William J. Long

Phone: (205) 488-1138
Fax: (205) 488-1101
Email: blong@aeagroup.com
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Mr. Long is a Principal and Digital Forensics/ eDiscovery Practice Leader of AEA Group. He specializes in matters involving digital information, electronic discovery and digital forensics. Mr. Long has over thirty-five years of experience in technology as well as many phases of business activity. In addition to his technology background, Mr. Long has experience in management (including service as CEO) as well as marketing, accounting, and finance. He is a Digital Forensic Certified Practitioner, Certified Computer Examiner, Certified Fraud Examiner and has the Data Recovery Expert Certification. Mr. Long has served as a court-appointed independent computer expert and has testified at trial as a digital forensic expert.

Mr. Long has been involved in digital forensics and electronic discovery relating to litigation involving intellectual property, internal examinations, commercial disputes, and labor. He has provided technology consulting services to various industries including utility, healthcare, legal, construction, manufacturing, technology, insurance, engineering, and distribution, as well as government. He has experience in designing, implementing, and/or managing systems, data bases, voice/data networks, and other information technology applications.

Mr. Long has direct experience in several start-ups, combinations and spin-offs involving both public and private companies. Mr. Long managed a successful technology start-up company providing custom payment automation solutions to major national and international companies in banking, healthcare, insurance, utility, and publishing. He was involved in detailed design of computer hardware and software components, and jointly held two patents. He formulated and implemented a business plan for a specialty construction technology firm that contributed to its inclusion in the INC 500 listing of fastest growing private companies, and later oversaw that company’s successful initial public offering.

Mr. Long has digital forensic examinations experience including recovery, preservation and identification of case-relevant information (including recovering deleted files and email) from workstations, servers, PDAs and other electronic media and devices. Examination procedures include assuring integrity of original media, preparation and verification of bit-image copies of original media, establishment and maintenance of chain of custody, extracting e-mail and files from enterprise servers, utilization of forensic-specific tools, and generating reports. Specific digital forensic tools utilized include Forensic ToolKit®, EnCase®, NetAnalysis, and X-Ways Forensics.

Mr. Long’s digital forensic examinations have included: intellectual property and trade secret matters, including identification of activity relating to copying specific information, usage of specific attached memory devices, documentation of computer usage patterns, and substantiating the existence (or prior existence) of specific information; labor and employment matters, including documenting patterns of inappropriate usage, recovery of deleted documents and photographs, and recovery of e-mail; medical malpractice matters involving the authenticity of digital information; internal examination of financial matters, combining digital forensic techniques and financial examination procedures; identity theft matters, involving website preservation and archiving, review of server logs, along with interaction with site hosts, service providers and law enforcement; recovery, extraction and/or examination of digital information with respect to commercial disputes involving breach of contract, malpractice, fiduciary duty/governance and spoliation issues.

Mr. Long’s electronic discovery activities include: interfacing between legal, corporate and information technology teams with respect to electronic discovery issues, plans and procedures as well as consultation with respect to discovery requests and responses, online repositories and document production; preservation of digital information using methodology to prevent spoliation and ensuring chain of custody, followed by identification of relevant documents and email, de-duping and de-NISTing, with subsequent production of documents in native form, document image, and paper formats, including usage of Internet-based secure on-line repository; additional activities include recovery of information from damaged hard drives, damaged file server RAID, recovery of information from legacy systems and supervision of production of electronic mail from enterprise server.

Other technical experience includes hardware/software design, system installation and support of mainframes, minicomputers, servers and personal computers using multiple applications and operating systems, various programming languages (including machine code) as well as proficiency in general and specific purpose tools.

Mr. Long’s financial examinations and consultations experience includes financial examinations regarding source and use of diverted funds; examination involving abandoned computer systems to uncover financial data; digital forensic examination uncovering unexpected billing irregularities; played key role in forensic examination of computer network systems and business computers including inspection of pc hard drives, network servers, and wide-area networking provisioning; examination of bankruptcy matters that included due care of directors and management responsibilities; assisted bankruptcy trustee in safeguarding computer networks and access thereto.

Professional Certifications

Digital Forensic Certified Practitioner (DFCP), Digital Forensics Certification Board
Certified Computer Examiner (CCE), International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners
Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Professional & Business Affiliations

Associate Member, American Bar Association, Section of Litigation
Vice President, Digital Forensics Certification Board
Member, International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners
Member, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Member, Infragard, Birmingham Chapter

Education

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry & Computer-Based Honors, University of Alabama, 1974

Community & Civic Affiliations

Member, Rotary Club of Birmingham

Lectures

Co-lecturer, “Computers, Internet, and E-Mails: Electronic Discovery and Evidence”, December 2010 Barristers Educational Services
“EDD” August 2010 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Co-Lecturer, “Finding it Fast and Free Online Research for your legal practice”, December 2009 National Business Institute Seminar
Co-Lecturer, “Digital Forensics and the PI Laws”, May 2009 CEIC
“Electronic Discovery”, March 2009 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Co-Lecturer, “Finding it Fast and Free on the Net: Strategies for Legal Research on the Web”, December 2008 National Business Institute Seminar
“Basic Computer Concepts for New Litigation Professionals,” March 2008 Litigation Support Leaders Superconference
“Fraud Forensics” and Co-Lecturer “ESI in Criminal Matters,” February 2008 The Computer Forensics Show
Co-Lecturer, “Life under the E-Discovery Rules in the Northern District,” Federal Practice and Procedure 2007, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University

Publications

Co-Author “Internet Litigation: Trappings (and Traps) of Technology”, Commercial & Business Litigation, Volume 7, No. 4, Summer 2006, American Bar Association
Co-Author ”Managing and Coordinating Information for Litigation in Multiple Jurisdictions”, Commercial & Business Litigation, Vol 7, No. 1, Fall 2005, American Bar Association
“Collaboration via Extranet in Business Cases,” Commercial & Business Litigation, Volume 5, No. 2, Summer 2004, American Bar Association