Allison Guidette is the VP and General Manager of Westlaw Litigation, of which Westlaw Round Table Group is a proud part. She recently took some time to answer some questions for me about the future of WRTG, and some broader insights into the legal industry.

"Why this foray into the expert witness referral industry?

Westlaw Round Table Group is a natural and valuable addition to Thomson Reuter's expanding suite of integrated litigation content, tools and services -- collectively called Westlaw Litigator. Westlaw Litigator is designed to meet the evolving needs of litigators by helping them at each stage of a case to optimize productivity and produce the highest quality work product in the least amount of time.

We repeatedly go back to our clients to ask them how else Thomson Reuters can support them. In the past year, we have heard repeated request for better, faster access to the world's best expert witnesses. Clients tell us that finding ideal experts can be time consuming and frustrating. In response, Thomson Reuters began looking for a partner, which brought us to the door of Round Table Group, the premier expert witness referral business in the legal industry. We of course acquired Round Table Group - now called Westlaw Round Table Group (WRTG) - about three months ago.

Our clients have expressed great enthusiasm for this new line of business and the quality and service they can receive from the WRTG team. Most critically, they share that leveraging WRTG saves them valuable time - that they can better deploy in legal thinking and writing - and that WRTG finds them superior experts than they would be able to uncover on their own.

"Can you offer some insight into industry trends?"

We perceive a number of critical trends impacting the legal industry, including:
-    Cautious optimism by large and small firms that we have "bottomed out" in most practice areas and work is beginning to pick up. That said, litigation is recovering more slowly than other practice areas - such as in corporate - but it is starting to grow again.
-    Continued focus by corporate clients on getting value from outside counsel. Even when legal budgets are freer and litigation more voluminous, we anticipate that corporate legal departments will remain focused on getting more from each hour worked by their counsel. Also, GCs are less willing to pay junior associates to learn how to practice law, forcing law firms to rethink their business models somewhat. There is some pressure to explore "alternative fee arrangements" but our sense is that most corporations are not interested in fixed-fee projects for anything but truly routine matters. What they want is value and predictability.
-    We expect MDLs and class actions to grow significantly in the next year. Certainly the Gulf oil spill is one example but we have seen a significant uptick in MDLs in the past few years which we do not see abating. Related, we see smaller firms remaining focused on their niche practice areas but banding together in loose teams to support the needs of large, complex cases and competing with bigger firms.
-    E-discovery continues to drain litigation resources. That said, firms are again beginning to invest in tools to manage e-discovery. They want tools that integrate together, making it easy to toggle from one stage of a case (say, legal research) to another (say, case analysis). This is very consistent with the strategy of Thomson Reuters, where our litigation technologies interrelate in very meaningful ways to ease the work of our litigation clients.

"Anything new our experts can expect to see in the weeks/months ahead rising from our merger?" 

I think that the merger of Thomson Reuters and Round Table Group creates great opportunities for both organizations and our expert partners. Certainly the Westlaw brand and resources will help to fuel growth of Round Table Group, creating more interesting cases for our expert partners. Additionally, West is historically a publishing house, so there may be more avenues to explore with our partners in creating content. Finally, we have plans - with the approval of our expert partners - to leverage Westlaw.com and the new platform, WestlawNext, to expose our experts to literally millions of attorneys worldwide. This should create great opportunities for interesting cases.

In the last few days I have been reading a LOT of expert witness testimony, while working with my new colleagues at Westlaw. For me, this is just fun, digging into thousands of collected and formatted expert depositions in the Westlaw collection, so as to ascertain litigation trends for future expert recruiting. I was in a sort of expert witness Disneyland.

Amidst all these documents that collectively painted a picture of specific litigation trends, certain passages would stand out from the usual high level of expert responses to examination, of which this is one. I offer it as evidence on the importance of early, frequent, and clear communication between expert and client.

Expert's statement: "So, but I'm not trying to say that I'm some sort of expert, I've been trained, I've been educated or anything like that.  Follow what I'm saying?"

