Rick Watts | Enterprise Architecture & IT Expert

Rick Watts JD, PMP, PSEM

Enterprise Architecture & IT Expert

Rick Watts is a nationally recognized expert witness and litigation consultant specializing in enterprise software disputes, trade secret misappropriation, and IT project failures. His combination of legal education (JD, Wake Forest University School of Law) and deep technical credentials—including certifications in enterprise architecture, project management, software engineering, healthcare IT, and cloud architecture—uniquely qualifies him to analyze complex technology disputes and provide authoritative testimony on industry standards.

With over 35 years of hands-on IT experience—from custom software development and enterprise systems implementation to executive leadership as CIO and VP of Enterprise Architecture—Rick brings operational authority to litigation matters. His career spans healthcare, higher education, gaming technology, energy, media, and government sectors. At each organization, he was personally involved in the full lifecycle of IT delivery: developing RFPs, evaluating and selecting vendors, designing solution architectures, overseeing system integrator performance, and advising general counsel on technology contracts. This is the same lifecycle that breaks down in the disputes he now analyzes as an expert.

Rick has been retained as a testifying and consulting expert in more than 30 litigation matters. His practice focuses on software implementation failures, trade secret and source code disputes, system integrator performance, schedule delay analysis, and breach-of-contract claims. His opinions have contributed to favorable outcomes—including settlements, arbitration awards, and mediation resolutions—for clients on both plaintiff and defendant sides in arbitration, state court, federal court, and federal regulatory proceedings.

Summary of Qualifications

  • Testified and provided expert analysis in 30+ litigation matters including arbitration, federal court, state court, and regulatory proceedings
  • Expert focus: software implementation disputes, trade secret misappropriation, project management failures, schedule delay claims, system integrator performance, source code analysis
  • Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University School of Law; Member, Maryland State Bar Association
  • Certified Enterprise Architect (EACOE), Project Management Professional (PMP-PMI), Professional Software Engineering Master (IEEE PSEM)
  • Healthcare IT: Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO-CHIME), Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE-ISACA)
  • Cloud: Google Professional Cloud Architect
  • Executive IT leadership across healthcare, higher education, gaming/technology, energy, media, and government
  • 35+ years hands-on experience: custom software development, enterprise systems implementation, cloud infrastructure, IT governance, and vendor management
  • Personally advised general counsel on technology contracts, vendor disputes, and IP protection at multiple organizations

Areas of Expertise

  • Litigation & Expert Testimony
    • Expert witness testimony: depositions, arbitration, trial, regulatory proceedings
    • Software implementation failure analysis and root cause determination
    • Trade secret disputes: source code comparison, methodology analysis, access evaluation
    • System integrator and vendor performance evaluation against contractual requirements
    • Project management analysis: schedule delay, critical path, milestone achievement
    • Software quality: defect analysis, code review, testing adequacy, acceptance criteria
    • Requirements and scope analysis: change management, traceability
    • RFP development, vendor selection process evaluation, and contract compliance assessment
    • Industry standards: SDLC methodologies, project management practices, architecture frameworks
  • Enterprise Systems
    • Enterprise business applications: ERP, CRM, HCM, SCM, manufacturing, PLM
    • Healthcare IT: EMR integration, clinical systems, patient engagement, imaging platforms
    • Service management and workflow automation
    • Data management: warehousing, analytics, master data management, business intelligence
    • Custom software development: telecommunications, litigation management, content management
    • Digital content and asset management
  • Technology Infrastructure
    • Cloud architecture and migration: public, private, hybrid environments
    • Data center operations: selection, consolidation, virtualization, storage, networking
    • Integration and interoperability: API management, middleware, enterprise service bus
    • Security architecture: identity management, access controls, cybersecurity strategy
  • IT Governance & Program Management
    • Project management: Agile, SAFe, Waterfall, hybrid approaches
    • IT governance: ITIL, COBIT, enterprise architecture frameworks (TOGAF, Zachman)
    • Business continuity and disaster recovery (ISO 22301)
    • GRC systems and risk management frameworks
    • Data governance and quality management
    • M&A technology due diligence: acquisition assessment, post-merger integration, divestiture
    • Regulatory compliance: HIPAA, PCI, FERPA, SOX
  • Industry Experience
    • Healthcare • Higher Education • Gaming & Entertainment
    • Energy & Utilities • Media & Communications
    • Government • Legal • Business Services & Outsourcing

