About Us
Meet the New Era Team
We’re a team of experienced technology industry operators, former general counsels and corporate and litigation attorneys, and the best and brightest technologists and engineers, who share a passion for improving access to justice and making dispute resolution efficient and amicable for everyone.
Collin Williams
Founder and Chairman
Rich Lee
CEO & Founder
Michelle Tyler
Founder & VP, Operations
Shane Mulrooney
Founder & General Counsel
Alexis Perlmutter
VP, Product
Kevin Drost
Chief Financial Officer
Heidi Fleck
Head of Design
Tam Dang
Senior Software Engineer
Anthea Spires
Director, Customer Success
David Mattera
Director of Litigation Services
OUR INVESTORS
We’re backed by leading operators and investors.
We’re grateful to have the support of passionate and committed investors. They share our vision of reducing the massive burden disputes pose to businesses, and they include leading VCs, angels who’ve founded, built, and sold some of the most successful companies in Chicago, leaders from a diverse array of industries, General Counsel from some of the most recognized companies in the United States, partners from leading law firms, and some of our country’s most respected litigators.
Our Advisory Council
We get advice from the brightest minds.
Yes, it’s a big group, but we’re on an ambitious mission tackling a massive problem that leaves no industry untouched. We’re fortunate to have a group of leaders across multiple industries and disciplines who are as dedicated as we are to changing the legal paradigm and who challenge us constantly to deliver the best possible product, ADR process, and customer experience.
David Kalt
Former Founder & CEO of OptionsXpress (acquired by Schwab) and Reverb (acquired by Etsy)
Pete Kadens
Chairman, HOPE Chicago; Former CEO + Co-Founder, Green Thumb Industries
Jae Um
Founder & Executive Director, Six Parsecs
Anthony Casey
Deputy Dean, University of Chicago Law School
Sean Chou
CEO & Co-Founder, Catalytic (acquired by PagerDuty); Former CTO & Co-Founder, Fieldglass (acquired by SAP)
Dan Melnick
Former Co-Founder, CTO & CPO, Reverb (acq’d by Etsy)
Ed Sohn
SVP, Product & Solutions, Factor
Damien Riehl
VP, Litigation Workflow & Analytic Content, Fastcase
Lisa Young
General Counsel, The Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE)
Cara Hardin
Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Marquette University
Michael Perich
VP, Head of Litigation Insurance, Lockton Companies
Chris Shulman
President, Shulman ADR Law, P.A.; NADN Member
Shawn Aiken
Owner, Shawn Aiken, PLLC; NADN Member
Kevin Sherlock
General Counsel, SpotHero
John Higginson
Chief Technology Officer, Chief
Leslie Vickrey
Founder & CEO, ClearEdge Marketing
David Mandelbrot
CEO, Reverb; Former CEO, Indiegogo
Justin Steffen
Partner, Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP
Chris Gibson
Professor of Law & Director of ADR Program, Suffolk University Law School
Brad Serot
Vice Chairman, CBRE
Alex Green
General Counsel, Primient
Dan Abel
CEO & Co-Founder, Pilot Project Brewing
Mark Partin
Chief Privacy Officer, Oracle, Inc.
Charlie Phillips
The Challenge
Our origins begin in the aftermath of a dispute.
“After six years in litigation — over 80 hearings and $1.2M in legal fees — a former client of mine settled his dispute with a business partner on the day of trial for just $30,000.
For anyone in law, this story isn’t shocking. If anything, it’s shockingly common. What struck me was when he called after it was all done and told me:
‘No one’s happy about spending over $1M in legal fees, but the worst part of this whole thing is that at no time over 6 years and 80+ hearings did I ever get a chance to simply share what happened. I know I wasn’t totally right, but I also know I wasn’t totally wrong. All I ever wanted was to look the judge in the eye, tell my story, and have them just tell me whether they sided with me or not. There’s something really wrong with this system, and I needed you to know’
We know it. We’ve each lived it and breathed it. So, we decided to do something about it.”