Executive Profile
Technology executive with 8+ years of progressive leadership in enterprise IT, built within the demanding, compliance-sensitive environment of a major regional law firm. As Director of IT at Wicker Smith, I hold full strategic and operational ownership of the firm's technology function — spanning 15 offices, a multi-million dollar annual budget, and a team of six specialists. My work sits at the intersection of boardroom strategy and technical architecture: I develop multi-year roadmaps, negotiate major vendor partnerships, and personally oversee the infrastructure that keeps hundreds of attorneys and staff productive and secure. Over the past several years, I've led the firm's evolution from a reactive, legacy-dependent IT environment into a modern, AI-enabled, zero-trust infrastructure — all while maintaining the operational continuity a law firm demands. My ongoing MBA candidacy with a Cybersecurity focus reflects a deliberate commitment to pairing executive depth with technical authority.
Impact at a Glance
Zero-Downtime Disaster Response
Commanded the firm's DR/BC activation during Hurricane Ian — achieving zero data loss and zero operational downtime across all 15 offices through years of deliberate planning executed under real-world pressure.
Network Modernization at Scale
Retired the firm's legacy MPLS infrastructure, engineering a high-speed fiber and SD-WAN rollout across 15 offices that delivered measurably higher inter-office performance at significantly reduced recurring cost.
AI Adoption in a Conservative Vertical
Spearheaded the firm's first AI program — deploying Microsoft Copilot and Thomson Reuters CoCounsel to attorneys and staff, driving real productivity gains in a sector historically resistant to emerging technology.
Enterprise Security Transformation
Directed a full-stack security overhaul: FortiGate next-gen firewalls, Zero Trust Network Access, CrowdStrike endpoint protection, and cloud-integrated Duo MFA/SSO with Conditional Access in a Hybrid Azure AD environment.
60% Reduction in Endpoint Image Size
Engineered a zero-touch Windows deployment pipeline that cut the base image from 40GB to 16GB — accelerating provisioning timelines and reducing operational overhead across the firm's distributed workforce.
Security Vendor & SOC Consolidation
Restructured the firm's security vendor portfolio and transitioned to a best-in-class SOC partner — improving threat detection and response capabilities while optimizing the overall security spend.
Professional Experience
Wicker, Smith, O'Hara, McCoy & Ford P.A.
Tampa, FL — 15 Offices Statewide
Director of Information Technology
2020 — Present
Promoted to Director with full ownership of the firm's technology strategy, infrastructure, security posture, and team. Serve as the primary technology partner to firm leadership and the CIO, translating business priorities into scalable, resilient IT outcomes. Accountable for a multi-million dollar annual budget spanning capital projects, cloud and SaaS platforms, and managed security services — all while directly managing a six-person specialist team.
Strategy & Digital Transformation
- Architected and executed a multi-year technology roadmap that transitioned the firm from fragmented, aging systems to a unified, cloud-forward infrastructure — reducing technical debt, improving agility, and positioning the firm for continued growth.
- Led the firm's inaugural AI adoption initiative, selecting and deploying Microsoft Copilot and Thomson Reuters CoCounsel across attorney and staff workflows — driving measurable efficiency gains in legal research, document drafting, and matter management.
- Orchestrated a complete SOC and firewall vendor transition, consolidating the security portfolio around best-in-class platforms and achieving superior threat coverage at optimized spend.
Infrastructure & Operations
- Directed the firm-wide retirement of legacy MPLS in favor of a high-speed fiber and SD-WAN architecture across 15 offices, delivering materially improved inter-office performance and a significant reduction in long-term WAN costs.
- Commanded the execution of the firm's Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plan during Hurricane Ian — a real-world stress test resulting in zero data loss and zero downtime, validating the resilience of years of proactive planning.
- Designed a zero-touch Windows imaging and deployment pipeline that reduced the standard base image by 60% (40GB to 16GB), cutting provisioning time and substantially lowering endpoint management overhead firm-wide.
Security & Compliance
- Governed a comprehensive security stack modernization: deployed FortiGate next-gen firewalls with ZTNA, rolled out CrowdStrike Falcon for advanced endpoint detection and response, and restructured the firm's managed SOC relationship.
- Strengthened identity and access management by migrating Duo MFA to the cloud, integrating SSO across the firm's application stack, and implementing Conditional Access policies within a Hybrid Azure Active Directory environment.
Team Lead & Project Coordinator / Network Engineer
2018 — 2020
Dual-role combining hands-on network and systems engineering with day-to-day team leadership and project ownership. Managed the full lifecycle of infrastructure initiatives while maintaining the firm's network security posture and mentoring junior staff.
- Led critical infrastructure migrations — Exchange on-premise to Microsoft 365 and Xen to Hyper-V — with minimal service disruption and on-schedule delivery.
- Administered SAN storage environments across NetApp and Nimble platforms, ensuring performance, redundancy, and data integrity across the firm's primary data infrastructure.
- Established network security baselines, implemented firewall policy frameworks, and mentored IT team members — building a disciplined, results-oriented team culture.
Technical Proficiencies
Leadership
IT Strategy & Roadmapping · Budget Management · Vendor Negotiation · Team Development · Executive Communication
Security
FortiGate (NGFW, ZTNA) · CrowdStrike Falcon · SentinelOne · SOC/SIEM · GPO Hardening · Incident Response
Cloud & Identity
Azure AD / Entra ID (Hybrid) · Microsoft 365 · Duo MFA/SSO · Conditional Access · Exchange Online
Infrastructure
Hyper-V · VMware · Windows Server · Pure Storage · Dell & HPE Nimble SANs · DR/BC Planning
Networking
SD-WAN (Aruba, FortiGate) · Cisco Switching · VLANs · Fiber/Broadband WAN · Network Architecture
Automation
PowerShell · Zero-Touch Imaging · RMM/Monitoring · MDM · Endpoint Lifecycle Management
Education & Credentials
Master of Business Administration (MBA) — Cybersecurity Emphasis
University of West Florida · Pensacola, FL
In Progress — Expected December 2026
Bachelor of Science — Biomedical Sciences / Public Health (Cum Laude)
University of South Florida · Tampa, FL
Microsoft 365 Identity & Services (MS-100) · 2020
Certified Meraki Networking Associate (CMNA) · 2019