Litigation Consulting

  • Confidential Social Media Platform v. Confidential Infrastructure Vendor |
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
    Technology: Data Center Design
  • The Regents of the University of California v. Linea Solutions, Inc., et al. |
    Jurisdiction: Superior Court of California, County of Alameda
    Case Number: 23CV056879
    Counsel: Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
  • Oracle Corporation v. Vilox Technologies, LLC et al. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware
    Case Number: 1:23-cv-00126
    Counsel: Hudnell Law Group P.C.
    Nature of Suit: Patent Infringement
  • Keller Holdings LLC and RLDGROUP v. Automattic Inc., and Matt Mullenweg |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
    Case Number: 3:25-cv-01892
    Counsel: Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP, Tycko & Zavareei LLP
    Nature of Suit: Class Action
  • Confidential Customer v. Confidential Vendor |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District of Minnesota
    Counsel: Stinson, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Software Implementation Dispute, Breach of Contract
    Technology: Enterprise Software, MES/ERP
  • Confidential Individual v. Confidential Vendor |
    Jurisdiction: Singapore International Arbitration Center
    Counsel: AZB & Partners
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
    Technology: System Integration and Services
  • Chase Global Services v. Protech Solutions Inc. |
    Jurisdiction: AR Civil Division, Circuit Court of Pulaski County
    Case Number: 60-cv-19-739
    Counsel: McDaniel Wolff PLLC
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret
    Technology: State Child Support Enforcement System
  • Qualia Labs, Inc. v. Settlor, Inc., Land Title Guarantee Company, et al. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
    Case Number: 1:24-cv-00133
    Counsel: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret, Breach of Contract
    Technology: Title Management System
  • Coupa Software Inc. and LLamasoft LLC v. Optilogic, Inc., et al. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware
    Case Number: 1:24-cv-01275
    Counsel: Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret, Copyright
    Technology: ERP, Supply Chain Management
  • Dr. Edwin A. Hernandez and ELGA Corp. v. Stingray Group Inc., Mood Media, et al. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
    Case Number: 1:24-cv-21226
    Counsel: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secrets
    Technology: Digital music streaming and content distribution.
  • I.A.T.S.E. National Health & Welfare Fund v.
    Avenu Insights & Analytics LLC, and CPAS Systems Inc.     |
    Jurisdiction: Supreme Court of New York, County of New York
    Case Number: 650787/2024
    Counsel: DLA Piper LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach-of-Contract
  • Valtrus Innovations and Key Patent Innovations v. SAP America, Inc. and SAP, SE. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
    Case Number: 2:24-cv-00021
    Counsel: Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP
    Nature of Suit: Patent
  • Marriott Vacation World v. Infosys LLC |
    Jurisdiction: Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS)
    Counsel: Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
    Technology: IT Managed Services
  • Charmayne Bradberry, et al. v. Equifax Information Services, LLC. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
    Counsel: King & Spalding LLP
    Nature of Suit: Class Action Litigation
    Technology: Consumer Reporting, Software Management
  • Pioneer Hotel Group, Inc., and Pinal Doshi v. Choice Hotels International, Inc. |
    Jurisdiction: Fourth Judicial District of Idaho, Ada County
    Case Number: CV01-23-04099
    Counsel: Mooney Wieland Warren PLLC
    Nature of Suit: Breach-of-Contract
    Technology: Authenticating Digital Signatures, GeoLocation
  • EPRI v. InvenioLSI |
    Jurisdiction: American Arbitration Association
    Counsel: Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
    Nature of Matter: Software Implementation Dispute, Breach of Contract
    Technology: ERP Software, Entitlement Management, B2C Portals
  • Ivan Laguna and Margarita Lopez v. Lazer Safe, Pty, Ltd., Fiessler Electronik Gmbh & CO., Ermak USA, Inc. |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
    Case Number: 3:23-cv-30016
    Counsel: Sullivan & Sullivan, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Personal Injury, Product Liability
    Technology: IP GeoLocation
  • iPro, Inc. v. Flagler Hospital, Inc. |
    Jurisdiction: Seventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, St. Johns County
    Case Number: CA22-1559
    Counsel: The Minor Firm
    Nature of Suit: Breach-of-Contract
    Technology: Medical Order Entry System
  • Covid Testing Today, NRJY Inc. v.
    Flow Health Laboratories, LLC, and Signal Diagnostics, LLC     |
    Jurisdiction: JAMS Arbitration
    Case Number: 5210000247
    Counsel: Hochfelsen & Kani
    Nature of Suit: Arbitration, Breach-of-Contract
    Technology: Medical Information Integration
  • FTC in re H&R Block |
    Jurisdiction: Federal Trade Commission
    Case Number: Docket 9427
    Nature of Matter: Consumer Protection Online Application
    Technology: Complex Web Services, Software Design
    Press Release: FTC Finalizes Order Requiring H&R Block to Pay $7M
  • Confidential Customer v. Confidential Vendor |
    Jurisdiction: Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS)
    Counsel: Stinson LLP
    Nature of Suite: Software Dispute, Breach of Contract
    Technology: ERP Software
  • Richard Chance v. Totem Technologies, Inc. |
    Jurisdiction: District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma
    Case Number: CJ-2023-02533
    Counsel: Actuate Law, LLC
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret
    Technology: Digital Cloud Code Repositories
  • Vimo, Inc. d/b/a GetInsured v. Deloitte Consulting LLP |
    Jurisdiction: Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
    Case Number: G-24-7-NA, 22CV405262
    Counsel: Kirkland & Ellis LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret, Breach of Contract
  • Iconic Hearts Holdings, Inc. v. Raj Vir; NGL Labs LLC; Joao Figueiredo; Hunter Isaacson; et al.
    Jurisdiction: Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
    Case Number: 22STCV21509
    Counsel: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Trade Secret, Breach-of-Contract
    Technology: Online Games
  • Hidden Empire Holdings, LLC v. Darrick Angelone |
    Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
    Case Number: 2:22-cv-06515
    Counsel: Kramer DeBoer & Keane
    Nature of Suit: Breach of Contract
