eTera consulting

Under their leadership, eTERA Consulting has assembled an exceptional management team whose members have significant experience and proven track records in their respective disciplines.

The eTERA Consulting team is comprised of business and legal management professionals with years of legal industry experience across numerous functional areas necessary to understand client requirements and needs.  eTERA Consulting’s team members have extensive experience working with corporate legal departments and law firms on a wide variety of projects, cases, matters and strategic initiatives.  eTERA Consulting provides to its clients the subject matter experts required at each step of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).  eTERA Consulting’s EIA methodology provides clients with a solid foundation to plan and manage at the far left side of the EDRM.   

Scott Holec

Principal, President

Mr. Holec has more than 15 years of technology and project management experience involving legal document production. As president of eTERA Consulting, he frequently consults on large, complex litigation matters, with emphasis on smart processes using data sampling and other key data metrics. He regularly advises clients on all aspects of EIA and electronic discovery with a specific focus on getting the best results, namely return on investment (ROI), for his customers.

Mike Garner

Principal, Senior Executive Vice President

Mr. Garner has been consulting with clients on electronic discovery and paper production for more than 10 years.  As a previous business development consultant at Merrill Corporation and Capitol Legal, he was responsible for consulting with clients and managing large volume document requests.  Mr. Garner specializes in ITC/SEC matters and other government filings.  He has the unique experience necessary to provide guidance through the pitfalls of these complex proceedings.

Todd Haley

Vice President, e-Discovery

Before joining eTERA Consulting, Mr. Haley was the Chief Technology Officer at Spriggs & Hollingsworth, responsible for overseeing the firm’s litigation support and information technology department.  As Vice President of e-Discovery, Mr. Haley is responsible for managing eTERA Consulting’s electronic discovery specialists and the processes and procedures necessary to ensure the handling of all projects.  In addition, he confers regularly with lawyers, corporate counsel, litigation support directors and other legal staff to assist in their EIA and electronic discovery matters, with emphasis on joint defense groups, multi-district litigation and class actions in the areas of product liability, toxic tort, environmental, government contracts and white collar crime.

Bob Gillespie

Vice President, ESI Consulting

Mr. Gillespie was previously the Regional Operations Manager at Merrill Corporation overseeing offices in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Miami, and Director of Client Services at Capitol Legal in Washington, DC.  Mr. Gillespie served as Legal Assistant Coordinator at Ross, Dixon & Bell and legal assistant at four Washington, DC firms.  As Vice President of ESI Consulting, he is responsible for managing large second requests, electronic discovery and EIA matters and providing additional protocols to the electronic discovery processes.

Joe Kanka

Vice President, Corporate Development

In his role as Vice President of Corporate Development, Mr. Kanka serves as EIA Program Advisor and oversees contract staffing projects. Mr. Kanka has 30 years of management experience including 15 years managing corporate law departments, document review projects, litigation support centers, discovery sites, evidence libraries and trial war rooms.  Mr. Kanka has also developed systems for tracking asbestos claims, legislative and regulatory issues and trial witnesses and exhibits.  Throughout his career, Mr. Kanka has held key legal management positions with AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Steptoe & Johnson and managed legal staffing companies in Washington, DC.  Mr. Kanka also provides training programs in legal project management.

John Rubens

Managing Director, Corporate Analysis

In his role as Managing Director of Corporate Analysis, Mr. Rubens is responsible for assisting clients in taking proactive steps to manage the complex ESI landscape and effectively address their legal, compliance and regulatory requirements. With an extensive background in corporate analysis, including ESI indexing solutions, forensic analysis and acquisition, and Early Information Assessment^® methodologies, Mr. Rubens brings a diverse background in legal, information technology and corporate risk management.

During his career, Mr. Rubens has successfully managed the completion of hundreds of data acquisition, forensic analysis, and litigation consulting projects around the globe, including such matters as patent enforcement, bid rigging, computer fraud, IP theft, embezzlement, counterfeiting, trademark infringement, electronic discovery and stock scams.  He has extensive knowledge of large scale enterprise systems, software development processes and solutions, various operating systems and platforms, data backup and restoration software, and the use of forensic data acquisition and analysis technologies. Mr. Rubens is often involved in overseeing the creation of affidavits and support for court appearances related to the work of eTERA Consulting. 

Prior to joining eTERA Consulting, Mr. Rubens was the Managing Director of The Oliver Group, an international forensic analysis company. He has also served as a Managing Partner at Senjiva, LLC. 

Sam Morgan

Senior Discovery Consultant

Mr. Morgan has an extensive background in litigation support, electronic discovery and trial support. With over 10 years experience in the legal industry, his areas of expertise include product liability litigation; FTC, SEC, FCC investigations; antitrust and M&A. His experience spans the entire EDRM Model, from information identification through trial. Through this experience, Mr. Morgan has gained an incredible understanding of the litigation process, as well as a high aptitude for identifying and creating best practices that increase efficiency for law firms and corporate clients. Prior to joining eTERA, Mr. Morgan led the temporary staffing division for an international legal staffing firm. Prior to that, Mr. Morgan was a Senior Litigation Paralegal at Dechert LLP and Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in Philadelphia, PA.

Dawson West

Senior Discovery Consultant

Mr. West has spent the past 14 years of his career providing enterprise-wide software and SaaS based technology, computer forensic, eDiscovery and document review solutions to the AmLaw 250, Fortune 500 in-house counsel, CIOs and CTOs, and the judiciary. During the past eight years, Mr. West has focused solely on the eDiscovery vertical, holding positions with Index Engines, Guidance Software and Electronic Evidence Discovery. Prior to his focus on the eDiscovery market, Mr. West held positions with Thomson-West, LOISLAW and Knight Rider/IKON. Mr. West has in-depth knowledge of the EDRM model and leading technologies that drive each stage. His experience and expertise lies in consulting with clients on an individual case basis to develop and implement cost effective, efficient and defensible discovery strategies from information management through production. Mr. West is a founding member of the Atlanta area bDiscovery group and active member of the American Society of Digital Forensics and eDiscovery.

Alexis Guzman

Coordinating Project Manager

Prior to joining eTERA Consulting, Ms. Guzman was the Litigation Technology Data Analyst in the Washington, DC office of McDermott, Will, & Emery where she was responsible for managing large scale client databases. Previous to that experience, she spent seven years in the legal vendor industry working for IKON and Capitol, LLC as a sales associate supporting various account managers. In addition to providing day-to-day assistance with client’s projects, she was responsible for communications between clients and account managers. Currently, Ms. Guzman is a Clearwell Certified Client Project Manager for eTERA where she coordinates and manages client’s expectations regarding numerous projects.

Kristin Sunderman

Coordinating Project Manager

Ms. Sunderman serves as Coordinating Project Manager. She has extensive legal industry experience, including the management of all aspects of complex litigation. During her time with eTERA, she has been trained as a Certified Relativity Administrator. Her expertise includes both the management of projects from beginning to end as well as technical support to ensure each client's needs are met in a timely and efficient manner.  Prior to joining eTERA Consulting, Ms. Sunderman worked as a paralegal at Teva Pharmaceuticals, USA where she managed large-scale international and domestic electronic document collections as well as serving as a 30(b)6 witness. During her career, Ms. Sunderman also spent time at Merck & Company, where she managed external partners and designed and implemented processes and procedures to successfully monitor a multi-district mass litigation. She also has experience training departments on new policies and regulations to ensure uniformity while also creating efficiencies and cost containment initiatives. Ms. Sunderman started her career in law firms performing document review, document collection and coordinating case matters with clients.