Sandra Gallini Builds a Bridge Between IT and Legal at Shell

As managing counsel LIG at Shell USA, Sandra Gallini manages a global eDiscovery team that gathers and preserves potential evidence relevant to legal proceedings. The team has developed a strong process not only for identifying potential evidence for specific cases but also for keeping up with ever-changing technology, tracking platforms that Shell employees use to communicate, share documents, and create content.

In that capacity, Gallini prides herself on serving as an intermediary between groups that often speak different languages—IT and legal.

“We tend to talk past each other and often use different vocabulary,” she shares. “I spend my time trying to translate so the litigation team can stay ahead of technology adoption and keep up with the pace of change. We can’t possibly know everything that’s happening in the organization, but when we partner with IT colleagues, we can educate them on the importance of document preservation and Shell’s disclosure obligations in litigation. Meanwhile, we help the legal team understand what technology can do for them.”

Since stepping into her role in 2021, Gallini has closed that gap and more. In addition to being a bridge between technologists and legal professionals, she has focused on building relationships across the organization.

“I surround myself with people who are smarter than me in their area of expertise and I try to support them to do great things,” Gallini says. “I try hard not to get in their way. I don’t know everything and look to my immediate team and business and IT colleagues to fill in the gaps. I like to be around people that I can learn from.”  

Gallini, who grew up on a dairy farm in central Illinois, studied Spanish in college until a faculty advisor suggested that she pursue a career in the law. She went on to take the LSAT, attend the University of Illinois College of Law at Champaign-Urbana, and start her legal career at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale (now UB Greensfelder) in St. Louis, Missouri. For over a decade, she represented businesses in complex commercial litigation in the areas of antitrust and trade regulation, franchise and distribution, motor fuel marketing, and consumer fraud. She also helped modernize the litigation support department and managed eDiscovery in complex litigation. The latter responsibility opened her eyes to how technology could transform the discovery process.

Gallini first experienced electronic discovery in 2005 when she and her team needed to review and collect hundreds of thousands of emails for a commercial dispute. At that point, eDiscovery tools were still relatively new and not user-friendly, so she had to rapidly get up to speed on what was possible. “That’s when I first started thinking deeply about how we could use technology to find what actually matters, especially when dealing with largely unreasonable requests from the claimants,” she remembers.

She credits that journey to shaping her into the leader she is today.

“I have learned from every relationship I’ve built. I’ve had the opportunity to manage complex discovery issues and use the discovery process to further an overall litigation strategy. I enjoy putting the puzzle together, taking these different documents and putting them together in ways that help tell a story when presented in court,” she says.

Gallini advises the next generation of lawyers to be curious. “Learn new things, don’t be afraid to ask why we do what we do,” she recommends. “Being curious is a critical part to individual and professional growth.”