Legal Consulting Leadership

Charles (Chad) Volkert is the Global Solutions Leader for Protiviti Legal Consulting, and a member of the firm's Global Solutions Leadership team. He brings more than 22 years of legal optimization and executive management experience to his clients in the United States and around the world.

He focuses on providing the C-suite, in-house counsel, and law firm leadership expertise in the areas of legal department transformation, hiring/retaining talent, litigation/eDiscovery, contract management, data privacy, M&A, and strategic business solutions.

He previously served as senior district president and executive managing director of Robert Half’s legal consulting solutions practice. He was instrumental in the global expansion of the company’s legal talent and consulting practices, with over 350 offices in 26 countries. Prior to joining the company in 1999 where he built out its alternative legal services and delivery model, he was a litigation attorney.

Chad advises clients on a wide range of legal and business needs to streamline and create efficiencies for both corporate clients and law firms. Whether it is assessing the current structure of a department, what technologies are being used, the partnership across the legal team with other areas of the business, large scale investigations, eDiscovery document review challenges, or assisting them to manage business fluctuations, Chad and his team bring tailored solutions to each client. He has a proven track record of creating efficiencies and streamlining work for Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies and law firms of all sizes. He previously worked as an associate with McGrane & Nosich and with Ford & Sinclair in Miami, Florida where he focused on complex litigation, insurance defense, medical malpractice, and product liability.

A noted author, speaker and legal podcast host, he led Protiviti and Robert Half to develop alliance partnerships with the Association of Corporate Counsel, Association of Legal Administrators, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists. He is active in many community and service organizations including Rotary International, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.

Education/Qualifications

• Juris Doctor, University of Miami School of Law
• Bachelor of Arts, Furman University
• Executive Education, Columbia Business School

Professional Associations

• American Bar Association
• Florida Bar
• Dade County Bar Association

Frank Wu is a Managing Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He has more than 25 years of professional experience working with clients to implement practical solutions in proportion to their business risks exposures. He specializes in eDiscovery and information governance for Legal Consulting. Mr. Wu has advised global companies, law enforcement and regulatory agencies to transform the challenges of ad hoc incident response, electronic discovery and records retention projects into sustainable processes within their routine operations. He has recommended, designed and managed several large-scale financial investigations and litigation support systems to significantly reduce the cost, time and burden associated with legal discovery of electronically stored information. These systems include transactional and analytical systems, document conversion and discovery management systems.

Focused on the intersection of legal and IT, Mr. Wu has more than 16 years of "Big Four" experience where he served in the U.S. Forensic Technology Steering Committee and was responsible for its global forensic and litigation technology center. He is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University.

Amber Schreier is a Managing Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. She works closely with law firms and corporate legal departments to provide highly skilled legal professionals and project space for a variety of initiatives, including litigation, mergers and acquisitions, contracts and compliance management, document and eDiscovery review.

Ms. Schreier oversees Legal Consulting’s project fulfillment, project services and operations center teams in their delivery of legal, compliance and risk management consulting services. Her background includes 16 years in the legal field. She previously served as regional vice president for Robert Half Legal, overseeing operations for the company’s legal talent operations in Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit/Southfield, Houston, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Political Science from North Dakota State University.

Steven Baron is an experienced Managing Director in Protiviti's Legal Consulting solution. In his role, Steve partners with clients to assist with their compliance, regulatory, corporate transaction, and litigation needs, in order to propose strategies and solutions that help position them most effectively. In addition, Steve manages and oversees the senior business development project focused team for the organization. Steve has worked in the client alternative solutions arena for over 20 years.

Steve has spent his career working closely with corporate clients to provide precise and custom solutions. He works within a variety of specialty areas, including compliance, review, response, contracts, data migration, governance, eDiscovery, corporate transaction, M&A, government, and internal and financial investigations.

A former general counsel and litigator, Richard Cohen brings more than 40 years of legal services experience at both public and private companies to his position as a managing director with Protiviti’s legal consulting practice. In this role, he advises in-house counsel on the development and strategic use of metrics-driven legal assessments to mitigate risk, drive efficiencies and contain costs. Before joining Protiviti, Mr. Cohen served as president and general counsel for Qualmet, where he forged strategic partnerships with public and private companies to increase visibility of the firm’s legal assessment product.

