Cassie Oates - Director of Litigation Discovery

Cassie Oates

Director of Litigation Discovery

Cassie Oates has a decade of experience working with software experts in large and small‑scale software failure litigation. Her litigation experience includes arbitration, bench trials, and jury trials; Ms. Oates offers expertise in document review, fact witness interviews, change management, and testing best practices. As a small-business owner prior to her specialization in litigation, Ms. Oates experienced first-hand the challenges of converting old database management into a modern CRM system. That, coupled with watching an SAP implementation fail because of poor change management practices at the corporate level, has given Ms. Oates unique insight into the customer side of software failure.

In addition to her work in litigation discovery, Ms. Oates specializes in deposition and testimony preparation for arbitration and trial.

Areas of Expertise

  • Project Management and Complex Problem Solving
    • Ability to trouble-shoot in the moment, assess, and mitigate risk including those related to interpersonal relationships and challenges in organizational change management
    • Comfortable with all levels of vendor management, including requests for proposal, negotiations, contracting, accounts payable/receivable and invoicing.
  • Litigation Support
    • Success working for a challenging pre-eminent academic and courtroom voice in the field of software failure. Helped uncover the story and identify key facts for both plaintiff and defendant; both customer and integrator.
    • Identified the most important documents among tens of thousands in a project’s lifecycle to highlight the narrative of what happened in a software implementation for an arbitrator, judge or jury. Able to recognize project-critical documents which have been omitted.
    • Assisted in expert witness deposition and trial preparation. Assisted in creating interview questions as well as conducting client/percipient witness interviews and site visits.
    • Handled and interpreted discovery research, beginning from contract and complaint, and narrowing down to key personnel’s relevant emails, project plans, and steering committee minutes. Developed tracking methods for value of project management documents. Understand the difference between usable facts presented in project tracking as opposed to “rosier than actual” or misleading, unusable metrics.
    •  Wrote, edited, and provided feedback for expert reports and rebuttal reports.
  • Records Management
    • Effectively managed 100,000+ documents with millions of pages for large-scale system failure litigation matters, including capturing and maintaining key passages from hundreds of documents to be used in expert reports.
    • Efficiently summarized hundreds of pages of deposition to isolate key points which led to critical facts for the expert report.
    • Organized expert report drafts including references and external support backing up customer and integrator history.
    • Comfortable collaborating with counsel and customer representatives to appropriately access Sharepoint and internal legacy document management software. Developed a method to track video game samples; established budget procedures for sales staff.
    • Adroit adopter of new technology.

Litigation Experience

  • K+S Potash Canada General Partnership v.
    Veolia Water Technologies Inc. et al.

    Jurisdiction: Court Of Queen’s Bench For Saskatchewan
    Case #: QB No. 817 (filed 2018)
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
    Counsel: Stikeman Elliott LLP
    Technology: Plant Design Management Systems (PDMS), Clash Detection, Database synchronization
    Role: Electronic Discovery and Document Review Lead
  • BagCam LLC v. Ristich LLC
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Case Number: AAA 01-22-0003-8240 – 20423
    Counsel: Ramey Litigation Group
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • FastTrac Transportation, LLC v. Pedigree Technologies, LLC
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota
    Case Number: 3:22-CV-00053-PDW-ARS
    Counsel: Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • OpenText Corporation v. Softil, Inc
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Case Number: AAA 01-22-0001-8608-20361
    Counsel: Vedder Price
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • ClubReady LLC v. Xponential Fitness et al.
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Case Number: AAA 01-21-0017- 8081-20347
    Counsel: Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • 1-800 Hansons LLC v. Rightpoint Consulting LLC
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Counsel: Honigman LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Truinject Corp. v. Nestle Skin Health, S.A., et al.
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
    Case Number: 4:20-cv-457
    Counsel: Kasowitz Benson Torres, LLP & Beus Gilbert McGroder, PLLC
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • FinancialApps, LLC v. Envestnet, Inc. and Yodlee, Inc.
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware
    Case Number: 19-cv-01337 – 20177
    Counsel: Kasowitz, Benson & Torres LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret and Copyright
  • JK Soft, Inc v. Innoas, Inc
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
    Case Number: Civil Action Number: 2:18-cv-00199 (WJM)(MF)
    Counsel: Choi Law Group
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret and Copyright
  • Ventive LLC v. Title Pipe, Inc
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Counsel: Mooney Wieland
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Appian Corporation v. Pegasystems, Inc. & Youyoung Zou
    Jurisdiction: Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia
    Case Number: 2020-07216
    Counsel: Choate Hall & Stewart LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret and Copyright
  • Mueller Supply Company, Inc. D/B/A Mueller, Inc. v.
    JNL Steel Components, Inc. and Web Plant Media, LLC

    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas San Angelo Division
    Case Number: 6:21-CV-00036-H
    Counsel: Foley and Lardner LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret and Copyright
  • Manipal Education Americas, LLC v. Campus Management Corp.
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Case Number: 01-19-0003-0449
    Counsel: Egozi & Bennett, P.A.
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Labor and Industry v.
    International Business Machines Corp.