Yes, absolutely.

Expert witnesses rely on their spoken and written word to convey certain truths to juries. They are usually cross- examined on these words. Great experts know how to handle a good cross examination, by sticking to the facts, keeping their answers focused and to what they are sure of. But maybe that is not enough anymore.

Body language, as analyzed via video transcripts, is becoming an increasingly common tool, and not just in the court room, but sometimes months in advance by lawyers interviewing and retaining experts. By video taping the interview, clients can use a whole range of visual body language clues to ascertain the expert's comfort and confidence on areas of expertise.

"The words can all be spot on, but if a witness's body says I'm really uncomfortable with my position, the expert can immediately undermine a case,"

the whole story here.

This question is usually asked with some apprehension from new expert witnesses. The key is clearly preparation and caution. Early work and preparation with your client is critical. Aaron Larson, a lawyer based out of Michigan, wrote a very useful series of tips for the new expert witness.Part of it includes:

If you are inexperienced  as an expert witness, you should know the following for deposition:

Know the legal issues. Speak with your client about the legal issues, and get comfortable with the legal terminology for your case.

Only one person may speak at a time. Everything you say at a deposition is being transcribed. The court reporter cannot make a good record when people interrupt each other or talk at the same time.

Only answer the question that was asked. Ordinarily, after you have answered the specific question that you were asked, you will not want to volunteer any additional information. Even if opposing counsel sits silently and seems to expect you to say more, don't fall into that trap. If opposing counsel wants more information, he will ask a follow-up question. Get used to silence even if it makes you uncomfortable -- it is your job to answer questions, not to fill silence.

Think before you answer questions. Whether on direct examination or cross-examination, think before you speak. It is almost always better for there to be a short pause before you answer a question than for you to give a bad answer.



His whole posting with many more great suggesitons can be found here 

Many of our experts we place with clients are new to the experience, and have never testified or given a deposition before. Given that many a deposition will be in a hostile, or at least oppositional manner, preparation is critical.

One of the most common questions I get is: "What should I expect?"

Well, every deposition will be different, but as a starting place to prepare, here are five good questions you ought to be able to answer, as posted in the Trial Lawyers Resource Center web page.

Who engaged you on this case?
What did the ask you to do?
What did you actually do?
What conclusion and opinions did you reach, and what do you intend to testify to at trial?
Were there any other test - analysis or things you could have done that you would have liked to? What were they?

Clearly, there will be case-specific issues as well, but these are a good indication of what an opposing attorney might ask you.  

Another good suggestion they have is to draft the 10 most critical questions that the opposition may ask.  Ask yourself how to answer these questions, or better yet, have your client or a colleague ask them, perhaps even in a confrontational way.

"What litigation trends should I expect from 2010?" one of my favorite-to-work-with experts asked me a couple of week back. Its was a question I had been hearing a lot lately, and I had been asking it almost as often. Here is what I see as some of the trends in the expert witness industry.

For 2010, I see three major trends in the expert witness industry: Earlier identification and retaining of experts,  increased sensitivity to cost by clients, and an increased amount of litigation in environmental damages, financial misconduct, and in the area of labor and employment. What does this mean for expert witnesses?

First, there will be a greater amount of time between the search/identification/interviewing/retaining of experts by clients on the one hand, and the actual start date of experts, on the other. Experts will need to be able to work within a longer time frame, requiring careful expert-client coordination on invoicing.

Second, and we saw this more and more last year, Clients will be much more cost-sensitive, requesting budgets from experts, relying more on video conferencing and other cost saving measures, and taking a harder line on negotiating rates. Experts who include this cost sensitivity in to their marketing and presentations will have an advantage over their competitors.

Finally, based on industry reports and expert observations, we expect to see an increased demand for expert witnesses in many areas of litigation, perhaps particularly in environmental damages matters, in employment and labor disputes, as well as in continued (and increasingly broad) litigation from the fall-out of the financial collapse of 2008-09.

