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Consultants
DEBORAH A. NOVACHICK Deborah Novachick, the founder and president of Strategic Automation Consulting, specializes in legal industry strategic automation planning, and system selection and implementation. Her expertise includes matching automation to strategic business objectives, determining priorities based on economic and functional justification, selecting cost effective systems, and determining appropriate levels of automation staffing. She also has extensive experience assisting firms in managing implementations, including negotiating purchase contracts, overseeing system design, and supervising acceptance testing. Ms. Novachick is expert at effectively managing vendor involvement in critical projects. Her background includes over 20 years in the field of law office automation consulting, having worked as in-house consultant at the major international firm of Morrison & Foerster and having been a consultant with the international legal consulting firms of Hildebrandt International and Altman Weil. She is the author of the 4-Facet Method for managing implementations and is a founding member of The Technology Advisory Group, a national association of leading legal automation experts. Ms. Novachick's long involvement in the legal automation industry has included a leadership role within the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association, appointment to industry advisory boards, teaching at the college level, presentations at numerous regional and national events, and writing and editing for industry publications. She served for four years as National Chair of the American Bar Association's 2500+ member WordPerfect Interest Group. Her advisory board appointments have included Microsoft's Legal Advisory Board. She was a faculty member with the Law Studies and Paralegal Programs of St. Mary's College of California, where she designed and taught the course entitled Legal Technology Applications. Since 2001, she has also been on the faculty of the Association of Legal Administrators National Program, Essential Competencies for Legal Administrators programs, teaching the course in technology and administrative systems. She has also spoken at ABA, ALA, LAWNET, CABL, regional bar, and vendor programs throughout the United States and Canada, including the ABA Techshow programs (Technology in the Law Practice) and the ABA Annual Meeting. She was a Columnist and Editor for the ABA's Word Progress and Features Editor of Network. She has authored articles in publications including the National Law Journal, California Law Business, The American Lawyer Management Service, Law Practice Management, and Washington, D.C.'s Legal Times. Ms. Novachick has been quoted on the subject of legal automation in leading publications including California Lawyer and The Recorder.
JORGE RUIZ de CASTILLA Jorge Ruiz specializes in project management, system analysis and design, operational planning, and department structure and development, primarily on projects using case/matter/document management databases and imaging systems. His emphasis is on the introduction of new workflow and systems to reduce the firm's reliance on paper documents and to streamline operations. These projects benefit client firms by reducing the amount of time to locate and review documents, by reducing or reassigning mailroom, copy room and file room staff, and by reducing the cost of office space for file storage. Clients also benefit by significantly enhancing their disaster-recovery capabilities, as more of their critical documents are made available electronically, and can be backed up, stored off-site, and, in the event of a disaster, recovered from backup. Mr. Ruiz has a proven track record in project planning, establishing standards and methodologies for new workflow and operations, building teams, restructuring teams and departments, and delivering successful projects. He has strong creative and analytical skills, and the results-orientation and communication and problem-solving skills necessary for effective leadership. His background includes over 15 years in the field of software development and implementation, having worked for the last 8 years as a manager and developer of large corporate, government and legal workflow and imaging projects. Large clients have included Chase Manhattan Bank, Avco Financial Services, Scripps Health Systems, the Colorado Department of Labor, Unisys Mexico, Avon Mexico and Avon Canada. Mr. Ruiz has been President of a software development and consulting organization and Director of Consulting Services and Support of an international workflow software development and consulting organization. Prior to that Mr. Ruiz was a developer of integrated financial applications, inventory control databases, and related Web-based systems. Mr. Ruiz's long involvement in the field of workflow reengineering and imaging has included serving as lead designer and development manager of custom workflow systems, and as executive project manager of system implementations. He has also restructured and established help desk, training, and IT groups. He developed standards for project development cycles and for tracking and planning departmental resources and budgets. For a large project for an international corporation he coordinated resources across the US, Sweden, Mexico, Canada, and Chile. One result he achieved on this project was a very significant and cost-saving 3% reduction in the error rate for data captured from images. On another very large project Mr. Ruiz salvaged a workflow, data capture, and imaging project initiated before his involvement, and turned it into a success story. On another large project Mr. Ruiz implemented a workflow system to capture information from documents faxed daily from thousands of locations across the United States. Mr. Ruiz' educational background includes a Masters in Software Engineering from National University in San Diego, a BS in Business Administration Information Systems from the University of California, San Diego, a certificate from the program for Project Management Certification at UC San Diego, and a Computer Science Degree from the Computer Science Institute SISE in Lima, Peru. Mr. Ruiz is fluent in Spanish. Mr. Ruiz' development experience includes Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, and Foxpro. He has worked extensively in the Windows 200x, NT, ME, and 98 environments as well as Novell and UNIX. As a specialist in the paperless office and workflow field, Mr. Ruiz has become expert in the design and use of leading systems, including Captiva, ReadSoft, Wheb Systems, and the Unisys InfoImage workflow software and its sister product Kodak Open Image. Other related applications he has worked extensively with include the Steelpoint Introspect enterprise image and document management system, the iManage document management system, and the Doculex image capture system. Mr. Ruiz is a member of the National Association of Computer Consulting Businesses (NACCB), and is on the Board of Directors of IncaSoft, a company that he formed with executives from ReadSoft, Inc.
