When Dr. Linsey Willis took her first expert witness case in 1998, she had no idea it would launch a decades-long career testifying in cases across the United States.

With refreshing candor and practical wisdom, Dr. Willis reveals what makes for success in the expert witness arena. Her approach combines rigorous ethics with savvy business practices. “Know what you know and know what you don’t know,” she advises, emphasizing that genuine expertise—not financial motivation—should drive case selection. This philosophy has served her well across numerous plaintiff and defense engagements in human resources, negligent hiring, and employment matters.

The conversation explores critical aspects of expert witnessing that rarely receive attention: how to vet potential cases through detailed attorney interviews, establish clear payment terms (“I make it very clear that I’m not going to chase down money”), and prepare thoroughly for challenging depositions. Dr. Willis shares war stories from seven-hour depositions where opposing counsel deployed intimidation tactics, and explains how she maintained her composure throughout.

For both attorneys seeking experts and professionals considering expert witnessing, this episode offers invaluable insights into creating “bulletproof” reports, navigating attorney relationships, and maintaining ethical standards in a demanding field. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or considering your first case, you’ll come away with practical strategies for more effective expert testimony.

Note: Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity

Host: Noah Bolmer, Round Table Group

Guest: Dr. Linsey Willis, President of LJ Craig and Associates, Inc.

Noah Bolmer: Welcome to Engaging Experts. I’m your host, Noah Bolmer, and today I’m excited to welcome Dr. Linsey Willis to the show. Dr. Willis is President of L.J. CRAIG & Associates, Inc., a management and organizational consulting firm. She’s a published author and a certified senior human resources professional. Dr. Willis holds a D.P.A. from Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Willis, thank you so much for joining me here today on Engaging Experts.  

Dr. Linsey Willis: Thank you, hello.  

Noah Bolmer Let’s jump into it. So, your background is in public administration and human resources, but how did you first become involved in expert witnessing? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, I was working on my doctorate, and somebody asked me if I was interested in doing an expert witness case because they knew somebody that needed somebody. And I said, “Well, I’ve never done one before.” And I was an HR director at the time, and it was a clear-cut case, and I was lucky it was on sexual harassment. They settled the case for a little under a million dollars based on my deposition, and I was [thinking], “Are you kidding me?” And so that’s my first case in 1998. I fell into it. 

Noah Bolmer: So, when you fell into it, were you given kind of a rundown on what to expect, what it was going to be, what sorts of questioning were going to be? Or did you just kind of hit the ground running a little bit? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: I hit the ground running. 

Noah Bolmer: If you could talk to your earlier self, what would you say to help quell some of the new expert witness jitters? What are the sorts of things that new expert witnesses should be advised of during their first couple of engagements? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: They shouldn’t take a case unless they feel that they have enough knowledge to be a good expert witness, and they should not just take it to make money. And to be an expert, you need to know where to find the information and you need to know what you don’t know enough about. And so then, if you need to refresh your memory, to verify that you know what you know, then learn more about what you need to know more about with respect to that particular complaint and all the things that you’ve been hired to do. 

Noah Bolmer: Sure, do you find that there is sometimes a little bit of difficulty understanding what exactly the scope is of your engagement and knowing what it is that you need to know? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: No, because I’m good at knowing what I know and knowing what I don’t know. And then I find out as much as I can by interviewing the attorney who calls me. So, the attorney tells me what they’re looking for, and then I ask questions, and I ask them to tell me as much about the case as they can, and then I decide whether I can help them or not. And then I say, “Well, I think I can help you” and then we go back and forth and then I ask more questions and even kind of strategize a little bit. The majority of times I’ve talked to a lawyer on the phone, I’ve gotten the case. 

