The latest leadership shakeup at legal consulting group Morae Global Corporation comes this week in the form of James Neath, former global head of litigation at BP. Neath has been tapped to lead Clutch, the former e-discovery management firm that merged with Morae Global in May.
The new role will have Neath lead the company s efforts around e-discovery, information governance and managed review. Former Clutch Group founder and CEO Abhi Shah moved into a different leadership role as vice chairman of the Morae Global Corporation board following the May acquisition.
Prior to his hire at Morae Global, Neath spent 25 years at oil and gas conglomerate BP, the last 14 of which he spent as assistant general counsel. Neath also worked as an associate at law firm Mayer Brown and clerked for Chief Judge John Reynolds of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Morae Global President and CEO Shahzad Bashir said in a statement that Neath s experience and industry connections in the financial and energy fields suit him well to provide leadership for Clutch s client base.
Jim s extensive litigation experience in the energy sector is a natural complement to Clutch s work in the financial services, energy and life sciences sectors and other highly regulated businesses. Morae Global s clients will find Jim s innovative thinking, deep expertise and client focus tremendous assets, Bashir said.
Neath told Legaltech News that his background in these areas is part of a greater effort on Morae s part to expand their market share.
I look forward to using my very deep understanding of our customers needs in law department transformation and in e-discovery services for complex, multi-jurisdiction investigations, transactions and disputes. We will use this new combination of expertise to strengthen our penetration into key business segments, notably energy, life sciences and financial services, he said.
Varun Mehta, a founding member of Clutch Group and now president of Morae Global s market growth and strategy team, previously told Legaltech News that Morae Global is hoping to broaden its foothold in Europe and Asia, along with strengthening relationships with corporate general counsel and chief compliance officers.
This is the second major leadership announcement Morae Global has made around its merger with Clutch this month alone. In addition to Mehta s promotion from vice president of client engagement at Clutch Group to his current role, former Clutch general counsel Brian Flack now leads the company s global delivery team, and former Morae Legal's chief technology officer is now CTO for Morae Global.