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Do you seek a toxicologist to support a claim that a person's cancer was linked to on-the-job chemical exposure? What about a mechanical engineer to compare a client's technology to that of a competitor in a patent infringement suit? Or is it a damages matter in a highly specialized industry, where your usual experts for damages determinations have no experience?
No search for an expert is the same, but no matter the field, there are methods to expedite the time-consuming process of finding the right relevant and high-quality experts.
One proven method for finding experts is hunting at appropriate universities for academic experts.
The advantage of academic experts
Aaron Yoho puts it like this: "Academics often teach as part of their profession. As a result, they are frequently very good at explaining complicated topics to relative laymen!"
Academics also have a reputation for being more neutral than an industry expert in the same field. An industry expert may be involved with a competitor of one or both of the litigants, whereas an academic is much less likely to have such conflicts. However, increasingly, companies are funding university departments or individual research projects, so it is important to do rigorous conflict checking in this regard.
Here's how the
Round Table Group research team goes about finding exactly the right academic expert for a given case.
Before you get started: general online topic research
Chris Armstrong, Vice President of General Operations with Round Table Group, notes that "it is often difficult to determine exactly what department in the university deals with the subject matter of a particular case. Many universities have several departments in which a potentially qualified professor may work."
As a result, knowing which department's faculty roster to review can often determine whether your search will be successful or not.
Armstrong says you can save yourself time in the long run by building a better understanding of your topic through general online topic research, particularly if you need to know how a borderline topic will be categorized departmentally.
Search for on-topic journal articles
According to Sean Levine, you should review on-topic journal articles on the Internet. Articles on a given topic almost always exist. Some can be found free-of-charge online, but some are only available on fee-based subscription sites such as
LexisNexis, or
JSTOR (The Scholarly Journal Archive).
Determine who the journal article authors are, note experts quoted within the article, and review bibliographies and citations for other linkages with experts. "Then," Levine says, "review the articles in some detail to make sure the authors seem to have appropriate expertise." Often you can find their contact information by searching
Superpages, or on university faculty contact Web pages.
Vet potential experts' bios
Sometimes a professor's Web page and bio will not be entirely instructive on whether they have the expertise to address the issue in the case, Armstrong says.
He continues: "Ideally, a perfect expert will have published on the exact topic or matter at issue in a case, no matter how obscure. An expert who has published on the precise topic will almost always trump an opposing expert with general expertise in the field, but not on the specific point at issue."
That makes it necessary to review the professor's publication list, a task that involves a lot of intricate research and time. Often, it is necessary to follow up with a potential candidate by contacting them and interesting them in qualifying themselves for the case by providing further materials in support of their expertise on the topic.
Local university experts vs. specialized university experts
Levine says that experts from local universities may be less expensive and appreciated for certain kinds of juries. But, because the possible pool of candidates is reduced, the search can be more difficult.
And, while adequate experts can be found at local universities by using the methodologies described in this article, it's important to note that they may not carry the same clout as an expert from a prestigious university or one specializing in the topic.
Rankings of departments in certain subject matter areas are available from a few sources, such as US News & World Report and similar publications, but these rankings may not always be directly applicable to your search. Another good method for discovering top programs is to ask any contacts you may have in adjacent fields.
Experience cuts search time
As you search for multiple experts over time, you can learn which schools to rely on for scholars specializing in particular subject areas. Knowing the reputations of many top universities and their departments helps Round Table Group's researchers find experts more quickly.
Levine says if you can determine which universities are the most prominent in the field, you can then use Advanced Google Search to search within university databases to help find the top academics in your subject area.
Finding out information about university specialties can be worthwhile, but time-consuming. Someone who has already cultivated these relationships and this specialized knowledge may be able to help you find the quality experts you need more quickly.
Round Table Group actually got its start by recruiting professors as experts, and now has a large network of university-based academic experts, which gives them a built-in networking and referral advantage. For more information about how Round Table Group's researchers can connect you with the right expert,
go here.
Aaron Yoho, Chris Armstrong and Sean Levine are all members of Round Table Group's expert research team.
Categories
Expert Finding Tips, The Expert Advisor
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