Manhattan Forensic Examinations, eDiscovery and Expert Testimony
Manhattan Digital Forensics for Trading and Chat Disputes
In a Manhattan dispute the deciding facts sit in Bloomberg chats, Teams threads, trading platform logs and a handset nobody has imaged yet. Global Digital Forensics preserves those records, puts them on one clock and reconstructs who did what, and when, from the artifacts themselves. The examiner who builds that record writes the report and defends it before the Southern District, the Commercial Division or an arbitration panel.
Manhattan coverage
From Wall Street to Hudson Yards, One Office Line
Manhattan concentrates the industries that produce the hardest digital evidence. Banks and broker dealers in the Financial District, funds and family offices in Midtown, media and advertising around Flatiron and SoHo, enterprise software in Chelsea and Hudson Yards and the law firms along Sixth and Third avenues all run on records nobody wrote to be evidence: Slack and Teams threads, Bloomberg chats, handsets, SaaS audit logs, endpoint telemetry and cloud control plane events. Those records decide cases, and many of them expire on a retention clock that starts long before a complaint is filed.
Call the New York office at (212) 561-5860 and a senior examiner takes the matter that day; examiners are dispatched across the borough around the clock for active incidents. Working meetings happen at your law firm's office, at the client site or by video, and collections happen where the devices and custodians are. The practice that examined the disputed metadata in COMLAB v. Kal Tire scopes every examination against the forum, the schedule and the question counsel needs answered, and the examiner who does the work signs the report and takes the stand.
Still on a retention clock? Call the 24/7 hotline at (800) 868-8189 and we will tell you what can be held today.
Manhattan venues and custodians
Four Forums That Test Manhattan Evidence
SDNY (500 Pearl and 40 Foley Square)
Civil and criminal matters in the Southern District of New York call for preservation, collection, processing and expert reporting scaled to the schedule the assigned judge sets. In COMLAB v. Kal Tire the court accepted Joseph Caruso as an expert in computer forensics and computer science and described his testimony as highly credible, and the workpapers behind that kind of opinion are prepared from the first day for opposing expert review and Daubert scrutiny.
New York County Supreme Court (60 Centre Street)
Commercial Division and general docket matters turn on business records subpoenaed under CPLR 3120, ESI orders and the electronic discovery requirements set by the applicable state rules and the case order. We prepare the technical record so counsel can meet those obligations with a defensible account of what was collected and how.
Financial regulators (NYDFS, SEC New York, FINRA)
A Manhattan bank, broker dealer or insurer needs a technical record that holds up in front of an examiner as well as a judge: the testing and incident documentation a 23 NYCRR Part 500 program calls for, the collection behind a regulator's document request, or the forensic support a FINRA arbitration demands. We build that record so it can go straight into the regulatory conversation.
AAA and JAMS arbitration
Commercial arbitration runs on compressed schedules, and the technical opinion has to be ready when the panel is. Our expert practice includes arbitration alongside federal district court, multidistrict litigation and ITC Section 337 proceedings, and workpapers are organized for the opposing expert's review from the start.
Where the record will be tested decides how the workpapers are prepared. Read how that preparation held up in COMLAB v. Kal Tire before you scope the matter.
Manhattan practice notes
Desk by Desk, How Manhattan Matters Differ
Financial District and Wall Street matters
Broker dealer and fund disputes usually involve order management and execution management systems, trading platform logs, Bloomberg messaging, personal devices used for business and the surveillance records the compliance team keeps under SEC and FINRA recordkeeping rules. We scope preservation so the trading record lines up in time with the communications record, because that alignment is often the point on which a FINRA arbitration or an enforcement matter turns.
Midtown corporate matters
Corporate matters in Midtown run through Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Teams and increasingly through enterprise AI tools. Collection starts by establishing which messages, audit events, prompts and responses actually exist under the tenant's licenses and retention settings, counsel defines the discovery scope and we document the logging gaps before the records age out. Endpoint evidence adds the context the tenant logs cannot.
Chelsea, Flatiron and SoHo technology companies
Technology company disputes live in GitHub or GitLab, Slack, Notion, Figma, on call records and cloud accounts with wide IAM permissions. Trade secret and departing employee matters are the common thread, and the work is reconstructing what code, what documents and what customer data the departing custodian touched, with every finding tied to the artifact it came from.
Manhattan law firm collaboration
Lead counsel sets the case schedule and the preservation priorities; we turn them into a dated protocol. It lists what has been authorized, what is still at risk and what is waiting on instructions, and it is updated as each source is confirmed, so the litigation team always knows which collection dates are firm.
If your matter sits in one of these four rooms, describe the systems and the schedule and a senior examiner will propose the preservation protocol.
Frequently asked
Trading Floors, Chats and Market Data
How fast can an examiner reach Midtown for an incident?
Call the hotline with the incident location, the affected systems, the access you have and the operating contacts. Remote preservation begins as soon as authority is confirmed, and the examiner assigned to the matter gives you an arrival time for any on site work in Midtown before the call ends.
Can collections be done at a Manhattan law firm's office?
Yes, when the source and the authority permit it. We confirm the receiver, safe access, the acquisition method and the custody documentation before equipment is brought or moved, so the collection at a law firm's office produces the same defensible record as one performed at the client's premises.
Do you handle Wall Street matters that involve market data?
Yes. Broker dealer, hedge fund and family office matters regularly involve order management systems, trading platform logs, Bloomberg messaging and personal device data. Preservation is scoped so the trading records line up in time with the communications, and the report keeps a displayed quote or an account login to exactly what it shows.
Separate the Trading Record From the Account Activity
For a trading, payment or professional services dispute, we identify the account and transaction systems, the messaging sources and the authorized owner of each before anything is collected. Proprietary records and vendor held chat each get their own supported export, and the source table pairs an order identifier with the message and the account event around it while keeping each source's clock and export basis intact.
Our report keeps a displayed quote separate from an executed trade and an account login separate from the person at the keyboard. Tenant permissions, retention, the date range and any platform specialist the matter needs are settled up front, and the first handoff lists what was collected and what is still outstanding.
The source table is the first thing we build, and it is the first thing worth asking for. Send the systems involved and the date range to start it.
Talk with an examiner
Start the Manhattan Source Table Today
Name the systems, the custodians and the date range. A senior examiner calls back, hears the matter in confidence and proposes what to preserve first. The first consultation is free.
Since 1992 · 24/7 dispatch · Court tested experts
Start here
Retain the Examiner Before Opposing Counsel Does
The first call covers the facts, the records most at risk, the handover of devices or tenant access and a realistic timeline to a report. The examiner sets up a secure transfer for evidence and credentials.
Manhattan matters: (212) 561-5860
GDF does not accept pro se litigation cases, and GDF may decline matrimonial or family law cases at our discretion.
Reviewed by Joseph Caruso, Founder, CEO and CTO, CISSP. Last reviewed .