    Technology: Cloud Applications
  • Oriental Trading Company LLC v. Denovo Ventures LLC |
    Jurisdiction: District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska
    Case Number: CI 2206047
    Counsel: Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP
    Nature of Suit: Copyright, Breach of Contract
    Technology: ERP Software
  • City of Goodyear v. Berry Dunn |
    In an arbitration regarding alleged failure of a for-hire project management firm to properly manage requirements, system integrator (SI) vendor selection and project delivery of a city-wide SAP ERP project. Conducted analysis of requirements documentation, SI vendor RFP and selection as well as project management artifacts to establish opinions that the defendant had failed to follow industry standards for requirements gathering, lacked expertise to select a vendor and manage an SAP project, did not use industry standards for project management. Case settled.
  • Kemper Corporate Services, Inc. v. Computer Sciences Corporation |
    In an arbitration regarding the failed implementation of a property and casualty insurance system that was allegedly never made “generally available,” conducted a code quality analysis of source code translated from COBOL to Java using industry standard code analysis software and rules databases. Compared performance testing data from single user testing, volume testing, stress testing, and batch testing to legacy system benchmarks and established test plans. Examined release documentation for evidence of independent quality control testing. Case settled.
  • Orange County, CA v. Tata Consulting Services |
    In this breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation case in connection with the implementation of a new property tax management system. Examined process documents, architectural documents, testing documents, source code, defect reports, and IBM Rational and Microsoft Team Foundation Server systems. Reached opinions that Tata failed to develop PTMS using an “n-tier” architecture in accordance with its RFP response and design documents, deviated from its established software development processes, and misrepresented the extent to which unit and system testing had been completed during the project. Drafted expert and rebuttal reports. Assisted with identification of exhibits for trial. Consulting expert. Case settled.
  • City of Goodyear v. Quintel Management Consulting |
    In a breach of contract case involving the implementation of an SAP ERP system for city-wide services management. Conducted analysis of RFP responses, project artifacts and software final delivery to determine if defendant’s representations regarding software being fit for purpose and would meet requirements with out of the box functionality were accurate and whether software as delivered was standard or customized leaving major cost and supportability issues. Reviewed project artifacts and testing results to determine if software has delivered satisfied contractual requirements. Case settled.
  • 3M v. State of Connecticut |
    In an arbitration in which plaintiff was seeking payment for delivery of a state-wide integrated vehicle management system, the defendant contended that the software requirements had not been met. Conducted analysis of Microsoft’s independent audit and application assessment in order to refute the results generated by the Microsoft Code Analysis Tool .NET (CAT.NET) which indicated certain security and code complexity requirements had not been met. Verbal report. Case settled.
  • CGI v. eHealth Ontario |
    In this breach of contract case alleging wrongful termination for default of a contract to deliver a Chronic Disease Management System Diabetes Registry (CDMS-DR). Conducted analysis of documents and defect resolution tracking data to validate plaintiff’s claims of delivery completion and establish that defendant impeded plaintiff’s ability to deliver the project on schedule. Rebutted defendant’s experts’ claims that plaintiff failed to meet the contractual specifications and violated project management and software engineering standards causing delay and justifying defendant’s termination of the contract. Parties agreed to a special arbitration wherein the plaintiff was awarded nearly $27 million CAD.
  • ACADEMY SPORTS + OUTDOORS v. Wipro Limited and Wipro Inc. |
    In a breach of contract case involving the implementation of an Oracle Retail Merchandising System for a sporting goods retailer. Examined project management materials and process, architecture and technical requirements as well as vendor roles in project delivery and key contractual deliverables. Reached opinions that the vendor failed to properly manage the project, deliver key personnel and comply with contractual requirements for project delivery. Case settled.
  • 3M v. Commonwealth of Kentucky |
    In an arbitration in which plaintiff was seeking payment for delivery of a state-wide integrated vehicle management system, the defendant contended that the software requirements had not been met. Conducted analysis of Microsoft’s independent audit and application assessment in order to refute the results generated by the Microsoft Code Analysis Tool .NET (CAT.NET) which indicated certain security and code complexity requirements had not been met. Case settled.
  • CedarCrestone, Inc. v. Xerox Business Services |
    A software failure matter brought by a consulting and systems integration vendor against a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider. Rebutted plaintiff’s expert’s opinions that project management failures and schedule delay allegedly caused by defendant impeded plaintiff’s ability to attain critical project milestones. Proffered additional opinions that plaintiff’s violations of project management and software engineering industry standards resulted in software defects that should have surfaced in plaintiff’s developer testing, and which ultimately caused the failure of the overall BPO program. The plaintiff was subcontracted to provide a PeopleSoft upgrade forming the foundational system for the BPO. Established that the plaintiff’s failure to successfully deliver the upgrade by the scheduled go-live date precluded the defendant’s ability to go-live with the BPO, resulting in multi-million dollar penalties and other consequential damages to the defendant. Case settled.
  • Brookings v. CedarCrestone, Inc. |
    In an IT project implementation failure case alleging the system integrator failed in deploying a PeopleSoft ERM grants system. Provided root cause analysis for project failure, focusing on the ISV role of the vendor in managing a project to delivery as well as actions by the plaintiff that contributed to the project failure. Opinions were core to the settlement of the suit. Case settled.