Noah Bolmer: Well, it’s certainly the case that engagements are a two-way vetting process, right? Making sure that that the attorney feels that you’re the right person for the job, but also that this is an attorney that you want to work with. So, let’s dig into that a little bit. Tell me a little bit about the questions that you’re asking, the questions that you like to ask to make sure that you are the right person for the job. 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, first of all I started as a plaintiff’s expert and then over the past many years, I was asked to do defense cases. And I only take a defense case if I really think I can defend them. And a lot of times they’re really-the lawyers are kind of in a quandary, or they are almost in a desperate state because they know they don’t have a good case—they know that the other side has more of a case just based upon reading and knowing things. I ask if they have written policies and procedures. I ask them if they have any depositions taken. I ask them where they are in the case. Are they in the beginning, the middle or the end? You know, I ask them, what documents do they have already? I tell them what more documents they should get if they don’t have those, and so it’s a back-and-forth conversation. 

Noah Bolmer: Absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit about the initial contract. So, when you are getting into an expert witness engagement, obviously there’s a contract. What are the sorts of terms that you have in your engagement letters to make sure that you’re protected in case of any number of eventualities? Do you take a retainer? Do you work on a project rate or perhaps an hourly rate? How do you structure your agreements? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: I work on a retainer and I say this is what [is] 16 hours, and then after that I will either bill in eight-hour increments, and sometimes we modify it and then I charge-note what I’m going to charge for travel time, which I don’t charge which most experts charge. And ask them to sign it and never had a problem with anybody signing any contract and indicating that they don’t get their final report until I get paid. Because I’ve been stiffed a few times by a few lawyers where they don’t want to pay you the rest of what your bill is, for whatever reason. It hasn’t happened that many times, because then you can just write it off, which is no fun. But you have to be really clear. I make it very clear that I’m not going to chase down money and I tell them up front the report is required and that’s for federal cases. I have the report due on a certain date and I’m not going to submit it until I have proof of the checks in the mail, or you’ve wired the money, et cetera. 

Noah Bolmer: How should expert witnesses handle those kinds of eventualities? If you don’t get paid, what do you do? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well not much that you can do. You can follow up with the law firm. I haven’t had to do that much, not paying me for mileage or whatever, quibbling on a few things. And then one case—there’s been a couple of cases where the guy didn’t have the money to pay me, and he ran out of money and those types of things. And then you just kind of work it out with them. You’ve already sent the invoice. So, because I’m a business, I can write it off is it’s billed but it’s not paid. So, it’s all you can do, but you have to be adamant about how you’re going to work with the lawyers. Because you’re not going to work, you’re going to work with a retainer and that’s it. And sometimes I’ll cut the retainer in half based upon what I know the case is about and how many docents they have, and I do that once in a while. But then I make it clear to them that after the retainer is used up. You know, I don’t go continue to work until I get more money, because the lawyers do the same thing. They want to get paid and they want a retainer. 

Noah Bolmer: Let’s talk a little bit about preparation. So when you’re going to go into a potentially contentious action you’re going into a deposition, you’re going into a trial bench trial, jury trial how do you get ready, how do you  to prepare, and what are the things that attorneys should be doing that help you feel prepared for your big day? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, I’ve only been to court twice but I’m waiting on a case right now where they were mediating it last week and I haven’t heard back. But I’ve done some prep already to go to court because this is- the lawyer’s a board-certified trial attorney. But I prepare by—I know my stuff. I read the report over and over, the report I’ve written over and over again. I will summarize my notes. I have them all typed up and I just read things out loud. 

Lately, on this one particular case, I’ve recorded my excerpts of my report. So, I’m kind of putting it into memory. You never know what the other side’s going to ask you, and I’ve been in some really tough depositions from the other side and they, some of them, just been pretty nasty to [me]. 

Noah Bolmer: This could be a learning experience for newer expert witnesses. Do you- are you able to elaborate on that at all, without obviously giving any names or anything like that? But what exactly does it feel to be impeached on the stand, and how you go, how you deal with that sort of pressure? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, no one’s ever impeached me, but I—this lawyer, they had this lawyer in this deposition on the case, that actually was a great case because two defense law firms were taking this case. They were fighting. There was the plaintiff, but a defense law firm took the plaintiff’s case, even though they mostly do defense cases. So, you had two defense law firms going back and forth and I was their expert, and I was in that deposition for seven hours. In federal cases you can’t keep an expert for more than seven hours and I had breaks and I found out later that the lawyer that was deposing me was one of the partners and they intentionally sent a partner because she would be more intimidating. And they had one of the HR managers in the room for intimidation. But I didn’t let it intimidate me, and I finally got to the point where I said, “Ok, this is the third time you’ve asked me that question. Same answer, third time you’ve asked.” I know when they’ve asked the same question more and more and they’re trying to lead you and they do a lot of hypotheticals, and I know how to deal with the hypothetical. 