Prior to Qualmet, Mr. Cohen was president and general counsel with Corporate Creations International for six years. Previously, he served as managing director at Duff & Phelps, vice chairman at Renew Data Corporation; senior vice president of legal services at The Garden City Group, Inc.; chief operating officer at Integrex; vice president/assistant general counsel at Lexford Residential Trust; senior director at Lexis-Nexis; general counsel at Ohio Power and Columbus Southern Power Company; deputy law director at the City of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; and assistant law director for the City of Akron, Ohio, among other management positions.

Professional Associations

• Association of Corporate Counsel, Chief Legal Officers Club leader
• Bryan University, Board of Advisors member
• National Association of Corporate Directors, General Counsel Steering Committee member
• Owens Corning Worldwide Leader for Promoting Diversity in the Workplace
• The Electricity Journal, editor-in-chief

Sunny Sanghani is a Managing Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He provides investigative support and solutions to clients in the areas of documentation gathering and review, evidence, compliance, electronic discovery management, and records management initiatives.

Mr. Sanghani is a graduate of the University of Arizona and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He has advised clients across a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, mining, biotechnology, consumer products, hospitality, higher education, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Melissa Sanders Cohen is a Managing Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. With more than 17 years of experience as a forensic consultant, she specializes in forensic accounting investigations involving fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, whistleblower allegations, and responding to unplanned events.

Ms. Cohen has led large engagement teams to help clients respond to crisis and critical business issues globally that often include the collection, processing, and analysis of electronically stored information. Her experience also includes litigation support, business disputes, receiverships, and business interruption and claims analysis. She is a graduate of Emory University.

Professional Associations and Activities

• Certified Public Accountant
• Certified in Financial Forensics
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Dallas Chapter of Women in White Collar Defense, member
• North Texas Regional ABA White Collar Crime Chapter, participant

Peter Tierney is a Managing Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in litigation support, consulting, electronic discovery, document review, and document conversion. He specializes in eDiscovery and information governance for Legal Consulting. Using a metrics-driven approach to the entire electronic discovery process, he effectively manages project costs for clients while appropriately satisfying legal, regulatory and administrative obligations.

Mr. Tierney has a proven ability to successfully analyze an organization's critical business requirements, identify deficiencies, risks and potential opportunities and develop cost-effective solutions to enhance competitiveness, defensibility and customer service. With strong technical and business qualifications, he has provided advisory and business services to clients spanning the entire discovery lifecycle, including RFP and vendor selection management, identification and collection strategies for potentially relevant ESI, document processing and review strategies, project management, and meet and confer support. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Joel Wuesthoff is a former practicing attorney, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E) and a Managing Director for Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution in New York. With 20+ years of legal practice and consulting work in high stakes litigation and government investigations, he has led information governance engagements and privacy & security assessments for complex enterprises, working with general counsel’s offices, Chief Risk Officers, audit committees and IT departments to improve risk postures resulting from privacy mandates and security imperatives.

Mr. Wuesthoff has counseled global companies and AmLaw 100 law firms on 30(b)(6) preparation, assessed opposing parties’ efforts on reasonable ESI collections, and participated in FRCP 26(f) meet and confer negotiations. He works with clients to identify solutions for managing cybersecurity, privacy & vendor ecosystem data sharing risks, ESG, and related Big Data challenges and social media application growth, helping to align legal objectives with IT department priorities and responsibilities, and develop process and protocol manuals to standardize the entire risk management process.

As a CISSP and former attorney, Mr. Wuesthoff has a unique ability to navigate the complex legal and technical issues created by network breaches and data privacy violations, as well as experience in advising companies on the role and relevance of information privacy and security regulations.

Education/Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts, McGill University
• Juris Doctor, Vermont Law School

Professional Memberships & Certifications

• CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional
• CIPP/E - Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe
• Member, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

Frank Serge is a Managing Vice President in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He provides consultation and support to law firms and corporate legal departments to create operational efficiencies, mitigate risks, reduce costs, and design customized eDiscovery solutions. He serves as a business partner to multiple Fortune 1000 companies and AmLaw firms in the Chicago area.

Mr. Serge has more than 13 years of experience in applying creative solutions to minimize costs and maximize efficiencies throughout the eDiscovery phase of cases. He has experience working on hundreds of matters and has been recognized for building workflows and solutions to generate positive results. Frank has also been instrumental in assisting clients with their information governance and data management needs to maximize efficiencies.

Mr. Serge is a frequent speaker at leading industry events on the topics of cost containment, data privacy, contracts management and utilization of AI by legal teams. He is a graduate of Wabash College.

