Remote Work Is Here to Stay: Are You Meeting Your Cybersecurity and Ethical Obligations?

Mark Kindy, CPA is a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal Disputes and Investigations in New York, where he co-leads its Forensic Technology Services practice and is a member of its Disputes and Investigations North America Executive Committee. His primary areas of concentration are evidence and discovery management and advanced data analytics.

With more than 30 years of litigation, discovery, data and technology experience, Mr. Kindy has assisted corporations and law firms on all aspects of litigation readiness, technology, data and discovery-process activities. His experience includes discovery management, digital media, information governance, data privacy, records, document and data management, and technology and operations management.

Mr. Kindy has written articles and lectured on information governance, information management, electronic discovery and digital media issues. His notable engagements include serving as CIO, CDO and leader of the Data Mining & Analytics and e-discovery teams for the Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy, assisting with wind-down, claims-adjudication processes and litigation. His notable clients have included CitiCorp, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers Holdings, TRW, Chevron, Shell Oil, General Motors, Boeing, R J Reynolds, AT&T, Unisys, NEC, HCA, Johnson & Johnson, News Corp., Viacom, Major League Baseball, Bausch & Lomb, DOJ and numerous Am Law 100/250 law firms.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Kindy worked with global professional services firms as a partner and managing director and led legal services firms in CEO and executive vice president positions. He is a member of The Sedona Conference, Working Group 1 (WG1) and WG1 Possession, Custody and Control Drafting Committee, as well as the WG1 Defensible Deletion Drafting Committee. He is also a board member of the .406 Data Council and the Indiana University Cybersecurity Advisory Council.

Mr. Kindy received his Bachelor’s degree in accounting with high distinction from Indiana University. He is a CPA in Ohio and Arizona.

Elizabeth B. Vandesteeg, CIPP is a partner in the Financial Services & Restructuring Group at Levenfeld Pearlstein in Chicago, where she focuses on identifying risk exposure and mitigating liability for clients, with a concentration in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, commercial litigation, and data security and privacy. She represents secured creditors, debtors, unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, landlords and shareholders in bankruptcy courts throughout U.S., as well as clients in civil litigation in federal and state courts. Her passion is helping clients identify and resolve potential problems related to creditors’ rights, troubled businesses, bankruptcy and workouts, and business disputes.

Ms. Vandesteeg advises clients on cybersecurity and privacy compliance and regulatory issues. She also guides clients in developing and implementing information security programs that are reasonable and appropriate for their specific business needs and risks, as well as advising them in responding to data breaches, and was instrumental in launching the ABI Journal’s Cyber U column.

Previously, Ms. Vandesteeg was with Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger LLP, where she was a partner and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Boston College.

John G. Loughnane, CIPP is a partner in the Corporate and Transactions Department of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP in Boston and has more than 25 years of experience focused on growing and restructuring companies, including serving as regional corporate counsel (North America) for PTC, a technology company. Mr. Loughnane served as co-chair of ABI’s Technology & Intellectual Property Committee and on the Special Projects Task Force of ABI’s Mediation Committee. He has mediation training and practice.

Mr. Loughnane is a leader in several national organizations, including the American Bar Association, for which he is a Steering Committee member of its Legal Technology Resource Center, and the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), for which is a former trustee of TMA Global and a past president of its Northeast Chapter. He also is an active member of the Boston Bar Association and past co-chair of its Bankruptcy Section.

Mr. Loughnane is a member of Infragard and speaks and writes regularly on dealing effectively with disruption in negotiating, structuring and enforcing deals. He also has served as a board member of the George Washington University Law Alumni Association and as president of the Holy Cross Club of Boston, and he currently is president of the Holy Cross Lawyers Association.

Following his graduation from law school, Mr. Loughnane clerked for Hon. Ronald R. Lagueux of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Loughnane received his A.B. from the College of the Holy Cross and his J.D. with honors from the George Washington University Law School

Hon. Lisa S. Gretchko is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, sworn in on April 5, 2021. Prior to her judicial appointment, she spent several decades as a bankruptcy/ creditors’ rights attorney and represented nearly every constituency in bankruptcy courts around the country, including secured creditors, unsecured creditors’ committees, landlords, licensors of intellectual property, customers, suppliers, business debtors and trustees.

Judge Gretchko has written and lectured extensively for various organizations on numerous bankruptcy and creditors’ rights issues. She currently serves as ABI’s Vice President-Publications and as a member of its Executive Committee and Board of Directors, and chairs its Publications Committee.

Judge Gretchko is a former Executive Editor of the ABI Journal and a former co-chair of the ABI’s Unsecured Trade Creditors Committee, which named her 2014 Committee Person of the Year. She also has been named in Michigan Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America, and she was honored as a Woman in the Law by Michigan Lawyer’s Weekly in 2011.

Judge Gretchko received her B.A. with honors in 1976 from the University of Michigan, where she was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D. with honors in 1978 from the University of Detroit.

Nicolette C. Vilmos is a partner in the Orlando, Fla., office of Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel LLP and chairs the firm’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Practice Group. She concentrates her practice on complex business litigation, including bankruptcy, intellectual property, banking law, foreclosures, lender liability, shareholder and business disputes, noncompete litigation and landlord/ tenant matters across the state of Florida.

Ms. Vilmos’s bankruptcy and creditors’ right practice includes the representation of secured lenders, purchasers of assets from troubled companies, fiduciaries, creditors’ committees and other stakeholders in multi-party disputes and reorganizations. In the area of intellectual property, she has litigation experience in state and federal courts and has represented clients in cases relating to patent infringement, trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, copyright infringement, anti-cybersquatting, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, computer fraud and abuse act, deceptive and unfair trade practices, tortious interference, breach of contract and/or breach of restrictive covenants and other related claims.

Ms. Vilmos counsels clients on various privacy and data-security issues, from system-wide network intrusions and ransomware attacks to cyberextortion, fraudulent wire transfers, e-mail account compromises, stolen computer hardware and employee misconduct. She is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized in Chambers USA: A Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers, was named a “Florida Super Lawyer” by Law & Politics magazine, received a “Women of Achievement Award” from the Women’s Executive Council of Orlando, and was named to the Orlando Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list. She is also a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), an honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.

Ms. Vilmos serves on the board of directors for the Central Florida Bankruptcy Law Association, is an active member of ABI and the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, and is an adjunct professor at Valencia Community College, where she teaches real property law.

Ms. Vilmos received her B.A. cum laude in 1998 from Stetson University and her J.D. cum laude in 2000 from Stetson University College of Law.