Nina Harris

Nina Harris brings more than a decade of experience managing complex matters and investigations to her work with Ballast. As a Director, she supports educational institutions through investigations, fact-finding, project management, and other matters that require careful organization, thoughtful communication, and close attention to detail. 

Nina has a particular passion for investigative work. Her experience includes employee misconduct investigations, Title IX matters, bias concerns, and broader culture assessments. She has led and supported compliance investigations and brings significant experience in witness interviewing, fact gathering, document review, and distilling complicated information into a clear and useful record. 

Those skills are especially valuable in higher education, where institutional matters can involve large amounts of information, multiple stakeholders, sensitive circumstances, and policies and processes unique to each institution.  

Nina approaches that complexity methodically while never losing sight of the people involved. 

Her work is grounded in careful listening and a desire to understand what happened rather than beginning with assumptions about the outcome. She knows that effective investigative work requires both rigor and strong communication: asking thoughtful questions, identifying relevant information, keeping complex matters organized, and helping ensure that the process moves forward efficiently and respectfully. 

Nina also brings extensive experience with the operational side of complex matters. Before joining Somermeyer and Ballast, she worked with Am Law 100 firms supporting sophisticated employment and civil litigation. Her background includes managing large volumes of information, legal research and writing, fact development, and technology-assisted document review. 

At Ballast, that experience translates into a practical ability to help institutions manage matters where details, documentation, timelines, communication, and process all play a significant role. 

Technology is another strength Nina brings to the team. She has significant experience navigating electronic information and is particularly interested in using technology thoughtfully to make complex work more efficient and manageable. Combined with her business background, that perspective allows Nina to approach institutional challenges not only as an investigator, but also as a problem-solver looking for practical ways to improve the process. 

What ultimately distinguishes Nina's approach is her ability to bring structure to complexity. Whether she is conducting interviews, reviewing information, supporting an investigation, or helping coordinate a multifaceted engagement, she works to make complicated situations understandable and manageable for the people responsible for moving them forward.  

Through Ballast, Nina brings those skills to colleges and universities that need an experienced, approachable, and detail-oriented partner when the path forward isn't immediately clear.