Thomas Frohne is a Senior Vice President in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He works closely with Fortune 500 companies, Am Law 200 law firms and privately held businesses to help them streamline operations, improve efficiencies and collaboration, mitigate risk, and significantly reduce costs associated with litigation, compliance, regulatory, and commercial matters. With 20-plus years of legal technology and litigation experience, Mr. Frohne provides a unique industry perspective. He can provide consulting expertise regarding process and cost-containment strategies surrounding mergers and acquisitions, class action litigation, eDiscovery, bankruptcy, government investigations, contracts lifecycle management, and records and information governance. He also speaks regularly on these topics within the legal community.

Previously, Mr. Frohne was the litigation support manager and client technology services director at a Minneapolis Am Law 100 law firm, managing firm wide complex discovery issues and technology requirements; assisting with early case assessment, depositions, and trial strategies; and creating project solutions for corporate clients. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.

Professional Associations:

• Member – Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM)
• Member – Minnesota Association of Litigation Support Professionals (MALSP)
• Member – Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)
• Member – Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
• Member – ARMA International
• Member – Dallas Area Compliance Association (DACA)

Cynthia Lynn is a Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. She has more than seven years of professional experience designing and implementing complex eDiscovery projects. With an in-depth understanding of eDiscovery, litigation technologies and the litigation lifecycle, she can aptly define the client's needs and anticipate potential issues while maintaining proper documentation to create an accurate and defensible review process. Ms. Lynn is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and a member of the State Bar of California.

Education/Qualifications

• Juris Doctor, University of Michigan Law School
• Bachelor of Arts, University of Michigan

Professional Memberships & Certifications

• State Bar of California
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• kCura Certified Review Specialist
• Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists

Marshall Matus is a Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He focuses primarily in the areas of data preservation and collection, managed review services, and technology-assisted review. Mr. Matus has planned and managed numerous eDiscovery related projects, which included hiring and managing project teams, reviewing record management plans, establishing document review and quality control protocols, conducting interviews with clients to identify sources of data, managing vendors, preparing client deliverables, and producing privilege logs.

Mr. Matus has worked on a wide variety of projects and frequently assists clients in the financial services sector. With a keen focus on client satisfaction and project efficiency, he has streamlined workflow by developing and implementing customized quality control processes for review clients and created standard operating procedures for his project teams. He also has coordinated large-scale document reviews, designed keyword and Boolean specialty searches, and cultivated client relationships for business development purposes. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado.

JR Flores is a Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He provides eDiscovery services support and technical solutions to clients in response to hard copy imaging, data retention, electronic data management, data hosting, and information security best practices. JR received his B.S. in Computer Science and his MS in Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services from Brigham Young University.

Dave Figueroa is a Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He has more than 25 years of professional experience designing and implementing complex multinational compliance programs as well as domestic state agency projects related to recent pandemic response. Prior to joining Protiviti, he worked with some of the largest technology companies in the world on global operational audit programs focused on intellectual property tracking and compliance. Dave can aptly define the client’s needs and anticipate potential issues while maintaining proper documentation and provide consultation around opportunities for process improvement. Dave is a graduate of the University of Washington.

Dustin is a Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting practice. He is an information technology consultant with more than sixteen years of experience specializing in the technology aspects of forensic investigations, eDiscovery, incident response, litigation support, compliance programs, and information risk management.

He has extensive experience assisting clients with responding to unplanned events involving legal, regulatory, and compliance aspects, as well as assisting clients with being better prepared to respond by implementing and improving processes, procedures, and technology solutions around records management, legal holds, eDiscovery, and litigation response plans.

James Chacon is a Director within Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution overseeing multiple core applications for both internal and external clients. James’ experience comes from years serving in multiple technology advisory and consulting to a wide array of industries including; oil & gas, energy, education, telecommunications, legal services and enterprise information security. Specializing in technology architecture design, solutions implementations and security controls James has been instrumental in RHLCS’ move to cloud infrastructure with significant experience in AWS and Azure solutions. During his tenure with Robert Half, James has supported big data initiatives for both litigation and data management projects and currently sits on the Robert Half International security council as a trusted advisor focusing on the protection of client data.

Brad Bailey is an Associate Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. He has 20+ years professional experience providing technology and eDiscovery solutions regarding large scale document review, DOJ second requests, large scale claims processing and administration. Brad is a Certified eDiscovery Specialist (ACEDS) who has in depth knowledge and experience from supporting and managing large scale data management and eDiscovery during all stages of the EDRM.