Noah Bolmer: Absolutely. You’ve been doing this for a while. Has the role of the expert witness in general changed at all throughout your tenure as an expert witness? Have there been logistical changes, technology changes? Has anything struck you as being kind of new and fundamentally different as you’ve progressed? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: One of the best things for me is that— well before I wasn’t doing it, but it’s gotten better: you get the deposition online and highlight it. You don’t have to print paper and then Dropbox and all the other ways they send the files. It makes it easier. You can download something from the zip and then I’ve learned that no, don’t print the paper. I only print what I need to refer to. So, I don’t have to go back through all the documents. So that’s improved. You know, having the ability to highlight in the PDF, your main points and all you have to do is go back to those pages. 

Noah Bolmer: Do you find that virtual telepresence feels fundamentally different as an expert witness, in terms of connecting to the finder of fact or answering questions or demeanor or anything like that? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, I’ve done several virtual depositions over the past several years, one during COVID, for example, and there have been at least two of them where they did, I couldn’t see the picture of the other person who was asking me questions, and so that wasn’t fair. And then one of the other ones I did was, they were blacked out, and I said “I don’t see your face. You can see me, but I can’t see you.” My lawyer said on my side, “You need to see your face.” Technology works really well when you have different people there, [like] the court reporter is in there. I think it’s pretty cool.  

And, as a matter of fact, that case I was in Georgia. I had suggested to the lawyers, “Why don’t you have a Zoom meeting with me and pretend I’m in a deposition? And you just ask me a lot of questions.” Because they said I’d probably have to write a report, even though it was a state case and this was a personal injury case and so many of the cases I’ve worked on are so egregious, unbelievable. So, I said, “Why don’t we just depose me because then it saves you a lot of money [and] me time not having to write a report?” And I’m thinking more about helping them settle the case. And so, they deposed me, and I was all ready. I had a chronology ready, I had it all spreadsheet with all the red flags and everything that took place with this employee place, with this employee, and they recorded it. And then they had a meeting with mediation, with both sides, and they played their recorded meeting and I, of course, I wasn’t there, and they settled the case right there, based upon the recorded deposition. And the lawyers were so thrilled because they told me that they got more than they would have ever expected because of what I suggested they do. 

Noah Bolmer: You know, that’s an interesting point, and I have heard from a lot of experts that cases are moving towards a settlement a lot more often than they used to. One, does that comport with your experience? But two, if so, does that change anything in terms of your work as an expert witness, when things might move to settlement quickly? Does that impact your ability to make a living off being an expert? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, not really, because they’re in all phases of the case and the toughest ones are the ones that I get almost at the last minute. And because they wait until the last minute, because the lawyers don’t want to pay the experts, they want to try to get around not having to hire experts. And only when they realize, “Oh, I really need- I know I need an expert” and they’ll contact you. 

This one case I had they contacted me less than a month before the report was due in federal court and I told him, “No, I know enough about the Fair Labor Standards Act to be dangerous. But that’s not my area of expertise.” But then when they asked me if I knew about job analysis and I said I’m an expert on that. The other expert they’d hired on the plaintiff’s side quit because he or she couldn’t do the job. So, I not only got the work done, I mean I had made a lot of money, and I was contracted by one of the other companies so that when that happens, they have to pay Round Table Group or other companies money on top of what the expert gets. 

So those lawyers were really, they didn’t—The guy called me up three hours before the report was due in federal court and I said, “Well, I told you, you sent it to me last minute. I’m getting ready to send it but I’m not releasing the report.” And he said, “But I have to have that report.” And I said, “Well, I need to have my money.” So, they did a wire transfer to prove that they were going to pay me. But that case helped them settle it. I really helped with the situation. 

