2023 Global Leaders in Consulting: Veeral Gosalia

Veeral Gosalia specializes in electronic discovery and data preservation with a focus in computer forensics and cross border matters.

Mr. Gosalia has assisted law firms and corporations in conducting investigations and complex litigations in matters involving anti-cartel, FCPA, IP theft, and complex accounting and financial issues. He has testified in several high-profile matters involving sealed grand jury cases, chain of custody and evidence management, handling and spoliation issues.

Mr. Gosalia is a trained computer forensics expert. He has served as project lead on matters related to the forensic acquisition and examination of computer systems, email and other electronic communication systems.

Additionally Mr. Gosalia has experience working with international data privacy issues in relation to data transfer and data recovery efforts. Mr. Gosalia has extensive experience in large electronic discovery document processing and review projects. Having set up several remote data processing and review sites across the world, he is familiar with processing foreign language data and has developed machine language translation workflows.

Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Gosalia worked at Deloitte & Touche in the Dispute Consulting practice, where he assisted the forensic accounting team with the data transformation and analysis of structured and transactional data systems.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

I'm very proud of the practice we have built in Asia and how it has come together with a team of amazing people who are fully equipped to deliver incredible results—and much of that growth was during a pandemic. It's also interesting because in Asia, there isn't a domestic e-discovery need, so it's not often a job people in those jurisdictions are seeking out. It's been such a great experience recruiting people into this field and seeing them realize it's a career niche they didn't know was possible, but they truly enjoy.

I've always wanted to do something with a global and international impact, so it has been a gift to be able to do that and to see a kind of beauty in the way the team is now working.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

Be as curious as possible. Ask a lot of questions and don't be afraid to wonder why things are the way they are. If there's an opportunity to improve, do that, and really question everything you encounter, with the aim of making things better. Curiosity has truly been the most helpful attribute that I've had in my career, and I believe a lot of my success has been a result of asking questions and trying to see things from a different angle. It's helped me solve really tough problems for my clients and in many cases, get in front of challenges or requests before they happen. It's also helped me build out new service offerings, simply by taking the time to really think about the underlying factors of why processes are the way they are, or what the ultimate purpose is of a certain project. I find curiosity to be impactful in almost every client engagement.

So, have curiosity as part of your everyday working life, all throughout your journey.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

I've really enjoyed how much it's changed over the course of time. You can't be bored doing this type of work, and there are always new challenges to face. I love that we constantly have to evolve how we approach our work and how we go to market.

What's the best advice — personal or professional — you've ever received.

From a career perspective, I continue to follow advice I once received, which is a bit of a contrarian view that a career should be a sprint and not a marathon. I fully believe that. In my line of work in high-stakes disputes and investigations, I have to move very quickly and go forward very fast, taking an idea and running with it. Often, our clients are in adversarial positions when they call us, and they're looking to win in a dispute. There has to be an element of advancing quickly in order to deliver the best results. Ultimately, things change so quickly in consulting, and you have to move rapidly through it, like a sprint.

What does being honored as a Global Leader mean to you?

I'm grateful for the recognition. It's often hard for people to understand the area I work in, and the accomplishments that accompany that work, so recognition is unusual. That's why this is particularly special and I appreciate that this program can bring to light the impact that people in my field make in their work all the time.