Prior to CodexTen, Shawn Arnold was vCIO at Hilltop Consultants, Inc. until 2020, and vCIO/Client Services Manager at Leapfrog Services from 2014-2019. With more than 20 years of sales and business development experience combined with his expertise in IT managed services, Shawn realized the great potential eDiscovery held, ultimately leading to his co-founding CodexTen with Clayton Romero. 

Shawn’s acumen with software infrastructure and problem solving was an asset in his career delivering and managing cloud services, IT strategy, and cybersecurity strategy — especially within the legal industry. In addition, as an efficiency fanatic, Shawn believes that eDiscovery is the perfect tool for law firms. For example, after adopting eDiscovery he has witnessed immediate results where a firm’s typical 2–4-week workload is reduced to only 10-12 hours. 

Before computer technology became a common household item, Shawn got his business degree from Mercer University and began his career in sales, however his interest in information technology began at an early age. Influenced by his father’s ambition and forward-thinking instinct, Shawn was always around new technology and received his first computer when he was five — an Apple IIc. 

Shawn admires lawyers and attorneys and all that they must accomplish to be successful in what he views as a very noble and sacred industry. The results from civil or criminal suits are very impactful to someone’s financial future, freedom, or life. That’s why, along with his partners, Clayton and Bart, Shawn is dedicated to providing attorneys with the tools to focus on trial strategy to win more cases. 

As a former pitcher on the Mercer University baseball team, Shawn takes his student-athlete work ethic and applies it to his company. His passions outside of work extend to advocating for college athletics or athletes, mentoring graduating seniors at his alma mater, his lovely wife, Holly, and their fur babies. Learn more about Shawn and his interests on his podcast, TMIPod.

Bart Heres brings more than 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurial leadership to the CodexTen team. Building and leading successful Professional Services organizations, as a Senior Executive, has been the hallmark of Bart’s career. Primarily focusing on the Human Capital & Technology sectors, Bart has founded, led, and profitably exited two such firms, serving diverse clients from global Fortune 100 corporations to small and medium sized businesses. In addition to Bart’s entrepreneurial ventures, he has held P&L leadership and consulting roles with industry leaders such as Honeywell, KornFerry, Pepsico, Experis, and CDI. 

Throughout his career, supplementing his passion for business, Bart has been heavily involved in two other pursuits in which he maintains a keen interest – Career Development & Athletics. He has been a frequent speaker and panelist at a variety of Career Development events and stays actively engaged mentoring and coaching numerous young professionals in their careers and professional development. In prior years, Bart has been a Football Coach from NCAA D1 to Youth levels and particularly enjoys combining these passions with counseling, coaching, and mentoring young student athletes as they pursue their career journeys. 

Graduating from Furman University, where he was an All-Conference four-year Football Letterman, with a degree in Economics, Bart later earned his MBA from Clemson University. Bart and his wife of more than 30 years, Leslie, reside in Roswell, Georgia. They are most proud of both their son, Wilson, a Senior Software Developer, Computer Science graduate of Mercer University, where he also was a three-year Football Letterman, and who is currently an MS student at Georgia Tech; and of their daughter, Lauren, who holds her MS degree in Applied Behavioral Analytics from Georgia State University, a BS in Psychology from the University of Georgia, and currently is employed as a therapist working with autistic children in Atlanta. Outside of work, Bart enjoys spending time with his family, golf, and attending FCS College Football games.

Clayton Romero began working as an IT consultant with his stepdad at the age of 15. His love of problem solving and attention to detail led to him cutting his teeth in forensic data recovery and eventually to technology team management and strategic advisement. By his early 20’s, he had found a home in the legal industry, helping attorneys and law firms confront the unique challenges they face.

After more than a decade of IT directorship and advisement, Clayton seized onto his next challenge — eDiscovery. When firms began to downsize due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he realized that small to mid-sized boutique law firms had a serious problem that they were struggling to solve; how to compete with larger firms and handle modern day discovery. By partnering with his colleague, Shawn Arnold, the two IT professionals founded CodexTen to assist law firms and their attorneys to use their time more efficiently, make better use of billable hours, and enable more effective trial strategy. Clayton and Shawn later brought in Bart Heres as a partner to handle corporate communications and sales while they focused on the technical aspects of CodexTen’s concierge eDiscovery services.

Clayton believes that eDiscovery is in its adolescent stage and once law firms learn about its advantages, and more widely adopt the platform and along with integrating it into their daily operations, there will be no turning back, and the field will continue to grow and innovate.

While Clayton pursues many creative hobbies outside of the legal tech field, these enterprises also challenge and inspire him in ways that enhance his work in eDiscovery. His two daughters, AJ and Evie, keep him and his wife on their toes as well.