William L. Payne

Fortunately, my 35-year career began during a transformative era when technology was rapidly integrating into the legal and business sectors, perfectly aligning with my deepest professional passions. This remarkable convergence enabled me to cultivate -- through a relentless work ethic -- an exceptionally diverse and multifaceted skill set that combines expertise in law, business, and technology. It has been my privilege to seize opportunities and construct a uniquely comprehensive foundation of knowledge and adaptability. An even greater privilege is to use that foundation to serve as the General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of Cayuse Holdings and to contribute to a bold and inspiring vision led by its founder, Randall Willis. His vision is profoundly rooted in empowering Native Americans by creating meaningful career opportunities in technology and business services, all while ensuring they remain deeply connected to their cultural heritage and communities. As a Native American leader with a distinguished 37-year career at Accenture—where he drove large-scale business and technology transformations across five continents—Randy brought unparalleled expertise paired with an unwavering commitment to addressing critical challenges through innovation. In 2005, Randy partnered with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) to establish Cayuse Technologies, a company offering low-cost, onshore outsourcing solutions. What began as a small, dedicated team has flourished into a robust, multi-subsidiary enterprise that provides services to government, commercial, and tribal markets. Today, Cayuse generates annual revenues exceeding $125 million while remaining steadfast in its mission. The company’s overarching aspiration is to become the leading American Indian-owned contractor, serving the commercial, government, and tribal sectors. I am honored to be a small part of this meaningful story.

As Managing Director of Cayuse Commercial Services, the goal was to transform the commercial division and expand its offerings into a scalable and sustainable growth engine. At the time, the division was generating $5 million in annual revenue, supported by a dedicated but limited team and scope of services. A foundational group of experienced professionals, skilled in inbound marketing, business development, and content creation, became the cornerstone of our efforts. This team brought not only unmatched expertise but also deep industry connections, which they leveraged as part of a combined relationship and inbound marketing strategy. By blending their established corporate networks with a robust inbound marketing program, the team generated immediate traction and momentum. Together, this growing group became the driving force behind the rapid transformation of Cayuse Commercial Services. The marketing team played a pivotal role in our success, completely revamping Cayuse’s website and outreach approach to reflect our new identity as a dynamic, full-service solutions provider. Simultaneously, we prioritized relationship-building efforts to deepen connections with key corporate stakeholders. By combining personalized relationship marketing with an innovative inbound approach, we established trust, reinforced our market presence, and opened doors to partnerships with Fortune 1000 companies and other high-value clients. As a result of this cohesive strategy, we successfully redefined and diversified Cayuse Commercial Services’ offerings and achieved a remarkable revenue increase, growing annual revenues to $12 Million. This success has positioned Cayuse Commercial Services as an industry leader, recognized for its innovative solutions, deep market expertise, and unwavering commitment to client satisfaction.

As a founding member and managing partner of Leyh, Payne & Mallia, PLLC, I spearheaded the business development efforts that expanded the firm from two attorneys to 14, supported by six staff members, in less than a decade. In addition to driving growth, I oversaw all operational and back-office functions, ensuring the firm’s seamless day-to-day operations. During this time, my firm handled thousands of cases spanning litigation, business, banking and financial matters, intellectual property, construction, contracting (both private and government), employment law, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and general business transactions. I successfully negotiated and managed legal matters for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 50 corporations. In my role, I directly advised CEOs, boards of directors, and national organizations, representing them before state and federal regulatory agencies. My guidance focused on critical areas such as risk management, corporate governance, and transformative mergers and acquisitions. Beyond my legal practice, I assumed full responsibility for the firm’s back-office and operational management. This included overseeing accounting, financial planning, hiring, training, and HR functions. I prioritized recruiting top-tier legal and administrative talent while fostering a positive and productive workplace culture. By maintaining operational excellence across all areas, I cultivated an environment where professionals thrived, and client satisfaction remained paramount. These efforts directly contributed to building a strong client base and achieving consistent year-over-year growth for the firm.

As the founder, investor, and shareholder of Servient, Inc., I was fortunate to collaborate with highly skilled professionals to build a technology company at the intersection of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud-native infrastructure. Servient specializes in automating electronic discovery, document management, and compliance solutions for global law firms and enterprises. My leadership roles encompassed strategic planning, product development, marketing, sales, and general operations, all aimed at driving growth and innovation. I brought to the company decades of legal and business experience, including my expertise as a lawyer with an LLM in Intellectual Property Law. My deep understanding of compliance, derived from years of navigating complex banking laws, combined with my hands-on litigation experience, allowed me to make significant contributions to client workflows, product development, and advisory services. Servient developed cutting-edge machine learning technology to process and filter massive amounts of data, empowering law firms and corporations to efficiently manage litigation, compliance tasks, and document management. I collaborated with domain experts in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and legal technology to craft solutions that addressed both large-scale enterprise challenges and on-demand needs for smaller clients. I successfully negotiated large intellectual property transactions involving AI, cloud technology, and data processing with some of the world’s leading companies. The company expanded globally, with operations in the United States, the UK, and India, and built a client base that included Fortune 50 companies and top international law firms.

I was appointed to the board of a $2.0 billion Texas financial company based on my extensive expertise in banking law, regulatory compliance, litigation, and my unique ability to integrate technology into business operations. In addition to decades of experience working with national, regional, and community financial institutions on risk management, financial documentation, and regulatory matters, I had previously owned and operated a successful technology company. My deep understanding of technology, along with my role as a recognized legal leader in the field of electronic discovery, positioned me as a forward-thinking board member. My ability to bridge the gap between law, finance, and cutting-edge technology enabled me to bring unique insights into strategic planning and governance. During my five-year tenure on board, I joined a seven-member team to develop and implement a strategic vision that expanded the institution’s assets from $2.0 billion to $3.5 billion. As Chair of the Audit Committee, I led efforts to maintain the company’s financial compliance and accountability, while as a member of the Cyber Security and Loan Review Committees, I applied my expertise in technology to significantly strengthen the institution’s cyber-resilience, enhance operational frameworks, and modernize risk management processes. Leveraging my background in technology innovation, I contributed to creating forward-looking systems that improved efficiency and security while addressing the rapidly evolving digital landscape. The board’s most notable accomplishment during my tenure was overseeing reputational growth as a responsible financial partner to the community, which led to a successful merger with a public company, positioning the institution for even greater growth and impact in the community and State of Texas.

As co-founder of DiscSense, I collaborated with our team to build a legal search technology startup that applied natural language search to streamline legal research. We identified a significant gap in the market, licensed exclusive databases, digitized paper-based legal resources, and developed a cost-effective, subscription-based product for legal professionals. This innovative solution provided lawyers with access to essential legal materials at a lower cost, addressing both technical and financial challenges in the industry. The company leveraged national and international talent to efficiently develop and deploy its core search engine technology, tailoring the product to meet the specific needs of the legal sector. Early strategic partnerships and key hires enabled rapid growth, allowing Disc Sense, Inc. to secure a substantial user base and gain traction in the competitive legal research market. The combination of exclusive content, intuitive technology, and a carefully executed go-to-market plan delivered measurable value to subscribers in a short timeframe. The success of DiscSense, Inc. and its contributions to legal research led to its acquisition by a market leader in legal publishing. The product and approach were subsequently scaled and replicated across other jurisdictions, extending its impact on the industry.