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Gnoêsis is defined as knowledge or wisdom acquired through deep, extensive experience. Our experience gives us the ability to participate in four independent, but closely related areas: strategic legal consulting, contract legal professionals, legal recruiting and document review.
Founded in 2008 by David Aronowitz, Mary Beth Schmidt, and Matt Roberts, The Gnoêsis Group collaborates internally and externally to bring our corporate legal department and law firm clients innovative and cost-effective solutions. With our headquarters in Columbus, Ohio and offices in Cincinnati and Cleveland, we are well-situated to serve clients in the Midwest and beyond. We have worked with AmLaw 25 firms, small firms, boutiques and corporate law departments of all sizes.
The legal landscape is changing and we are creating solutions for our clients that change with it. We thrive on the challenge of providing strategic solutions to help our clients win in a manner that is consistent with our core set of principles: integrity, passion, excellence, service and wisdom.
The Gnoêsis Group Leadership Team
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David M. Aronowitz
President & Chief Executive Officer
Founder and President of The Gnoêsis Group, David Aronowitz graduated with honors from Haverford College and obtained a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985. While he was at Yale, he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and a member of the Yale Moot Court Board. He was a semi-finalist in the school's Barristers Union trial competition and served as commissioner of the Law School's intramural basketball league.
After law school, David was a litigation associate in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He then began a successful career as an in-house attorney and, from 1998 to 2007, he served in the legal department of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.
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At Scotts, he served as the company's Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from 2001-2007. In addition to acting as General Counsel, David was also responsible for the company's environmental, health, safety and security functions, as well as the company's corporate compliance and community relations functions. He defended Scott's in three separate antitrust actions and successfully prosecuted numerous cases in state and federal courts, as well as before the International Chamber of Commerce. These wins not only saved hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, but also netted nearly a hundred million dollars in awards and settlements.
Click Here to Read More About David's Experience at Scotts
While general counsel of Scotts, Mr. Aronowitz, one of The Gnoêsis Group founders, was a heavy user of contract lawyers.
Reacting at first to the high cost and rampant inefficiency of using outside law firm associates for document reviews,
Mr. Aronowitz formed an in-house, full-time discovery unit managed by a Scotts attorney. Utilizing highly competent,
relatively low-cost attorneys for a multi-year document review, he gradually integrated several of these lawyers into
the various Scotts business units, first on litigation projects and, gradually, as members of his legal department's
commercial team. These attorneys performed such regular routine tasks as document gathering, drafting various litigation
documents (complaints, answers, interrogatory responses and the like), due diligence projects and review of routine
contracts, such as non-disclosure agreements, software licensing agreements and commercial lease agreements. The use of
contract lawyers as permanent but flexible fixtures on the Scotts legal team had the effect of significantly displacing
far higher-cost outside lawyers and saved Scotts nearly $2 million a year each year for more than three years prior to
Mr. Aronowitz leaving to found Gnoêsis. Mr. Aronowitz was named one of Inside Counsel magazine's 10 most innovative
general counsel for 2007 for his development of what is known as the "Scotts model".
David is active in the community and currently serves on the boards of:
• Nationwide Children's Hospital (Vice-Chairman, Board of Trustees; Chair, Quality of Care Committee;
Executive Management and Compensation Committee; Executive Committee; and Governance Committee)
• Wexner Center Foundation at The Ohio State University (Chairman, Finance Committee;
Co-Chair, Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Committee)
• The Center for Child and Family Advocacy
• The Columbus Academy (Executive Committee; Education and Student Life Committee;
Diversity Committee; Ad Hoc Committee on Character Development)
In his spare time, David coaches youth basketball, runs marathons, and trains for triathlons.
He and his wonderful wife have three fantastic children.
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Mary Beth Schmidt
Vice President
Mary Beth is a founding member and Vice President of The Gnoêsis Group and has been in the staffing industry for over twenty-five years. A California native, she began her career in the staffing industry after college at Cal State Los Angeles. For the last fifteen years, Mary Beth has been working with law firms and corporate law departments throughout the United States. By integrating contract legal professionals into corporate legal department strategies, she has assisted countless general counsel in reducing legal spending and helped law firms remain competitive in a changing legal environment.
The Gnoêsis Group's Contract Legal Staffing and Document Review divisions are led by Mary Beth.
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Her responsibilities also include building the The Gnoêsis Group brand across the various legal industry sectors. Mary Beth has been involved in her community, church and schools since moving to Ohio in 1996. She is married and the mom of three amazing sons.
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Daniel E. Deal
Vice President
Dan is a Michigan native, where he earned his BA in Business from WMU and his JD from the University Of Detroit School Of Law. He passed the Michigan Bar Examination in 1992. Dan began his career working for Smith Barney, where he worked closely with local estate planning attorneys to develop investment strategies for Trust assets. Dan later joined a Michigan-based telecommunications company, where he led their business development efforts. In that role, Dan was responsible for expanding the company's marketing footprint from 1 state to 9 states, through developing relationships and executing service agreements with some of the nation's largest telecommunications providers. Dan left to join Robert Half in Indianapolis, where he rebuilt the Management Resources Division and led them
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to record sales levelsfor that office. He later joined a start-up technology company that was also a client, and led their Employer Sales Division by selling web-based HR tools to Fortune 1000 companies. For the past 6 years, Dan has worked with corporate legal departments and AmLaw 200 law firms, helping them design and execute cost-effective solutions for legal document review. Dan has experience developing local strategies in cities across the country, centralized onshore strategies and even collaborative onshore/offshore strategies. In recent years, Dan developed and executed a nationwide document review project relating to a Government investigation that required teams of attorneys in 20+ cities.
When Dan's not working with legal professionals, he's spending time with his wife and their 2 young children. He enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing and snowmobiling. Dan is a member of the KLTR Group Executive Network in Chicago.
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Courtney Curry
Director
Courtney graduated from Miami University in 2002 and obtained her J.D. in 2005 from Wake Forest University School of Law. She was a summer associate at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease and, after law school, she accepted a position in their Commercial, Finance, and Real Estate group.
In 2008, Courtney joined The Gnoêsis Group as a Director where her focus is on both the Document Review and Contract Legal Services areas. She has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and Junior Achievement and she also supports the Central Ohio Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, and Susan G. Komen For the Cure.
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Jeremy Burnich
Project Manager
Jeremy graduated from Tulane University in 2000 with a B.A. in English and Philosophy and received his J.D. from Northeastern University in 2003. After law school, he worked as an attorney and project manager for Summit Residential in Connecticut, before moving to New York City to work as a project attorney for Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, L.L.P. Jeremy joined The Gnoêsis Group as Project Manager in 2009.
For Jeremy, the key to success is communication, as well as the efficient coordination of time, people, and tools. Today's technology offers many ways to communicate and Jeremy uses all of the latest tools to automate the dissemination of information. The best project managers know when to use technology and when to use a friendly tap on the shoulder.
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When Jeremy's not hard at work at Gnoêsis, you might find him blowing glass or volunteering at Glass Axis, a non-profit facility for glass artists. He also volunteers at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
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