Your Team at Commonwealth Legal

Karen is the President and Co-Founder of Commonwealth Legal, where she is responsible for the overall strategic planning and direction of the company, while also leading all initiatives related to business development and operations in accordance with the corporate vision and mission.

Under Karen’s leadership, Commonwealth Legal has grown from a regional Toronto-based scanning and coding facility employing less than ten staff in the late 1990s, to a industry-leading, multi-million dollar evidence management and litigation support services firm with offices across Canada and more than 100 full and part-time staff. Karen’s affinity for recognizing key business development opportunities has had a significant impact in growing the company’s client base from a select number of early adopter law firms to a client list that today boasts not only the top 25 law firms in Canada, but also some of Canada’s largest and most prominent corporations and institutions from a variety of industries including finance, insurance, government, telecommunications.

Jennifer leads the largest Professional Services Team in Canada including consultants, project managers, case managers, trainers and product specialists. With an M.A. in Education (specializing in Curriculum Design and Organizational Learning) her focus is on customizing and delivering practical solutions that empower all members of the legal team to manage their evidence in a defensible, cost-effective way from case inception to trial.

Her current passion is the development of our new online learning centre, COMMONKnowledge which is designed to give legal teams real-time access to meaningful information and resources that will help them manage their case more strategically using technology. Jennifer has been consulting on the best practices for implementing legal technology solutions for over eight years and is certified in industry-leading applications such as Ringtail, iConect, Concordance, Summation (iBlaze/WebBlaze/Enterprise) and Casemap and has a Certificate in Project Management.

Since joining Commonwealth Legal in 2005, Andrea has become one of the industry’s most experienced consultants in eDiscovery Solutions. She has worked closely with Commonwealth Legal’s most prominent clients, and over the past two years has led on the architecture and fulfillment of over 25 large-scale complex eDiscovery projects in the corporate sector. She is adept at balancing the needs of outside counsel and corporations from both a strategic and budget perspective, and takes great pride in her ability to design strategies and workflows to engage all resources on a case in a meaningful way, whether it be in-house/outside counsel, IT or additional subject matter experts. Andrea has earned certificates in Managing Multiple Projects and prides herself in supporting legal professionals in the competing demands that they face each day.

Andrea’s exceptional level of commitment to quality customer project delivery is reflected in over 10 years of experience in diverse client services and marketing roles in client-focused industries.

Richard’s history with Commonwealth Legal spans over five years, initially working with us as a client working on a large scale eDiscovery project. Eventually, Richard became actively involved consulting with clients and project management to support Commonwealth Legal’s eDiscovery initiatives, while taking a leadership role in the company’s key Information Technology initiatives. Richard has also been involved in managing and executing the eDiscovery components for a number of large legal projects utilizing the same IT related tools that clients are using today. As a member of the technology team, Richard brings with him over 15 years of Information Technology (IT) experience in the following areas: Network Administration; Email Management; Document Management / Records Retention; Lotus Notes Expertise, Project Management; and Application Development in a number of business sectors.

Chris is responsible for overseeing the fulfillment of large, complex litigation projects. He has been instrumental in the development and implementation of workflow processes, quality control procedures and monitoring productivity levels to ensure projects are completed accurately and in keeping with client timelines. Chris has been involved in the company’s ISO certification and has extensive knowledge of the principles of document management, which have been beneficial in positioning him as a qualified leader within the operations team at Commonwealth Legal.

As the leader of our Project Management Team, Hugo plays an integral part of the service delivery that Commonwealth Legal provides, and is well respected for his exemplary customer service and problem solving skills. He is dedicated to working with clients to ensure that communication, timelines and budgets are managed effectively for large-scale litigation projects and is involved in cases from the early planning stages right through to review and production. Central to his role is a deep understanding of client needs in order to provide an appropriate and reliable full service technology solution. Hugo brings almost 20 years of project management, business analysis and technical experience around web solutions to his role and has played an integral role in the development and implementation of standardized, fiscally responsible, ISO – Certified quality processes at Commonwealth Legal.

Natasha is a bilingual trainer certified in iConect, Ringtail, Summation (iBlaze/ WebBlaze/ Enterprise), Concordance and CaseMap. Her experience in both a law firm environment gives her a unique perspective on the needs of legal professionals using litigation support technology. Natasha has extensive experience as a Project Manager of multifaceted evidence management projects incorporating eDiscovery, searching/culling services, near-duplication tools and web hosting. Her collective experiences enable her to facilitate the development and implementation of effective evidence management strategies and solutions for our most prominent clients.

Cheryl has ten years of experience in litigation support in both a law firm and vendor environment. She is certified on a number of industry applications, including Casemap, Sanction, Summation (iBlaze/WebBlaze), Ringtail and iConect and maintains a well- deserved reputation for excellence in her field. Her additional experience as an eDiscovery Project Manager adds to her portfolio working with national firms, corporations and government agencies to facilitate the implementation of evidence management standards in daily practice. She is highly experienced in managing and architecting a range of services including Discovery Plan consultations and Trial Support solutions. Cheryl brings a strict adherence to quality and best practices in both her training and consulting.