Table Group Group membership can help you take full advantage of the latest industry trends, with profile reviews, links to conferences, and marketing ideas. Just reach out to our skilled expert services coordinators, who are standing by to assist. 


  

Twice in my years here at Round Table Group an expert has withdrawn from a case. This most recent time was back in 2008. When we finally got the wayward expert witness on the phone, he refused to say why he withdrew, only that it wasn't worth his while. Speculation around the virtual water cooler was that nefarious corporate pressure had forced the expert's withdrawal.But all speculation aside, there are some fairly serious consequences to abandoning a client mid-case as Edward Hoffman writes in his posting.

True Story: There was a second example, but it turns out the expert had actually died mid-case. Fortunately for the left-in-the-lurch client, she was using a professional expert witness referral firm that was able to draw on the vast network of Round Table Group expert witnesses and professional staff to find a replacement in a timely manner.

Many expert witnesses are new to the industry. Its logical, of course, as they have been spending the last few (or few dozen) years actually becoming an expert. So how can experts get their name and reputation into the awareness of those who need them? Round Table Group can help! Here are four ways to market your expertise.

Develop a powerful and compelling web presence, by creating a professional web site that includes your CV, publications, conferences, awards, previous expert witness work, and of course your contact information. Link this to your professional blog, if you have the time to put into one. Web sites are getting easier for the layman to create, or invest in having a professional web developer build one for you. If you go this route, be certain to get a firm price quote before you start.

Use your social networks, both the personal 'hand shake' type of network of colleagues and associates, as well as professional internet social networking services, such as LinkedIn. Let your colleagues know that you are actively seeking expert witness opportunities. Many will already be in the industry, and may have opportunities, or at least some advice to share with you.

Join an expert witness referral service. We can do much of your marketing for you. There are some key things to look for in a good expert witness referral service, such as reputation, service, geographic and area of expertise scope, and of course, client base.

Consider consulting with a reputable marketing firm, particularly if they specialize in working with expert witnesses. Like your area of expertise, marketing is a highly specialized field, with its own experts. 

Go to pertinent conferences where potential clients will gather in large numbers. These are great places to meet people, learn about the current litigation trends, and of course, pick up some great swag. 

Round Table Group has a whole team of expert services coordinators who are ready to assist you in building your expert witness business.
 

 

Many of us work from home offices. Its a smart business model, for some. I have been sending Carol Tice's posting about Homepreneurism to quite a few of our new experts lately. You might enjoy it too. 

At the end of every year, I always have a whole list of things I need to do before the end of the year. Things such as year-end reviews of my staff, making sure I have submitted all my 2009 expenses (which usually means scraping up the receipts), budget planning 2010-11, reviewing our company insurance plans, and so forth.

And for expert witnesses, it's the time of the year to do the three things all expert witnesses should do: touch base with everyone they've invoiced, update their public CV/Web page/profiles, and finally, speak with a financially savvy professional to see how being an expert witness may have tax implications. (This is the part where I say that I am completely unqualified to offer any legal or financial advice, yada yada ...).

The first of the three things all expert witnesses should do before the end of the year is speak with every firm (or better yet, person) they sent an invoice to this year. While verifying that they have all of the latest contact information for any tax documentation, experts also get to check in with clients, wish them a happy new year, and strengthen their relationships a bit as well.

The second thing every expert witness should do is to update their public presence, such as their professional Web page, CV, and expert witness referral firm profile. If you are a Round Table Group expert, you can update your profile right here! If you don't yet have your own Web page, there are quite a few easy-to-use packages out there for less than 30 bucks.

The third thing every expert should do is to understand how their expert witness income and perhaps their expenses pertain to their taxes. As someone who works from home, for example, I am able to claim certain expenses by virtue of the square footage of my office. Especially for those new to the expert witness industry, it's worth the hour appointment to review 2009, and perhaps plan better for 2010.

Thanks everyone for all your cool comments and suggestions. As this list keeps growing, I fear it will need to be re-posted as the five things every expert witness should do before the end of the year, or maybe it will require a whole new blog. Send in your replies!