John Isaza, Esq., FAI

John Isaza Esq. FAI is one of the country’s foremost experts on privacy, information management, electronic discovery, and legal holds. He has developed privacy, information governance, and records retention programs for some of the most highly regulated Fortune 100 companies, including related regulatory research opinions. His clients range from the Fortune 100 to startups, the latter of which he has served also as outside General Counsel.

In the past few years, Mr. Isaza took a sabbatical from his law practice to launch a cloud-based software called Virgo, to which some of the most highly regulated organizations have subscribed such as Facebook, NASA, Microsoft, Delta Airlines, Bosch, City of Boston, Visa, and Viacom to name a few. His hard work culminated in the sale of Virgo to Boston-based Access Corp in January of 2020.

Prior to joining Rimon, Mr. Isaza was co-founder and Partner of Howett Isaza Law Group, a boutique law firm specializing in corporate compliance matters, complex business, real estate, construction, employment, and environmental litigation.  Immediately prior to that, he served as in-house General Counsel to a publicly-traded medical device manufacturer, now owned by Abbott Laboratories.  Mr. Isaza rounds out his previous experience with over a decade as a trial lawyer specializing in business, environmental contamination, products liability and construction defects.  During that time, he served as Arbitrator for the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Mr. Isaza attended Boston College Law School, where he served as Editor of the International Law Review.  In 1989, he served as Judicial Extern in the United States District Court of Massachusetts, Honorable David S. Nelson.

Pre-order John’s book 7 Reasonable Steps for Legal Holds of ESI and Other Documents here

Thought Leadership

Mr. Isaza is a highly sought-after speaker in the ABA, ARMA, AIIM, American Bankers, and IT compliance circuits. Mr. Isaza has served on various sub-committees of the ABA, including the Consumer Privacy and Data Analytics as well as the Social Media sub-committees of the Cyberspace Committee, both of which he chaired; he was the editor in chief and contributing author of the ABA’s Handbook on Global Social Media Law for the Business Lawyer, and a contributing author to the ABA’s Internet Law 2nd Edition, as well as ARMA’s GARP® Metrics & Audit Guide; he is past President of the Greater Los Angeles ARMA Chapter and of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County; he served on the Board of Directors of ARMA International, the Orange County Bar Association, and Orange County’s Public Law Center. Mr. Isaza co-authored a book entitled 7 Steps for Legal Holds of ESI & Other Documents released in July 2009, with the second edition scheduled for release in the fall of 2022. He is the 2008 recipient of ARMA’s prestigious Britt Literary Award.  In 2011, Mr. Isaza was named the 45th Fellow of ARMA International (the “FAI” designation after his name) – the highest honor bestowed by the professional association of records and information managers.

Selected Experience

• Leading consulting teams to develop information governance strategies
• Serving as legal counsel on international information governance programs
• Serving as general counsel to start-ups and mid-sized companies, including creation of operations abroad
• Developing electronic systems needs assessments, including implementation of systems
• Developing process-based records retention schedules, data maps, electronic communication policies, procedures, and litigation holds policies
• Conducting international research of compliance and record retention regulatory matters
• Delivery and development of extensive records and information management policy training programs

Awards and Recognition

• Appointed, Fellow of ARMA International (FAI) #45
• Recipient, Britt Literary Award, ARMA International
• Recipient, President’s Award, Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County

Publications

• Editor in Chief/Contributing author, Handbook on Global Social Media Law for the Business Lawyer (2014)
• Contributing author, ABA’s Internet Law Guide, 2^nd Edition (2012)
• Author, “Garp® and Its Weight on the Legal Profession,” Information Management (January 2012)
• Contributing author, GARP® Metrics & Audit Guide (November 2011)
• Author, “Metadata in Court,” ARMA Educational Foundation (November 2010)
• Co-author, 7 Steps for Legal Holds of ESI & Other Documents, ARMA International (April 2009)
• Author, “Legal Holds for Anticipated Litigation,” ARMA Educational Foundation (October 2007)
• Author, “E-Discovery Compels a Seat for RIM,” Information Management Journal (January 2007)

Representative Speaking Engagements

• Speaker, NAGARA, Playbook for Pandemic Related Records, March 2022, Washington, DC
• Speaker, MER Conference, Pirvacy Security in Information Governance, May 2021, Chicago, IL
• Keynote, ABA Business Annual Conference, Privacy Twilight Zone: Covid and Work, September 2020, Boston, MA
• Speaker, GLA ARMA, California Consumer Privacy Act Compliance Workshop, May 2019, Los Angeles, CA
• Speaker, The Push & Pull of Privacy versus Retention, January 2019, New York, NY
• Speaker, MER Conference, Social Media Litigation & Discovery, May 2018, Chicago, IL
• Speaker, ARMA International, Strategies for Data Disposition, October 2017, Orlando, FL
• Speaker, LegalTech, Compliant Big Data Management and Analytics, July 2017, San Francisco, CA
• Speaker, GLA ARMA, Blockchain Applications to Information Governance, April 2017, Los Angeles, CA
• Speaker, ABA Business Section, Biometrics Data: It’s Not Just Fingerprints Anymore, January 2017, Atlanta, GA
• Speaker, Rimon Webinar, Social Media: Ethics and Records Considerations, January, 2017, Nationwide
• Speaker, ARMA International, Predictive Coding and RIM, October 2016, San Antonio, TX
• Speaker, MER Conference, Can Paper Records Be Destroyed?, May 2016, Chicago, IL
• Speaker, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Trustee as Investigator, February 2013, Scottsdale, AZ
• Speaker, Legal Tech New York, Shine a Light on Your Dark Data, January 2013, New York, NY
• Speaker, Asia Pacific Institute of Mgt., GARP as International Standard, July 2012, Honolulu, HI
• Keynote, Nexus Conference, Keynote Speaker on Digital Haystack, November 2009, Bellevue, WA
• Keynote, CARIFIG, Keynote Speaker on Legal Holds, October 2009, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
• Speaker, Managing Records in Sharepoint, MER Conference, May 2012, Chicago, IL
• Speaker, Policies, Technologies and Processes to Improve Compliance, Legal Tech West Coast, May 2011, Los Angeles, CA
• Speaker, Electronic Record Considerations in Corporate Transactions, American Bar Association, April 2011, Boston, MA
• Speaker, Information Governance in the Cloud, ARMA Milwaukee, April 2011, Milwaukee, WI
• Speaker, Mock Meet & Confer, IBM Video Series, Spring 2010, Costa Mesa, CA
• Speaker, E-Discovery in Web 2.0, Recall User Conference, February 2010, Riverside, CA
• Speaker, GARP Principles, Legal Tech New York, February 2010, New York, NY
• Keynote, The Digital Haystack, Nexus Conference, November 2009, Bellevue, WA
• Keynote, Legal Holds, CARIFIG, October 2009, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
• Speaker, Mock Trial, Municipal Clerks Association, October 2008, Tucson, AZ
• Speaker, Records Management Face to Face, American Bankers Association, October 2008, Las Vegas, NV
• Speaker, Mock Meet & Confer Program Series, IBM User Conferences, Fall 2008, Nationwide