D. CHRISTIAN ELLIOTT Chris Elliott, Regional Manager for Strategic Automation Consulting, specializes in evaluating requirements and matching them with key automation solutions and services. Chris has focused lately on key practice support systems, such as case management, imaging, document assembly, and Web-based systems, and on helping clients develop a strong and effective Internet marketing presence. Mr. Elliott's professional background includes over 18 years in enterprise software and technology services, having worked at the major technology companies of Oracle Corporation, NCR Corporation, and SAIC. Mr. Elliott has a balance of technical acumen, strong analytical and problem solving skill, business management, and project management expertise. He also is expert at requirements analysis and specification, technology evaluation, technology architecture design, system capacity planning, network management, testing and integration, performance optimization, and process and workflow design. He has extensive experience negotiating system purchase agreements, and managing vendor involvement in system implementations. Mr. Elliott's technology consulting and system development and implementation background also includes 8 years with Oracle Corporation, including, as a Consulting Practice Manager, leading the evaluation and development of interactive multimedia and business support system architectures, and serving as implementation project manager for projects for a large U.S. telecommunications company. His project management work also included managing a large implementation project with the Internet broadband company Redback Networks, including data conversion from legacy systems, beta testing, and prioritization of feature enhancements. He was also was a manager with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a $6 Billion technology services organization, where he was responsible for development of information technology services and systems in the company's $200 Million health care technology practice. Mr. Elliott is also expert at Web-based marketing strategies including image and branding, advertising and media relations planning, competitive position planning, target prospect filtering, generation of specific lead sources for products and services, and negotiating Web hosting and server co-location agreements. His marketing background included the position of Director, GSA Programs, Oracle Government Consulting, where he had revenue and profit responsibility for a $6+ Million group selling information technology products and services, with an emphasis on database applications and Unix systems. Chris has a Bachelors of Science degree in Physics and Engineering from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. His continuing professional education and association membership has included business courses in Contract Negotiations for System Acquisitions, and membership in the Project Management Institute.
HOWARD YELLEN Howard Yellen, an attorney and consultant, specializes in implementation and management of a wide variety of computer systems. His focus is on vertical market software and integration. He is expert in law firm operational and practice support systems, including workflow, policies and procedures for calendar/docketing and conflict of interest systems. Mr. Yellen's background includes over 15 years of years of in-depth, relevant experience in law firms and professional services organizations. He was President of the Professional Consulting Group, Inc., where he established and expanded to a 30-person systems integration firm, installing and maintaining a wide variety of computer systems. He was President and Co-Founder of ASPdq.com, and ASP-based company whose mission was to provide turnkey hosting services for mid-market vertical market software publishers. Prior to that he was an attorney with the law firm of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe on various complex commercial litigation matters as well as managing various pro-bono engagements. In addition, he formed a corporation to develop educational software applications, which included the design, development and management of three commercial programs. Formed corporation to develop educational software applications. Designed and managed development of three commercial programs. Negotiated contract with Harcourt, Brace, Javanovitch to acquire and market educational software. Mr. Yellen's has a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall). While at Boalt he was Editor for the California Law Review, Prosser Award Winner for Excellence in Constitutional Law, and Member, High Technology Law Review. Mr. Yellen has a BA in Psychology from Vassar College. Mr. Yellen has spoken extensively to both general interest and industry-specific audiences. His publications include articles on Voice Recognition in law firms, Rules Based Docket & Calendaring Systems, Officer & Director Liability in IP Infringement Cases, and Copyright Issues in New Media Formats. Howard's community involvement includes membership in the Young Entrepreneur's Organization and serving as a Loaned Executive for the United Way.
JOHN MEYER John Meyer specializes in increasing efficiency through the effective use of document-related computer systems such as electronic forms, document assembly, document management, and electronic document publishing and delivery. His practice includes the configuration, installation, and development of these systems. He also is an expert in computer security, document assembly, and off-line storage and retrieval systems. A strong advocate of system quality control, training, and ease of use, Mr. Meyer works with clients to implement highly stable systems that can be maintained and operated without the involvement of outside resources. Another important component of his work is the development of systems for providing access to documents and electronic mail from home, the road, or branch offices. Mr. Meyer's background includes years as a senior information systems professional in law firms. In addition he is a programmer with thousands of hours experience with C, Pascal, and BASIC. One example of his application development work, a document assembly system, was featured as an example of the state of the art at programs of the Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Section of the California Bar Association. Mr. Meyer's work has also been featured in The Recorder, a San Francisco legal trade journal. Technical Credential and Supported Products
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