Posted by Nick Zafran on March 18, 2009 4:33 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

The Legal Ethics Committee of the District of Columbia Bar has previously ruled that an attorney-client relationship is not created when a lawyer testifies on a party's behalf as an expert witness. The Committee equated the role of an attorney as an expert to that of a non-attorney expert. The Committee noted, however, that an attorney-client relationship can be created if the client reasonably believes that such a relationship exists and the attorney/expert fails to dispel such expectations.

Robert Ambrogi has written a excellent article on the ruling on FindLaw.

Posted by Nick Zafran on March 10, 2009 5:10 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

An increasing amount of companies are acting to right-source tasks formerly passed on to their law firms, and to negotiate alternative fee arrangements not based on traditional billable hours for certain kinds of tasks. This is in response to what is noted as growing frustration over the rising costs of the law firm billable hour.

An article previously published by Slate, The Scourge of the Billable Hour, discusses this trend.

One way you can help your firm's clients cut their legal costs is to focus the time you're spending on your firm's core strengths.  If your firm is like most, expert location isn't even in your top ten best skills.  Replace the valuable time (at your hourly rate) you spend trying to find experts for your client with a dedicated expert witness search firm, like my company, Round Table Group, and you'll probably get better results in both expert search and what you were already good at (because you get to spend more time doing it).

A search firm not only introduces best practices, specialized resources, and due diligence into the increasingly important expert search process, identifying more and stronger expert candidates, but lowers your client's likely cost.  The expert search firm turns the expert location process -- an unknowable but potentially significant expenditure -- into a pay-for-performance model where your client may not have to pay anything unless you hire a great expert.  Given the choice between multiple qualified, interested, and available experts, you may get a more appropriate expert and a better hourly rate than you would have been able to negotiate on your own, as well as showing your client the typical consulting rates in that particular field.

Helping your client rationalize costs and save money on this part of their legal budget may enable your firms to continue to develop a deeper relationship in the core areas where you and your colleagues can add the most value.

Posted by Nick Zafran on March 1, 2009 2:47 PM |Permalink|TrackBacks (0)

An interesting article, How To Verify An Expert's Credentials, notes that expert witnesses are not always straightforward in presenting their credentials and recommends several tools that can be used in verifying an expert's background. Two notable suggestions include using Google Blog Search to uncover anything that an expert might have recently written. Contradictory statements being the most notable thing to look out for. Even something written in an informal space such as a blog could affect an expert's ability to testify.

The article also advocates the use of Daubert Tracker, which is a site purposely designed to track cases that involve the admissibility of expert testimony. Attorneys can enter an expert's name and search all cases, if any, where that expert's ability to testify was challenged before a court and whether that challenge was successful.

Many expert witness search firms now use these tools and many others before presenting an expert, but you may also want to use the most relevant tools yourself to minimize unpleasant last-minute surprises.