Finding the Perfect COVID-19 Expert with Round Table Group

When COVID-19 first began to spread in early 2020, Round Table Group launched an initiative to assemble a panel of expert witnesses related to the virus. Kelley Baione, the Director of Expert Witness Services led this project and created a top-notch panel of COVID-19 experts.  

In the third episode of our podcast, Engaging Experts, our host Russ Rosenzweig, sits down with Kelley Baione and Rise25 co-founder, John Corcoran to discuss how Round Table Group constructed a COVID-19 expert witness panel in 2020. This conversation explores how experts are identified and utilized, as well as how the pandemic has impacted the expert witness search industry overall.  

As soon as the pandemic began, we saw an immediate need for a dedicated group of COVID-19 experts. Initially there wasn’t litigation surrounding the issue because it was new, but we knew that there was a lot in store. Despite the clear need for a dedicated practice group, we were hesitant to form it as we didn’t want to be seen as an organization attempting to capitalize on a global tragedy. However, as time went on and more search requests came in related to the pandemic, it became apparent that our clients needed a trusted resource for these types of infectious disease and virologist experts.  

Kelley explains, “The reason why our clients come to us is because they know that what Round Table Group does best is finding those niche, impossible to find experts. While no one had COVID-19 on their resumes yet, we found experts with experience in a variety of different areas of expertise that were relevant to current and future COVID-19 related litigation.”  

We understand what to look for in an expert based on our case intake and research process. We began to uncover leading virologists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, who have the knowledge of how a virus might replicate and spread. Although these experts were not COVID-19 experts per se, they were virus experts, and there are other strains of coronavirus beyond COVID-19. 

Many of these experts were already an active part of our network, but as we aimed to expand this practice group, we were targeting keywords related to the virus and pandemic. This is how we built out the practice group, while simultaneously ensuring that all experts had experience as expert witnesses and have worked on other successful cases.  

For more information on our COVID-19 practice group, including trends we’re seeing related to types of litigation that are arising throughout the world, take a listen to our podcast. You can also visit our website for COVID-19 blogs and interviews with leading experts in the field.