Consulting Expert Witnesses
Businesses rely on outside consultants for everything from technology implementation and regulatory certification to real estate, healthcare operations, and facility design, and when that advice fails, the resulting disputes turn on what a competent consultant in that field should have done. Clients sue consultants whose recommendations led to failed implementations, regulatory deficiencies, or costly redesigns, consultants pursue clients for unpaid fees and scope expansions, and acquirers challenge the diligence and advisory work behind a transaction. Consulting expertise is also needed whenever a dispute requires an industry practitioner to explain customs, practices, and standards that a court or arbitrator would not otherwise understand. In each matter, the central issue is whether the consultant's work, or the conduct being evaluated, reflected accepted professional practice in the relevant industry.
A consulting expert evaluates that question by reviewing engagement letters, statements of work, deliverables, communications, and the information available to the consultant at the time, and by comparing the work to how experienced practitioners in the same field approach similar assignments. The expert can determine whether a recommendation was reasonable, whether the scope and limitations of an engagement were properly defined and communicated, and whether the client's own decisions or information contributed to the outcome. Causation then turns on separating the effects of the advice from market conditions, client implementation choices, and other intervening factors. Those findings support professional negligence, breach of contract, and fee dispute positions, frame the measure of damages, and allow counsel to rebut an opposing expert's description of industry practice.
Because consulting spans nearly every industry, the right expert is one whose practitioner experience corresponds directly to the advisory work in dispute. The professionals we present include an avionics software engineer who works on DO-178B certification of flight software with the Federal Aviation Administration, a commercial real estate property manager who has testified 20 times on brokerage, commission disputes, and landlord-tenant issues, and a workplace investigations consultant who has testified 22 times on harassment and Title VII and Title IX matters. Our network also includes a medical practice management expert who negotiated the sale of a physician practice to a hospital foundation, a long-term care reimbursement and survey preparation specialist, foodservice and facility design consultants, an oil and gas welding metallurgy consultant, and law firm management and taxation advisors. Drawing on more than 75,000 expert searches for litigators, Round Table Group can help you identify the consulting expert your matter requires. Let us help you get started by calling us at (202) 908-4500.
