Founder and Chair of the Advisory Board

“The pursuit of innovation for innovation’s sake is futile. We can help set your goals and achieve them.”
Lourdes M. Fuentes, Esq.
Karta Legal LLC
M 203.561.7273
Lourdes@kartalegal.com

The genesis of Karta Legal was Lourdes's desire to push forward team, process, and technology innovation and change management. Her approach is unique. She uses curated design thinking, Lean Six Sigma, and Agile project management tools and techniques tailored to the management of the business of law and legal processes. By doing this, the success of any innovation initiative is optimized. This approach also maximizes efficiencies, resulting in significant savings in resources. Lourdes is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Legal Project Manager. Karta Legal's exiting CEO, she now runs a growing law firm as its CEO.

Lourdes's approach to innovation and commitment to legal process improvement has been recognized by the prestigious New York Law Journal. Lourdes was named a New York Trailblazer for being "truly an agent of change," an "innovator," and a "thought leader." She is passionate about redesigning the future of the profession and improving the delivery of legal services with access to all.

In 2021 the National Law Journal selected Karta Legal LLC as a Legal Technology Trailblazer. Very few companies get recognized as a Trailblazer and the fact that our young company was selected among a choice of titans is a testament to Lourdes's innovative approach to legal technology innovation. Not only was the award meaningful for this recognition, but also because Karta Legal LLC was the only WBENC and MBE given this prestigious award. We are epitome of the quest to redefine innovation in the legal industry, not only with the best cutting edge technology but with also diversity in mind.


Lourdes has decades of experience litigating in federal and state courts, and in international arbitrations. Her detour from courtroom to tech-room, from litigator to technologist, happened seamlessly. Years ago, when Big Data and electronic document review began to take over, most lawyers wished it would all go away. Known as the “Fixer,” Lourdes was up to the challenge. She thrived in finding solutions and creating workflows for her clients. She was at the forefront of that critical path that merged IT, litigation support, technology and the law. For the last ten years, Lourdes has led the data, discovery and vendor management in dozens of RMBS cases. Prior to that, she managed discovery efforts for the Madoff Trustee. While her partners handled the claims of the litigation, she handled the logistics to create a well-oiled machine in some of the most high-profile and complex data cases of the last decade. A team builder and skilled negotiator, Lourdes has saved clients millions of dollars in everything from thorny discovery disputes to data management, vendor procurement, auditing, and contracting.

Lourdes has a passion for education and training, and has imparted these values to be at the core of Karta Legal's mission. She remains committed to teach others about process improvement, legal technology, privacy, artificial intelligence, diversity & inclusion, and e-discovery issues.

Education
  • University of Pennsylvania Law School, JD
  • Georgetown University, BSFS
Legal Experience
  • Partner, Grais & Ellsworth 
  • Counsel, Baker Hostetler
  • Counsel, Clyde & Co
  • Special Counsel and Associate, Duane Morris
  • Associate, Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps
Recent Speaking Engagement & Awards
  • Neota Network Global Conference
  • Lawyer Monthly July 2021
  • South Carolina Conference on Innovations in Teaching (SCCIT)
  • America's Top 100 Bet-the-Company Litigators®
2020
  • Faculty and Columnist with High Performance Counsel #CafeConLourdes
  • Webinar for Princeton Legal Search: Dear General Counsel - The Tech Tipping Point Is Now
  • Law School Guest lecturer, e.g.:
    Peking University School of Transnational Law, Shenzhen, China
    University of Pennsylvania Law School
    University of Connecticut Law School
  • LegalWeek: Third Annual Putting Insights into Practice Forum: To the Cloud! Speed, Security and Savings Await - or Do They?
  • LegalWeek 2020: Workshop on Lean Law
  • University of Pennsylvania Law School Law 2030, The Future of the Profession Initiative: Why do lawyers struggle to change?
2019
  • Sedona Conference, WG11: Artificial Intelligence Guidelines & Principles
  • Fairfax Bar, VA, Annual Convention: The Rise of the Technically Competent Lawyer
  • Women, Influence, Power & Law: Driving Legal Tech Innovation with Lean and Agile
  • Future Lawyers Week: Can private practice law firms and tech providers work together to improve efficiency in in-house legal teams?
  • New York Trailblazer, New York Law Journal
  • Discovery Management Firm of the Year
Recent Publications
  • Lean Process Improvement through Lean: Bringing the best of business to the world of law, ILTA
  • Bias in Artificial Intelligence, Law360
  • NewLaw in a New Era
  • The Why and the How of Legal Innovation
  • Tackling the Diversity & Inclusion Challenge using a Lean Six Sigma approach
  • How Technology Can Minimize Revenue Leakage During a Crisis
  • Diversity & Inclusion in Higher Education
Bar Admissions
  • New York State  
  • Southern District of New York
  • Eastern District of New York
  • Western District of New York
  • Northern District of New York
Languages
  • Fluent in Spanish, Native Speaker
  • Proficient in Italian and Portuguese
Professional Affiliations
  • International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)
  • Sedona Conference
  • Women in eDiscovery (WiE)
  • High Performance Counsel
  • Member, Advisory Board, Higher Talent Executive Search
Skills
  • Legal Process Improvement
  • Technology development
  • Agile Legal Project Management
  • Organizational and innovative strategic planning
  • E-discovery process management
  • Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
  • Business architecture
  • Certified Privacy Expert and Vendor Risk Manager Expert
  • Design thinking
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning have infinite potential to improve business processes”
Joseph Gonzalez
Chief Information Officer
T 212.897.9503
M 202.294.4993
jgonzalez@kartalegal.com

Joseph Gonzalez has more than 20 years of experience implementing and managing information and communications technology. A natural educator, he excels at translating complex technology into the language of business.

Joseph has a knack for analyzing business requirements and integrating information technology to support them. He works extensively with vendors to ensure that their services meet client needs. While at the World Bank, Joseph managed vendor relations and contracts with more than 500 software developers and system administrators in the United States and India, radically streamlining processes and reducing risk by consolidating work into strategic agreements.

In the rapidly-evolving technology space, Joseph constantly seeks out the latest products and processes to serve clients better. “Technology is evolving so fast that it is critical to continuously sharpen and share skills,” he says.

Education
  • University of Maryland, University College, MS Computer Science
  • University of Puerto Rico, BS Biology
Professional Experience
  • Information and IT Sourcing Officer, World Bank Group
  • Senior Software Developer / Consultant, Comsys Inc.
  • Senior Technical Staff, Unisys Corporation / SAIC
  • Adjunct Faculty, Anne Arundel Community College and Howard     Community College
  • IT Consultant
Publications and Speeches
  • Self discovery in the Internet and World Wide Web, available through itunes.apple.com, 2012
Technical Certifications
  • Microsoft Professional Program for Data Science Data Science Certification.
  • Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 2016
  • IT Project Management Certificate, George Washington University
Languages
  • Fluent in Spanish
  • Working knowledge of French
  • Basic Chinese (Mandarin)