Technical Analysis & Audits

  • Confidential Software Vendor |
    Nature of Consultation: Trade Secret Assessment
  • Helppo, Inc. and Helppo SaaS, Inc. |
    Counsel: TMBTQ Law
    Nature of Consultation: Pre-litigation
  • Lenskart Solutions |
    Nature of Consultation: Acquisition Due Diligence
    Technology: Extended Reality (XR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR).
  • ECRS Software Corporation Technical Audit & Assessment |
    Counsel: Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
    Nature of Consultation: Software Analysis
    Technology: E-Commerce, Synchronization, Software Reliability.
Download Rick’s CV
Client Testimonials
I had a very challenging case before the United States District Court for the Central District of California, involving issues of cyber security and allegations of violation of both state and Federal computer fraud statutes. We were fortunate to have retained Rick Watts at Quandary Peaks to assist with our defense of the case. Mr. Watts quickly stepped in, reviewed all of the available data and prepared a comprehensive Rebuttal Report to address the report prepared by Plaintiffs’ expert.

Mr. Watts testified at a pre-trial evidentiary hearing in which we successfully defeated a motion by Plaintiffs, and ultimately he testified at the trial of the case. His assistance in preparing the technical aspects of the case were invaluable, and his testimony at trial was clear and he helped make very technical issues understandable to the jury. He also stood up admirably to very intense cross-examination.

I highly recommend Mr. Watts for any case involving complex technical issues.
Sandra Calin Partner | Kramer, deBoer & Keane, LLP
I had the pleasure of working with Rick Watts on a highly complex case involving intricate information technology records and implementations. Despite the short turnaround time, he and his team at Quandry Peak quickly grasped the nuances of the data and provided a thorough, insightful analysis that proved instrumental to our understanding of the technical issues at hand.

Mr. Watts demonstrated exceptional professionalism and clarity while testifying during both deposition and during trial— consistently and in detail. His ability to explain complicated technical concepts, systems and practices in a clear, concise, and compelling manner was invaluable to our case. He maintained composure under pressure and responded to challenging questions with precision and confidence.

I highly recommend Mr. Watts for any matter requiring deep technical expertise, rigorous analysis, and articulate expert testimony.
Kal K. Shah Chair | Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP
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