Noah Bolmer: Yeah, absolutely. Do you find that there’s a significant number of engagements that are kind of last minute and you don’t have as much time as you would like to develop your report? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: The majority aren’t. But I’ve actually done last minute engagements,  within a month or a couple of weeks, because they begged me and they tell me what they have and I only do it if I know I [can], even if I have to stay up in the middle of the night to do it because they’ve said, “Please, please, I really need you. You’ve got a great background.” I do a lot of negligent hiring, negligent supervision and negligent retention cases that I’m hired by personal injury attorneys, so I know a ton about that, and I’ve helped with those as well. I don’t like doing them, but I’ll do it if I feel I can squeeze in the time. 

Noah Bolmer: Besides making sure that you have enough time to do the case, and obviously that is an important one. What else factors in? What’s the calculus in deciding whether you’re going to pick up a case? You’re going to take an engagement? How often do you say no? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Quite a few times. I probably get 20 inquiries a year, something like that. I don’t keep track of it, but I was hired for three cases in one week. I get inquiries throughout the year and if you know what you know, you know whether you can take the case or not. And then I’m very honest and I tell them I can’t probably help you with this, I can’t help you with that. That’s not my area. You know, if you really want to hire me, I can only help you in this area. It shouldn’t be all about the money, it should be about ethics and doing the right thing and providing a service and knowing damn well that you’re going to do a really damn good job as an expert. I’ve got a nice case list. I’ve got done cases all over the United States. I’ve had repeat business from some law firms. 

Noah Bolmer: Yeah, that’s an interesting point. What’s it like working across different venues? What sorts of preparation do you have to do when working in a new venue, be it a new state, a new level of government or perhaps a federal case, international? How do you get ready for a completely new venue? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: I’ve worked on cases against multi-national. I’ve worked at federal government. I had meetings with one federal judge and then I had a meeting with another judge before it went to trial. Those are tough, but you must know your stuff. But as you go through, as you learn, you learn more, and you acquire more experience and knowledge and then you just know so much of it’s about the paper. How many documents do I need to review? And sometimes they do these documents dumps, and they’re basically dumping so much paper on the whatever side that it’s kind of looking for a needle in a haystack.  

Noah Bolmer: Do they sometimes inundate you with irrelevant paperwork?  Should they do a better job? You know vetting which paperwork makes it to the expert, because you’re obviously going to charge for everything that you read. 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, and if you’re an ethical expert and don’t like wasting time going through paper, that’s irrelevant, I can go through stuff I need to look at quickly. But I ask them to tell me which documents out of that whole file and Dropbox the most important. And then if I don’t, all that stuff I don’t need to review. I said, “I don’t want you to have me review stuff that really isn’t relevant.” I’m saving them time, money, and I’m saving—I’m making the money, but I don’t care. It’s not about this. It’s about why waste your time billing for stuff that’s superfluous to your opinion?  It doesn’t make sense, because you can get burned out just reading stuff.  So, I know what paper, what documents I’m going to spend more time on and less time. You know. If it’s a policies and procedures manual, I know I’m just going to quickly peruse the table of contents and go to the policies and procedures that are relevant to my case. And just ignore the rest. And I document how many hours how long I’ve worked on it, because I don’t want to overbill anybody. Here’s what I read. This is how long I took. You know these are my billing hours and exactly what I read and how long it took. You know, because then you’re being ethical.   

Noah Bolmer: Right. I’d like to back up to something that you mentioned before, which was working as a plaintiff’s expert versus working as a defendant’s expert. What are the differences in the job itself for an expert witness when working for a plaintiff versus a defendant? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Well, if you’re on a defense case, the insurance company is going to pay you. And sometimes they’re slow to even get you your retainer and that got me messed up a couple of months ago. I can tell you about when you’re dealing with a big law firm, a national law firm with several hundred lawyers and I don’t think there is customer service oriented to the expert as a smaller law firm or a law firm that you can interact with the paralegal and the lawyer. This one law firm I work with, they’re a nationwide law firm, and they never even got back with me. The lawyer didn’t get me paid up front in time and it was on my case, we were [getting ready to] finish. I said, “But I haven’t even gotten the retainer yet.” So, there’s the ethics about the law firm too, and you some of the lawyers are just in their law firm. They’re not well managed. 

