Donna Payne
President and Founder Payne Group
Donna Payne is CEO and founder of Payne Consulting Group, a training and development company headquartered in Seattle, WA. She and the company have authored 12 books on Microsoft Office including the bestselling series: Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms. Payne is an original member of Microsoft Legal Advisory Council, the American Bar Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Project Management Institute. Donna Payne is a frequent speaker at legal and technical conferences worldwide and has spoken to Congressional committees, the Senate, and at international judicial conferences on the subject of metadata and preventing accidental disclosure. She is a columnist for several legal and technical publications; she has been featured in syndicated articles on women in technology.
In March 2004 at the annual tech show for the American Bar Association, Payne received the first ever Lex Proficio award for lifetime service advancement of legal software and publishing.
Robert Affleck
Vice President of Payne Group and President of Development Division
Robert Affleck is Vice President of Payne Group and President of Development. He was the initial developer of Metadata Assistant and works with the company's development team to create useful and innovative products and solutions. Robert is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He holds a Master's degree in Operations Research and has been a featured speaker at conferences and events worldwide. He was a contributing author to Excel Expert Solutions (Que), and a technical editor on Essential Excel 97 (Prima). Prior to joining Payne, Robert worked for Booz Allen and Hamilton, was a Cost Analyst for NASA and an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Tara Byers
Vice President of Development
Tara Byers is vice president of development for Payne Group. Tara holds many product certifications and has extensive legal experience in training, development and project management. Prior to becoming vice president of development, she was in charge of training and migration services.
Karen Walker
Senior Software Developer
Karen Walker is a senior developer with Payne Group. She concentrates on Forms and Numbering Assistant development as well as new development projects. Karen has extensive experience working within a law firm environment. Prior to joining Payne, she worked at the Seattle law firm, Foster Pepper.
Shirley Gorman
Vice President of Client Relations
Shirley Gorman is Vice President of Client Relations for Payne Group. She has over 20 years' experience working in law firms, starting with Word Processing Manager and later as Training & Development Manager for Davis Wright Tremaine, a large international law firm. While working at the firm, Shirley was a member of the Microsoft Legal Advisory Council, She has extensive migration experience working with law firms migrating to new software. She is a speaker at technical conferences and was asked to address the Microsoft developers regarding the specific needs of the legal industry.
Susan Horiuchi
Vice President of Training
Susan Horiuchi is vice president of training with Payne Group. In addition to leading her team of international trainers and project leads, Susan travels to client sites around the world providing high-end technical training, project management and consulting services. Susan is a contributing author of the Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms book series published by Payne, is a contributing author to legal and technical publications, and is a speaker at legal and technical conferences. Prior to her tenure at Payne, Susan has over 10 years’ law firm experience as a legal assistant.
Leah Matthews
Senior Software Developer/Migration Specialist
Leah Matthews is a senior developer with Payne Group. She concentrates on Pleading and Forms Assistants as well as new development projects. Leah also provides migration consulting and onsite development which allows her to pass along her considerable knowledge to internal developers. She has an extensive legal background and has worked at firms such as Lyon & Lyon.
Janet Del Aguila
Lead Integration Specialist/Metadata Assistant
Janet Del Aguila is the lead integration and support engineer for Payne Group's Metadata Assistant. In this capacity, she tests for compliance and integration with document management systems and other third-party solutions. Janet creates customized builds for clients and offers them unparalleled support.
Michelle Guyot
Lead Specialist and Test Engineer /Numbering & Forms Assistants
Michelle Guyot is the lead integration and support engineer for Payne Group's Forms and Numbering Assistants. In this capacity, she tests for compliance and integration with document management systems and other third-party solutions. Michelle works with clients to create products that meet the needs of the individual firm. She offers exceptional support and knowledge.
Dawn Thompson
Office Manager and Assistant to the CEO
Dawn Thompson is the Office Manager for Payne Group's Seattle office. In this capacity, she ensures that the office runs smoothly and is the first point of contact for many clients. Dawn also provides support to the company's CEO.
Michael Whalen
Senior Software Developer
Michael Whalen is a senior developer with Payne Group, who is currently working on the next generation of the Payne Group's Assistant line of software. Michael has extensive experience developing software solutions that work with Office and other applications. Prior to joining Payne, he worked at Microsoft, helping develop Visual Studio Tools for Office.
Sue Hughes
Metadata Assistant Specialist/Senior Office and Applications Trainer
Sue provides support to the Lead Integration Specialist for Metadata Assistant. In this capacity, she tests new Metadata Assistant builds, while providing technical support to our clients. In addition to this technical support, Sue has 16 years experience of software training to support staff, attorneys, executives, government employees, word processors, and help desk technicians. Ten of these years have been with the law offices of Foster Pepper PLLC in downtown Seattle.
Teresa Morris
Senior Developer/Migration Specialist
Teresa Morris comes to Payne Consulting Group with over 25 years of experience in the legal industry, including positions at both law firms and legal software vendors. Most recently she was Applications Manager at a large international law firm, responsible for managing the team tasked with selection, customization, packaging and third level support of all applications running on the Firm's 3,800+ desktops. Previously, Teresa spent several years working for Microsystems as Vice President of Migration Systems. In her role at Microsystems she was responsible for guiding clients through the difficult task of converting their document stores from WordPerfect to Word and advising clients on best practices in the legal document production environment. Teresa has extensive experience with Word and WordPerfect, several years managing large, multi-faceted projects, and significant programming experience.
Kathie Tromba
Administrative Assistant
Kathie Tromba is an administrative assistant with Payne Consulting Group. Prior to joining Payne, Kathie was a Judicial Specialist for Maricopa County Superior Court. She was also a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children and was involved with worthwhile organizations such as the Arizona Literacy Program and Arizona State Victim Services.
Daniel Acosta
Trainer/Project Manager
Daniel Acosta is a lead trainer and project manager with Payne Consulting Group. Daniel has over 10 years of combined training and user support experience, focused entirely on technology in the legal environment. In this capacity, Daniel teaches IT support personnel, attorneys, secretaries, and staff on Payne products, Microsoft Office, e-mail and document management systems, as well as other third-party legal software.
Howard Hansen
Developer (In Memorium - Payne Sends Their Best Wishes to Howard's Family at this Difficult Time)
Howard Hansen is a Developer with Payne Consulting Group. He has been automating Microsoft Office products since 1987. In addition to creating custom solutions for clients, Howard worked at Microsoft developing the first versions of Microsoft Small Business Financial Manager and Microsoft Small Business Contact Manager. Howard also spent several years in the dot com world leading teams of developers building database-driven websites and content management systems.