Innovation Awards

People Categories

The people categories recognize individuals who champion legal technology and advocate for those who use, manage, and build on top of Relativity.

Attorney Tech Evangelist

A technology champion who moves an organization forward with an innovative approach combining legal, technical, and human strategies to improve the legal process.

Kate Bauer
Manager of e-Discovery Services, Steptoe & Johnson, LLP

Kate Bauer

Manager of e-Discovery Services | Steptoe & Johnson, LLP

Kate is passionate about recruiting pro-technology allies wherever she goes. She raises awareness about the benefits of legal technology—to firm clients and the legal industry—through multiple avenues, including: building custom Relativity solutions for case teams, creating and leading CLEs, promoting Relativity user groups, and publishing work in the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology’s online blog. A Relativity Master since 2015, last year, Kate added a law degree and bar license to her credentials. She credits this combination of technical expertise and legal knowledge with enabling her to make a compelling legal case for technology to a wider audience of Steptoe attorneys.

Virginia Ring
e-Discovery Of Counsel, Quality Control Leader, Kilpatrick Townsend LitSmart e-Discovery Team

Virginia Ring

e-Discovery Of Counsel, Quality Control Leader | Kilpatrick Townsend LitSmart e-Discovery Team

Virginia is consistently leading her team to leverage Relativity and other technical solutions to increase efficiency and streamline processes internally and across the industry. Virginia goes above and beyond in driving innovation and collaboration, evidenced by the recent growth of the team’s ancillary services (which utilize Relativity in unique, non-traditional ways to manage matters beyond e-discovery); the effectiveness of the working groups she has established to develop new workflows that address specific needs; and measurable improvements in accuracy of document reviews and productions.

Dennis Santoni
Of Counsel, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP

Dennis Santoni

Of Counsel | Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP

Dennis is being recognized for his leadership in implementing Relativity from a clean slate since the firm’s inception. Dennis's work with Relativity and providers allowed the RSHC team to stay lean, cost competitive, and provide exceptional service and results to their clients. Informed by over 15 years of experience combining his supply chain management background and legal skills, Dennis has led diverse and complex e-discovery matters ranging from corporate litigation to wrongful convictions. He is a Relativity Certified User and RelativityOne Certified Pro who has used Relativity and analytics to support his firm in its mission to drive innovation in the business of law.

Corporate Tech Evangelist

A corporate team member who keeps a pulse on emerging trends, finds new ways to use technology, and drives change within the company.

Janet Cruz
e-Discovery Project Specialist & Senior Paralegal, Litigation, and Government Affairs, Broadcom

Janet Cruz

e-Discovery Project Specialist & Senior Paralegal, Litigation, and Government Affairs | Broadcom

Janet began her career as a litigation paralegal in law firms before pursuing a career in an in-house legal and compliance environment to bolster her e-discovery skills. This move granted her the freedom to hone her skills and become a true “Relativity geek” (a term she often uses to describe herself). Alongside her colleagues, Janet has expanded Relativity across Broadcom's internal audit, HR, intellectual property, brand protection, contracts legal operations, and privacy departments. She leads all projects in Broadcom’s Relativity instance to increase litigation productivity, and she champions Relativity's innovative analytics features to help boost productivity in multiple departments.

April Holcomb
e-Discovery, IT Technical Lead, FedEx Corporation

April Holcomb

e-Discovery, IT Technical Lead | FedEx Corporation

April was recognized for her outstanding accomplishments in leading the implementation and change management initiatives, focused on e-discovery modernization, associated with the launch of RelativityOne across her organization—winning the company’s Five Star award. She was the first in IT to receive such an award for IT legal work.

Jada Payne
e-Discovery Team Lead, Voya Financial

Jada Payne

e-Discovery Team Lead | Voya Financial

In her role as e-discovery team lead, Jada brings together groups across Voya Financial to drive change and bring efficiencies to the e-discovery and legal teams. Jada has used her more than 13 years of e-discovery knowledge, vendor and government experience, and Relativity skill set to identify how Voya could leverage RelativityOne to solve legal business needs.

Lit Support All-Star

A power user who not only strives to hone their expertise on what Relativity can do, but looks for ways to push it even further—and brings their team along with them.

