Hart Scott Rodino Act, and pricing and distribution issues. She has focused extensively on the agricultural, telecommunications, technology, chemicals and healthcare/pharmaceuticals industries.

Currently, Ms. Thomas is involved in counseling clients on a broad range of merger control and joint venture issues. These representations include major transactions in the agricultural, biotechnology, telecommunications and chemicals, industries. She recently advised DuPont in the proposed acquisition of Pannar Seed by Pioneer in South Africa, which was ultimately approved by South Africa's Competition Appeal Court and the Supreme Court of South Africa.She played a principal role in Cingular Wireless' acquisition of AT&T Wireless, SBC's acquisition of AT&T, and AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.

Throughout her career, Ms. Thomas has always maintained an active docket of pro bonorepresentations. In the past, she has litigated post-conviction death penalty cases in Texas and Virginia in state and federal courts, and she currently represents individuals in post-conviction proceedings in Mississippi and Florida.

Ms. Thomas has been recognized by clients and peers as a top lawyer in Chambers USA in Antitrust, and in Chambers USA and Chambers Global in E-Discovery.

Jed S. Rakoff has served since March 1996 as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.  He frequently sits by designation on the 2^nd and 9^th Circuit Courts of Appeals.  His most noteworthy decisions have been in the areas of securities law and criminal law. He is an Adjunct Professor at both Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, and also teaches at Berkeley Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. He has written over 170 published articles, 750 speeches, and 1800 judicial opinions, and has co-authored 5 books.  He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, and the author of Why The Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free, and Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2021).

Judge Rakoff holds a B.A. degree from Swarthmore College (1964), an M.Phil. degree from Oxford University (Balliol, 1966), and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School (1969).  He clerked for Hon. Abraham L. Freedman, US Court of Appeals, 3d  Circuit. From 1973-80, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, the last two years as Chief of Business Fraud Prosecutions.  From 1980-95, he was a litigation partner at two large law firms in New York.

Judge Rakoff served on the National Commission on Forensic Science (2013-17) and as co-chair of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Eyewitness Identification.  He served on the New York City Bar Association’s Executive Committee and was chair of the Association’s Nomination, Honors and Criminal Law Committees. He was Chair of the Second Circuit’s Bankruptcy Committee, and of the Southern District of New York’s Grievance Committee and Criminal Justice Advisory Board.  He served on Swarthmore College’s Board of Managers, on the Governance Board of the MacArthur Foundation’s Project on Law and Neuroscience, and on the Committee on the Development of the 3^rd Edition of the Manual on Scientific Evidence.  He assisted the U.S. Government in the training of foreign judges in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia, Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey.  He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. He is a Judicial Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.  He is a member of the board of the Touro Synagogue Foundation and of the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation.  Among other awards, he received in 2018 the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence.

Judge Rakoff is married to Dr. Ann Rakoff, a child development specialist.  They have three daughters and two grandsons.  Judge Rakoff has officiated at over 70 weddings.  He is the author of numerous lyrics and humorous poems, several of which have been published. His and his wife’s hobby is ballroom dancing.  In 2014, Judge Rakoff was listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.

Manfred Gabriel is an attorney in Holland & Knight's New York office who leads the firm's Legal Support Services organization. In this role, Mr. Gabriel oversees Holland & Knight's comprehensive and integrated eDiscovery and fact-finding unit, which assists clients in managing the risks and costs of eDiscovery by leveraging advanced technology and workflows. In addition, he provides clients with a wide range of services from enterprise-level eDiscovery management to delivery on large, complex eDiscovery projects. He has assisted clients in:

• responding to litigation eDiscovery requests, including data identification and collection, data processing and hosting, and structuring document reviews, quality control and document productions
• advanced eDiscovery workflows, with a particular focus on technology-assisted review or predictive coding,
• statistical sampling and statistical process control, as well as streamlining and integrating the various aspects of complex eDiscovery projects
• data privacy and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), especially for international companies active in the U.S.
• litigation readiness, litigation holds and data preservation
• sophisticated fact development to minimize the risk in litigation while strengthening the client's case

As an antitrust attorney, Mr. Gabriel has successfully assisted clients in responding to large, fast-paced regulatory requests. He has worked with Fortune 1000 companies in several industries, including high-tech, transportation, pharmaceuticals and financial services. Mr. Gabriel has testified as a 30(b)(6) witness on eDiscovery process and data spoliation issues.