    Jurisdiction: Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
    Case Number: 2017-CV-1740-CV
    Counsel: Jones Day
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • ECI Software Solutions, Inc. v. John Plyler Plumbing and Hardware, Inc.
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division
    Case Number: 3:18-cv-02758-S
    Counsel: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret and Copyright
  • Toms Shoes v. Infosys
    Jurisdiction: Mediation
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • American Type Culture Collection v. Armanino, LLP
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division)
    Case Number: 1:2017cv01235
    Counsel: Holland & Knight LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Iowa Workforce Development
    Counsel: Special Litigation Division, Office of the Attorney General of Iowa
    Nature of Consultation: Discussion of Breach of Contract
  • Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation v. Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority
    Jurisdiction: Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, Florida
    Case Number: 12-46272CA10
    Counsel: Vezina, Lawrence and Piscitelli
    Nature of Suit: Retrial of Breach of Contract
  • America’s Collectibles Network, Inc. d/b/a Jewelry Television v.
    Sterling Commerce (America), Inc.

    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville
    Case Number: 3:09-cv-143
    Counsel: Kilpatrick Townsend
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • H.B. Fuller Corp. v. Accenture, LLP
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Counsel: Bowman & Brooke/ Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Xerox State and Local Solutions, Inc. f/k/a ACS State & Local Solutions, Inc. v.
    Xchanging Solutions USA, Inc. f/k/a Albion, Inc. and Xchanging Solutions Limited f/k/a Cambridge Solutions Limited

    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
    Case Number: 13 Civ. 3472 (LLS)
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract

Meet Some of Our Experts

Jason Frankovitz - Software Engineering Expert

Jason Frankovitz

Director of Software Class Actions Los Angeles

As a developer and CTO, Jason Frankovitz has been in the trenches of technology for 30 years. He has worked as a programmer, software development manager, technical analyst, CTO, and mentor in a wide variety of industries including social media, digital entertainment, and online advertising.

LitigationLitigationSenior Testifying Expert
Due DiligenceArea of ExpertiseWeb Applications
Brad Ulrich - Software Expert Witness

Brad Ulrich

VP of Health IT & Audits Nashville

Brad Ulrich has a diverse career as a computer scientist, software engineer, technology manager, and entrepreneur. His experience spans software design, programming, patent management, healthcare, mobile devices, startups, technology licensing, regulatory compliance, and risk management.

LitigationLitigationSenior Testifying Expert
Health ITFocus AreaSoftware & Standards
Due DiligenceArea of ExpertiseHealth IT & Standards
Sigurd Meldal - Computer Expert Witness

Sigurd Meldal, Dr.Sc.

Senior Computer Scientist Silicon Valley

Dr. Meldal has testified in federal court and been deposed multiple times as an expert in computer science and software engineering. He has provided technical opinions regarding mobile devices, networks, wireless telephony, databases, service-oriented architectures, web systems, and geospatial positioning.

LitigationLitigationSenior Testifying Expert
Ajit Dhavle

Ajit Dhavle, Pharm.D, MBA

VP of Health IT, Audits & Life Sciences Washington D.C.

Ajit Dhavle is a healthcare technologist, clinician, entrepreneur, and a problem solver with 15+ years of experience in digital health, quality, e-medications, Health IT standards, and patient safety. He oversees a team of health informatics experts to provide strategy, management, SDLC, compliance, and audit services to government and commercial entities.

Health ITFocus AreaHealth IT & Life Sciences
Ray Chiang

Ray Chiang

Software Consultant and Code Analyst Los Angeles

Ray Chiang is a software consultant and code analyst involved in technologies related to systems engineering, digital media, embedded system, consumer electronics, and industry-standard development. He is skilled in source code review and reverse-engineering.

LitigationLitigationConsulting Expert
Health ITFocus AreaSoftware Quality & Source Code
Due DiligenceArea of ExpertiseDigital Media & Code Analysis
Isaac Pflaum - Expert Witness

Isaac Pflaum

Director of Complex Software Litigation Chicago

Isaac Pflaum has more than a decade of experience as a scientist, attorney, and consultant to Fortune 100 tech companies and government agencies. He serves as an expert witness in software-related litigation such as patent infringement and breach-of-contract matters.

LitigationLitigationTestifying and Consulting Expert
Health ITFocus AreaGovernment Contracts & Health Exchanges