Mark Anderson
Director of Operations, Complete Discovery Source, Inc.

Mark Anderson

Director of Operations | Complete Discovery Source, Inc.

Mark helps clients overcome data collection and review challenges and improve their Relativity user experience. He also steers the development of the CDS suite of RSMF conversion tools, including CDS Convert. As a certified Relativity Master, Mark devotes a lot of time to educating others and helping them achieve industry certifications. He often speaks at industry events in the US and UK, providing insights on the use of various technologies in e-discovery.

Rachel McAdams
e-Discovery Technology Specialist, A&L Goodbody

Rachel McAdams

e-Discovery Technology Specialist | A&L Goodbody

Rachel’s dedication to the community is evident in her participation in the steering committee for the Dublin Relativity user group and ILTA’s Litigation and Practice Support Content Coordinating Team. Concurrently, she’s a founding member and VP of the ACEDS Ireland Chapter and co-founder of the EDRM Data Mapping project.

Justin Turnofsky
e-Discovery Review Technology Manager, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP

Justin Turnofsky

e-Discovery Review Technology Manager | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP

Justin is a founding member of the firm’s e-discovery analysis and review technology team. Beyond his certifications, Justin embodies his status as a Relativity Master by personally investing in the education and certification of those around him. This is best captured through the dozens of Relativity training courses he has put together for both groups and individuals en route to their receiving over 50 certifications combined. Additionally, Justin became one of the first Relativity Certified Training Pros and has conducted a community-wide webinar on behalf of Relativity. If you ever want to get in touch with Justin, head on over to the Relativity Community site, where he will proficiently answer any of your questions.

Stellar Women in e-Discovery

A leader who elevates women in technology by breaking barriers, mentoring others, making learning a priority, and embodying a spirit of paying it forward.

Lekecia Barclay
Co-Founder, DiscoverySmith; Technology Advisor, IRS – Office of Chief Counsel

Lekecia Barclay

Co-Founder, DiscoverySmith; Technology Advisor | IRS – Office of Chief Counsel

During her time as assistant chapter director of Women in e-Discovery’s Chicago chapter, Lekecia took that opportunity to highlight other women in the industry by creating a series on LinkedIn that focused on highlighting the achievements of women in the organization and the industry. She also had them as guests on the podcasts that she hosted for ILTA. She is a member of multiple groups that help and mentor both women and minorities in technology: BlackInTech and Black Bytes, a group for black women technologists. Lekecia is working on a plan to bring legal technology to minority women by way of creating a summer program through which they can gain training, skills, and access to a network of people that will help them to find employment in our industry.

Kenya Parrish-Dixon
General Counsel & Chief Operating Officer, Empire Technologies Risk Management Group

Kenya Parrish-Dixon

General Counsel & Chief Operating Officer | Empire Technologies Risk Management Group

When joining the White House as director of information governance, Kenya advocated for training and the acquisition of an unlimited subscription training service for her team and the entire Office of the Chief Information Officer. She sits on boards including Women, Influence, & Power in the Law Advisory Board, ACEDS Global Advisory Board, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Cybersecurity Data Steward Working Group, and Cybersecurity Law & Strategy’s Advisory Board. Outside of work, Kenya mentors and counsels women on creating their own businesses and has provided pro bono legal advice to help women’s business dreams come true.

Sarah Thompson
Vice President, Client Solutions, Bluestar Case Solutions, Inc.

Sarah Thompson

Vice President, Client Solutions | Bluestar Case Solutions, Inc.

Sarah is passionate about legal technology innovation, having developed, brought to market, positioned, and managed some of the legal industry’s leading technology offerings for over 15 years. Sarah brings a wealth of legal and cloud technology expertise in the areas of product management, e-discovery, data privacy, and Office 365 security and compliance. Throughout her career, she has continuously worked to give back to those in her community by volunteering her time to share her knowledge and expertise via free seminars on e-discovery, data privacy, and more, as well as mentoring many of her more junior colleagues along the way. Sarah has worked her entire career to find opportunities to innovate and affect real change in the legal industry and elevate those around her—and plans on doing so for another 15 years.