In addition, Mr. Gabriel teaches eDiscovery at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Gabriel led the managed-review offering for a multinational professional services network. In addition, he led global engagements (including time in India to lead a team of 70) in eDiscovery, contract intelligence and litigation readiness. Mr. Gabriel also consulted on data privacy and cross-border discovery, including GDPR and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

Valerie A. Szczepanik is Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation and an Associate Director for the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Before that, she served as Assistant Director in the Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit.  She is Head of the SEC’s Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group, Co-Head of its Dark Web Working Group, and a member of its FinTech Working Group.  Ms. Szczepanik served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.  She clerked for federal judges on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and, prior to clerking, practiced patent law.  Ms. Szczepanik received her JD from Georgetown University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Christine Ryall is a Chief Trial Attorney with the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C.  Since joining the CFTC in March 2000, Ms. Ryall has conducted and supervised numerous investigations of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission Regulations and represents the CFTC in enforcement actions in federal district courts throughout the U.S.  Prior to joining the CFTC, Ms. Ryall served as a Senior Counsel with the Florida Real Estate Commission in Orlando, Florida, handling administrative evidentiary hearings and proceedings before state appellate courts.  Ms. Ryall also served as an Assistant Public Defender with the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida in Tallahassee, Florida, as first-chair in numerous jury and bench trials, hearings, and appeals in a variety of criminal cases.  Ms. Ryall holds a J.D. from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from Clemson University.

Deborah Morris serves as Deputy Enforcement Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where she oversees attorneys handling investigations, litigation, and exam support. Prior to joining the Bureau in June 2011, she served as Counsel to the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics, where she led high-profile congressional investigations and disciplinary proceedings. She previously served in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, where she worked primarily on civil tax and bankruptcy cases, including complex tax shelter litigation and Chapter 11 reorganizations. She also served as a judicial law clerk following her graduation from Notre Dame Law School.

Ronald J. Hedges, J.D., is a Senior Counsel with Dentons US LLP. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey from 1986 to 2007. Mr. Hedges is a frequent writer and speaker on various topics related to, among other things, electronic information and is the lead author of Managing Discovery of Electronic Information: A Pocket Guide for Judges, Third Edition (Federal Judicial Center: 2017), https://www.fjc.gov/content/323370/managing-discovery-electronic-information-third-edition. He is also the Co-Senior Editor of The Sedona Conference Cooperation Proclamation:  Resources for the Judiciary, Third Edition, https://thesedonaconference.org/sites/default/files/Judicial%20Resources%20publication%20announcement.pdf. His full biography is available at https://www.dentons.com/en/ronald-hedges.

Maura R. Grossman is a Research Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, as well as an eDiscovery attorney and consultant in New York. Previously, Maura was of counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where for 17 years, she represented Fortune 100 companies and major financial services institutions in corporate and securities litigation, including civil actions and white collar criminal and regulatory investigations, and advised lawyers and clients on legal, technical, and strategic issues involving eDiscovery and information governance, both domestically and abroad.

Maura is a well-known and influential eDiscovery lawyer.  She is described in Who’s Who Litigation 2015 E-Discovery Analysis as “‘sensational’ according to her peers and . . . a ‘go-to’ in the area.”  Chambers & Partners USA 2015 Litigation:  E-Discovery described her as “the best-known person in the area of technology-assisted review; a superstar among superstars.”  Maura’s scholarly work on TAR, most notably, Technology-Assisted Review in E-Discovery Can Be More Effective and More Efficient Than Exhaustive Manual Review, published in the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology in 2011, has been widely cited in case law, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.  Her longstanding contributions to eDiscovery technology and process, including her multiple patents relating to TAR, were featured in the February 2016 issue of The American Lawyer.

Since 2010, Maura has served as co-chair of the eDiscovery Working Group advising the New York State Unified Court System. She has been a court-appointed special master, neutral/mediator, and eDiscovery expert to the court in multiple high-profile federal cases. Maura has provided eDiscovery training to federal and state court judges, by invitation of the court, and has testified, on several occasions, before the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules, at their invitation. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches courses on eDiscovery. Previously, Maura taught at Rutgers Law School–Newark and Pace Law School.

Since 2012, Maura has been a member of the Steering Committee of The Sedona Conference® Working Group 1 on Best Practices for Electronic Document Retention and Production. Since 2008, she has been involved in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Text Retrieval Conference (“TREC”); in 2010 and 2011, as coordinator of the Legal Track, and since 2015, as coordinator of the Total Recall Track. Maura serves on the Advisory Boards of Bloomberg BNA’s Digital Discovery & e-Evidence Report, the Georgetown University Law Center’s Advanced eDiscovery Institute, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law’s Cardozo Data Law Initiative, and the Annual Arizona State University (“ASU”)-Arkfeld eDiscovery and Digital Evidence Conference.

Maura graduated with an A.B., magna cum laude, from Brown University. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Clinical/School Psychology from the Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown, Maura served as Executive Notes and Comments Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.