Noah Bolmer: Yeah, and that’s an interesting point, because experts do often work on teams. There are paralegals, there are assistants, there might be a team of many lawyers instead of just one lawyer. There might be other expert witnesses that are working alongside you. How do some of those relationships work? How closely do you work with other members of the trial team that are not the engaging attorney? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: It depends upon the case. I’ve worked with paralegals that have kept on top of all the papers they’ve sent me, and I’ve had contact with them and not contact with a lawyer. I’ve had other cases where I’ve been in contact with both. Smaller law firms, I’m dealing directly with a lawyer. You know, I have a more hands-on with a lawyer, talk to the lawyer and meetings scheduled. It varies based upon the law firm, part of the country. You know what the case is about, but my main goal and mission is to help settle cases. You know, that’s one of the things that I want to do is to help them settle the case because they—you know, nobody wants to go to court or the ones that go to court, they—I’ve learned a lot about that process, how you have to decide if you want to put in front of a jury or not. But I write great reports, and I would consider them bulletproof for the most part because I have so many documentations and citations and I do the research that you’re not going to be able to not, you know, come back and say, “This woman fabricated all this stuff”. You need to have the factual evidence. You have your opinion, but you have to back your opinion up with all the factual evidence, all the citations. I do research, you have page numbers. You have to have all that.  

Noal Bolmer: What makes a great report, besides, obviously, it being accurate? Do you, for instance, use demonstratives? Do you make an index? What are the aspects of a great report? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Table of contents. Mine are pretty standard. I always have the reference section, I have the opinions, and I may separate them out as opinion one, opinion two, and opinion three. I also have a literature review, I don’t call it that, but a background checking process, for example, or a background on another issue to-so the reader knows that, “Okay, this is what the standard of care is and this is why this here it is, and my opinion is that company fell below the standard of care.” And I summarize each section and it’s pretty standard. But I’ve written a lot of reports, and I’ve done a lot of dissertations, and I’ve read a lot of term papers, what have you. So, I know how to do all that stuff. I’ve done several rebuttals expert things. Oh my god, I’ve read some—I’ve read some expert reports that were just horrible. That single space, no table of contents, no citations. It’s just awful. I don’t know how they could even present something that, um, yeah, awful. 

Noah Bolmer: Let’s move to a couple of general questions. What makes for a great expert attorney relationship during the engagement? What are the important aspects of a good relationship? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: I think an attorney has to show respect to you as the expert. Has to return calls or make sure somebody gets back with you, and there’s many of them that don’t. They don’t even let you know the case settled. You have meetings on the phone, and you give an overview of the case. They ask you questions, you ask them questions. You’re learning from one another, so that’s a good kind of relationship. 

Noah Bolmer: Before we wrap up, do you have any last advice for expert witnesses or attorneys that are working with expert witnesses? 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Know what you know and know what you don’t know. And don’t take cases where just for the money and learn how to write good reports and chronologies. Do research to back up all your opinions. You know, you may-you can say I know this but wait a second, here’s what the literature says. Here’s what the research says, journal articles and all that. And there you have it. It’s all documented. 

Noah Bolmer: Sage advice. Dr. Willis, thank you so much for joining me here today. 

Dr. Linsey Willis: Thank you so much, Noah. 

Noah Bolmer: No, it was good to meet you and have a great rest of your day and thank you, as always, to our listeners for joining us for another edition of Engaging Experts Cheers.  

Dr. Linsey Willis, President of LJ Craig and Associates, Inc.

Our guest, Dr. Linsey Willis is president of LJ Craig and Associates, Inc., a management and organizational consulting firm. She’s a published author and Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP). Dr. Willis holds a DPA from Nova Southeastern University.