Brad’s strength is working with clients early in the process so that he can help customize his consulting based on needs of the client and the matter at hand. He is passionate about providing the most effective and cost- efficient solutions possible. He has been a frequent public speaker nationally at many bar associations, conferences and panels around the country regarding ESI Protocols, Meet and Confer conferences and best practices thereof, CAL/TAR workflows, eDiscovery, EDRM and best practices, as well as litigation technology in general.

Professional Associations and Activities

Cindy Fuller is an Associate Director in Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution. Cindy focuses primarily in the areas of information governance and managed review services. She works with corporate clients from a cross section of industries to manage eDiscovery engagements and develop all aspects of records management programs. Her responsibilities include conducting interviews to ascertain records maintained by an organization analyzing legacy records retention schedules; preparing client deliverables and solutions; and designing and implementing information lifecycle practices that avoid the cost and risk associated with over-retention. Cindy is a graduate of the University of Arizona.

Professional Associations and Activities

• Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute
• Member, International Association of Privacy Professionals
• MCSE, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, 2003

John Roland is an Associate Director for Legal Consulting Solutions. He leads a consulting team in engagements spanning eDiscovery at all stages of litigation, to audit, contract abstraction, analytics, and data management and migration. John provides an analytical and forward-thinking perspective that reflects years of problem-solving experience across multiple industries and disciplines. John is a graduate of the Arizona State University.

Jessica Lank is a business development Vice President with Protiviti Legal Consulting. Jessica has developed an expertise in professional staffing over the course of 10 years in the industry. She started as a Branch Manager at Robert Half before transitioning into her current role where she helps clients implement solutions in a wide variety of areas including litigation, eDiscovery, managed review, contracts, information governance and legal compliance.

Jessica works closely with law firms, corporations and government clients to develop solutions tailored to their specific situations which incorporate consulting expertise, technology and staff augmentation as needed. Jessica’s clients rely on her to provide strategies and project plans that are transparent, predictable and effective.

A passionate enterprise software veteran, Michael enjoys establishing relationships in order to leverage technology to improve the day-to-day workflow of his clients. A true believer that software implementations focused on people, process and the technology improve both employee satisfaction and the company bottom line.

15+ Years of Enterprise Software Experience.

Healthcare: 8+ years. Electronic Medical Record software. Supporting the EMR/HER industry through the transformational years of 2007-2016. Working with acute healthcare clients from rural critical care hospitals to large integrated delivery networks (IDNs) that include some of the biggest regional medical centers. Also supporting the ambulatory environment from single clinics and physician practices to IDNs that are responsible for hundreds of outpatient facilities.

Contract Lifecycle Management: 5+ years. Multi-Industry CLM software expertise.

Professional Associations

• HIMSS, HFMA
• ACC, NCMA
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate

Kate is passionate about building and strengthening relationships with clients. She works collaboratively to understand client priorities and issues and identify the right people, processes, and technology to deliver sustainable solutions and cost efficiencies to achieve their business objectives, particularly in the areas of legal, risk and com - pliance, information governance, cybersecurity, and data privacy.

Kate has more than 20 years of business development, sales, and marketing experience in the professional services industry, including AmLaw 100-ranked law firms and the Big Four.

As a strategic business development and account management professional, she uses her diverse experience to understand clients’ priorities and identify the appropriate products and services to deliver right-sized solutions to address their most pressing business needs.

Professional Associations

• Women in White Collar Defense Association
• Women in eDiscovery
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate, USF Corporate Training and Professional Education

Stephen Lee is a Vice President for Protiviti’s Legal Consulting solution where he consults with corporate legal departments and law firms to create streamlined workflows, increase operational efficiencies and reduce litigation costs. In the last 6 years Stephen has supplemented his eDiscovery expertise with solutions in information governance, data privacy, contract management, records retention, M&A and due diligence to facilitate a holistic consultative approach with clients.

Stephen previously worked at a large eDiscovery company as a Managing Partner/Sales Director and has over 17 years of experience in the Legal Outsourcing industry. He has assisted clients in areas including litigation readiness, early case assessment, data collection, forensics, expert testimony, ESI processing, database hosting, technology- assisted review, contract attorney review, managed services, class action administration, bankruptcy administration, data breach notification, legal transformation consulting, and facilities management.

Professional Associations

• Relativity Certified Sales Pro