Steven R. Kursh, Founder
Steven R. Kursh, Ph.D., CSDP, CLP is a seasoned management consultant and expert witness. He has significant “in-the-field” experience in the enterprise software industry including serving as the founder and president of an enterprise software company that was acquired by a Fortune 200 company; working as a senior-level management consultant for numerous software companies and other enterprises; conducting research and publishing articles; and developing and teaching masters-level college courses in business schools and engineering schools.
He has been deposed over fifty times, testified before arbitration panels over ten times, and testified in court in over twenty trials.
Dr. Kursh has worked as a management consultant in non-litigation work or as an expert witness for numerous companies, including Adobe, Allscripts, Alpine, AT&T, Bank of America, Barnes & Noble, Bloomberg, Boston Scientific, Broadcom, Cardinal Health, CDW, Citigroup, Cognizant (TriZetto), Comcast, Common Application, EMC, Facebook (Instagram), Federal Insurance (Chubb), GoDaddy, H&R Block, HP, Harley Davidson, Home Depot, Honeywell, HSBC, Hyundai, IBM, Intermountain Health, Invesco, LivePerson, Marriott, Mastercard (APT), Microsoft, MSCI, Regents of the University of California, ResMan, Risk Based Security, Rocket Software, SAIC, Samsung, Skillz, SiteLock, TD Ameritrade, Toyota, Uber, Unisys, USAA, Valeo, Verizon, Yardi, government agencies, private equity firms, and many other organizations.
He has been privileged to work as an expert witness with outstanding litigation teams from many law firms, including: Alston & Bird; Arnold & Porter; Baker Hostetler; Boies Schiller Flexner; Choate; Covington & Burling; Dentons; Fish & Richardson; Foley & Lardner; Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Greenberg Traurig; Hogan Lovells; Hueston Hennigan; Jackson Walker; K&L Gates; Keker Van Nest & Peters; Kellogg Hansen; Kilpatrick Townsend; Kirkland & Ellis; Marshall Gerstein & Borun; McCarter & English; Mintz; Morrison Foerster; Perkins Coie; Quinn Emanuel; Sidley Austin; Skadden; WilmerHale; and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Dr. Kursh’s academic experience includes developing and teaching courses at Northeastern University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the MIT Enterprise Forum, and at a leading business school in Central Europe as a Fulbright Scholar. More recently he joined the faculty at the Vanderbilt University in the School of Engineering as an Adjunct Professor.
He has been honored with multiple teaching awards and consistently high-teaching evaluations.
Steve is the author of over fifty articles covering business and/or technology and a book published by Financial Times Prentice-Hall. He serves as a reviewer for AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), ABE (Academy for Business Education), and other academic and practitioner publications in business and technology. He is an inventor, angel investor, and owner of a patent.
Steve earned his A.B. at Boston College (where he graduated with Latin Honors and was awarded the Scholar of the College Distinction) and his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. He has earned the IEEE Computer Society Software Development Professional certification (CSDP) and the CLP designation (Certified Licensing Professional) from the Licensing Executives Society (LES).
He was named in 2021 to the Inaugural Class of the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Contributors.
Dr. Kursh’s recent publications include papers titled “Last Rites for Perpetual Software Licenses?” (January 2026), “Assessing the Impact of Software As A Service (SaaS) Innovations on Disrupting the Enterprise Software Industry” (December 2024); “An Introduction to the ‘How To’ for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning” (December 2021); and “Revisiting Goldilocks: Reasonable Measures to Protect Trade Secrets in an Era of Enterprise Collaboration and Cybersecurity Risk Management” (September 2025).