J. Todd Trivett
    Managing Director

    Todd Trivett is a recognized industry expert in Information Technology, providing software expertise and expert witness testimony in IT and software-related litigation.

    Phone: 202.302.8992 / 301.251.6313
    [email protected]
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    CERTIFICATIONS

    • Project Management Professional (PMP)

      Project Management Institute

    • Professional Software Engineering Master (PSEM)

      Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS)

    • Certified Software Tester

      International/American Software Testing Qualifications Board

    • Certified Scrum Master

      Scrum Alliance

    Todd Trivett has spent over 35 years in IT consulting, managing large IT implementations for a “Big 4” consulting firm and a global systems-integration company, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. He is also a skilled forensic investigator in mismanagement and corruption, copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and data analytics.

    Todd has served as a consulting or testifying expert in 50+ cases involving IT project failure and software intellectual property infringement. He has been engaged as a consulting expert in cases before federal and state courts and domestic and international arbitrations, and has been accepted and testified as an expert witness in federal court, state court, and arbitration hearings. Todd has also served on cases in the U.S Court of Federal Claims (CFC). A notable example of Todd’s case experience is the Virginia state trial of Blue Line Media v. Redmon Group, where Todd proffered an expert report, deposition testimony, and expert witness testimony at trial on behalf of plaintiff to establish defendant’s failure to develop a promised web site in accordance with project management and software engineering industry standards. The landmark case is the first application of the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA). In the absence of or in addition to contractual obligations, UCITA prescribes, inter alia, standards of care including “good faith” and “merchantability” in the development of customized software and allows for damages recovery in excess of monies exchanged. Jury awarded plaintiff full extent of damages claim (more than double fees paid to defendant), resulting in the 13th largest jury award in the state of Virginia for the year.

    In 2004-2005, Todd was appointed as Team Leader of Forensics to the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For-Food Program by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. He led a team of attorneys, forensic accountants, and international investigators in examining the seven-year operation of the program office charged by the United Nations Security Council and Secretariat to administer over $120 billion in oil sales and humanitarian goods supply. Investigation resulted in findings of poor organization, management, and oversight of the program as well as individual and corporate violations of ethics, national criminal laws, and international sanctions.

    Representative Experience

    Kemper Corporate Services, Inc. v. Computer Sciences Corporation

    Nature of Suit: Software project failure matter regarding a property & casualty policy administration and billing application
    Role: Consulting expert

    • Todd analyzed documents and testimony related to Computer Science Corporation’s (CSC) product management process to determine that the application met neither CSC’s own nor industry standards of what constitutes a “generally available” software product
    • Todd demonstrated that CSC’s JOBOL code violated numerous standards and opined that CSC’s application could not be considered a true, object-oriented “Java application”

    Toronto Community Housing Corporation v. ISSI Systems

    Nature of Suit: Software project failure matter regarding a tenant management system
    Role: Testifying expert

    • Todd reviewed documents, interviewed fact witnesses, analyzed source code, and performed functional validation testing to determine whether the system provided was ready for production
    • Todd testified regarding his findings that ISSI Systems had misrepresented its product’s capabilities and that the product was materially defective

    BearingPoint, Inc. v. United States (Department of the Interior)

    Nature of Suit: Software project failure matter regarding a customized SAP financial management system
    Role: Consulting expert

    • Todd performed schedule delay analysis to establish that the Department of Interior’s (DOI) termination for cause was inappropriate due to excusable delays caused by the DOI
    • Todd performed a percent complete analysis to determine damages owed to BearingPoint under proper termination for convenience

    EDUCATION

    • M.B.A., Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

    • B.A., summa cum laude, North Carolina State University

    Top Cases

    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by the California State Controller’s Office in this software failure dispute involving the implementation of a statewide payroll system.
    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by ConnectU in this trade secret misappropriation dispute involving allegations that Mark Zuckerberg used the plaintiff’s source code and trade secrets to create Facebook.
    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by Waste Management in this software failure dispute involving the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

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