After so many our experts asked for it, we finally have official  Round Table Group Membership Badges for you to place on your web pages! The membership badge is an excellent way to show your experience, and your network! This is a really cool feature, and you can check out all the graphics options, and the easy-to-install directions,  just by logging on to your expert profile.

In his role as a Senior Research Analyst at Round Table Group, Brian is responsible for sourcing expert talent through a variety of sophisticated research methodologies. He started his career as a Business Development Research Analyst within the Investment Management Research Services division and quickly transitioned into his current research role to strengthen RTG's core offering of expert witness search and referral. Brian has now placed over 170 experts and continues to work with attorneys both nationally and internationally to meet their expert needs. Additionally, Brian develops CLE materials and teaches attorneys how to quickly create targeted expert search campaigns.

Mr. McCarthy attended Gettysburg College where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He pursued graduate studies in Molecular Genetics at Indiana University-Bloomington where he worked to develop a novel gene therapy for ovarian cancer and was an associate instructor of biology. Brian is currently attending the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science where he is completing his Masters of Science in Library and Information Science. A true research enthusiast, Brian also holds the AIRS certifications of Certified Internet Recruiter and Advanced Certified Internet Recruiter.

"What do you like about working with experts?"

There are two aspects that I both enjoy and appreciate about working with experts. First, expert witnesses have an unmatched passion for their discipline. Generally, most experts I interact with have devoted their professional careers to be pioneering thought leaders. They often have the keen ability to amalgamate being practitioners, academics, authors, speakers, and consultants.  Their devotion to the advancement of their field of expertise is unparalleled. When engaging with experts, I appreciate the time they take to craft insightful responses to queries on behalf of our clients.

Secondly, working on several hundred cases per year with numerous potential experts on each, I have the rare opportunity to learn about various subjects from those at the forefront of the field. Discussing cases with experts and mediating preliminary interviews has exposed me to disciplines and concepts that I likely would not have pursued independently and in many cases would not even have known existed. I value each opportunity I have to learn about a subject from an expert and do not take that for granted.

  
"What are the big changes you have seen recently in the industry?"

The unfortunate downturn in the economy has had several impacts on the expert witness industry. During prosperous times, litigators and their clients were less price sensitive and more apt to quickly retain at quoted rates. As the economy worsened, clients became price sensitive and the retention cycle ultimately lengthened. It is now common practice for attorneys to negotiate heavily for more competitive pricing from expert witness as well as expert referral providers. That being said, many experts have proactively reduced their fees to be more competitive; in some drastic cases I have seen rates reduced as much as 50%. Even with competitive fees, end clients expect their attorneys to perform rigorous due diligence ensuring they get the best expert for their money. As a consequence, retention cycles have lengthened as attorneys vet references, perform background research, and request multiple preliminary interviews. 

"Any advice to experts?"

Social networking has become an invaluable resource; it is being used in a myriad of aspects in the legal services and expert witness industry. In particular, many law firms, even top AMLAW 100 firms, and Round Table Group, are using social networking other Web2.0 applications in their marketing and business development plans. As industry continues to accept the value of resources like Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs, so too have expert witnesses. Expert witnesses utilizing no cost Web2.0 applications have a wonderful opportunity to drastically increase their web presence, allowing them to be more readily identified by attorneys and expert search providers. These applications may be of particular interest to new, independent consultants and experts trying to break into the industry and develop their practice.


 

Expert Witness Industry Trends

One of the best parts of my job with Expert Services is that i get to speak with very unusual people, fairly regularly. Every expert, because they are experts, have a unique way of looking at the world around them. But with all their different takes on things, throughout our talks and emails with experts, we see a few common expert witness industry trends, that might interest you.

There is an increased inclusion of retainers as part of an expert's billing rates. And in addition, we see more experts who are including evergreen retainers (a regularly refunded retainer) with the focus on who is responsible to ensure this evergreen is always full.

Experts are being asked more and more to assist their clients with developing a budget.

Lastly, in large part correlated with the recession, many new experts have entered the expert witness industry in the last 12 months, perhaps as much as a 200% increase, with yet to be determined effect.

I will follow up with some cool data and comments for each of these, and in the meantime, I welcome comments on industry trends you  have observed.

Toby Edwards

Expert Witness Billing Rates: What should I charge?

Inquiring (Expert) Minds Want to Know, Part Three  (part of a series)

Every day Round Table Group fields scores of requests from expert witnesses via phone, email, and live web greeter service, who are seeking answers to pressing business development questions. We have three Expert Witness Services staff members whose sole job is to provide answers to expert witnesses' questions. After several years of speaking with thousands of our colleagues, we have come up with the most frequently ask questions from our network of over 100,000 expert witnesses. Here is one of them, a continuation of a series of conversations about expert witness billing rates.

A new expert from Arizona recently asked me two great questions, one of which is addressed here, and the other in a posting soon to follow.

He asked: "I am an expert in pressure gauges, with 23 years of experience in platform operations in the north Atlantic. I just retired from rigs a few months ago. One of your team contacted me about a consulting opportunity. I'm sending in my information to her, but I don't know what to charge per hour. What should I use as my hourly consulting rate?"

Great question! I start by referring you to some previous entries in this Blog, which offers some useful methods to address this. But let us also use some specific data collected from our referral network of over 100,000 expert witnesses. Most experts have two rates; rates for testifying/deposition, and rates for non-testifying expert witness consultation.

Petroleum Engineering, with decades of oil rig experience, is a unique skill/experience set. A sample survey reveals that the hourly, non-testifying rates for a petroleum engineer expert witnesses range from a low of $100.00 an hour, to a high of $450.00 an hour, with an average rate of about $250.00 an hour. The survey found only 3 instances of a rate for testifying being noted, which averaged to 275.00 an hour.

Of course, a lot of other issues, such as your availability, the duration of the case, retainers, and other expectations should be considered when deciding on your current rate.

For a future Blog, regarding some observed trends in how experts are responding to an industry hit hard by the recession.  Stay tuned...