More Expert Witness Resources & News

Thank you to everyone for sending me the latest on happenings and resources for expert witnesses. Here's a summary of the latest:

The Round Table Group has introduced their blog for expert witnesses with a focus on web strategies to help experts and lawyers communicate.

Registration is open for SEAK's 17th Annual National Expert Witness Conference. Check out the line-up which adds two new pre-conferences and features a faculty that includes four distinguished judges.

Attorney-run JurisPro just worked out an agreement to have their expert clients made accessible through the national law firm of Fried Frank - another addition to the major law firms with internal access to JurisPro experts.

Rominger Legal has just added an Expert News feed to their expert witness directory. It contains various expert blogs and expert witness news stories pulled from the search engines.

The library at ExpertPages now includes over a hundred case summaries from circuit courts of appeals, where expert testimony was discussed and the library is regularly adding new expert articles to their library.

The expert networking group in New York has taken off with gusto. It is open to any expert witnesses and the next meeting is scheduled for February 25 at 12:30 at Fabio Piccolo Fiore, 230 E 44th between 2nd and 3rd Ave. For more information, email geraldgoldhaber@yahoo.com.

Podcast from the Entrepreneurial MD

Philippa Kennealy, the Entrepreneurial MD, recently interviewed Rosalie Hamilton, the Expert Witness Marketing Consultant about helping professionals develop expert witness practices. Philippa links to the free podcast of the interview in this blog post.

Of course I'm biased, but I think Rosalie (my mother) sounds great!

Engagement Agreements Between Experts & Attorneys

We frequently receive questions about retainers, contracts, billing, collections, etc., from experts. Some experts are hesitant to require an engagement agreement from their attorney-clients for fear of driving them away or appearing too demanding or some such idea.

Look - you are operating a business, just like your attorney-client. They utilize standard business practices, including engagement agreements, and so should you. I could go on and on about this, but there's nothing like hearing it from the horse's mouth. I found three different resources where attorneys themselves give advice to expert witnesses on this very subject.

In the presentation, "How to Be Picked, But Not Picked Apart" at our Tampa seminar, attorney Lee Gunn briefly touched on this issue. Here are some of his comments:

Communication, including the terms of engagement, scope of engagement, required retention, billing practices, frequency, payments, interest rates are all important elements of what you do ... a reasonable letter and agreement signed by the qualified agent of the hiring party is appropriate, should be asked for, is not offensive and avoids the angst and agony of confusion and surprise.

Attorney Rhoda Faller gives advice to experts regarding fees in the e-book, Expert Witness Preparation for Deposition and Trial. Included in her recommendations is this list:

Be clear as to your billing. It should be established, in writing, what your fee is for:

- Reviewing records
- Writing a report, if one is requested
- Your deposition or trial preparation time, including meeting with the attorney
- The actual deposition or trial time
- Any minimum time to be paid for a deposition or trial
- Travel time
- Who will make the travel arrangements
- If there are any special travel arrangements you require
- How much notice you require or cancellation of a deposition or trial appearance before you require payment
- Amount of retainer you require
- When you require a retainer
- If you require payment in advance for a review of records, a deposition, and trial
- How far in advance you require payment

She also advises, "Requiring upfront payment is not a bad idea unless you know the attorney well and have worked with him/her before. You do not want to go chasing your fee." I couldn't agree more!

And if you're still not convinced, here's what Steven Babitsky, Esq., James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq., and Alex Babitsky, MBA, have to say on the subject in The A-Z Guide to Expert Witnessing in the introduction to the chapter on fees, billings and collections:

An expert witness is entitled to be paid a reasonable fee for her time and expertise. (As an expert, an individual is paid for her time, not for her testimony.) The successful expert understands the engagement process, how much to charge, what to charge for, and how and when to collect her fees.

Experts should have the key financial terms of their engagement clearly laid out in writing before agreeing to work on a case. (Appendix R contains sample fee schedules, letters, and agreements.) These documents need to specifically cover terms including fees (including cancellation fees), billings, retainers, travel, expenses, and interest for overdue accounts.

For additional opinions and advice, you might take a look at our previous discussion on this issue in the free special report, Expert Pay Discussion, where many experts shared their opinions and best practices.

Marketing Lessons from Obama and Huckabee

I follow the major political races pretty closely (my major at University was politics and government). Regardless of your ideology, there are marketing lessons we can take from the current campaigns for president.

One reason the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary are so key is the simple fact that it's not possible for the candidates to speak one-on-one to every voter in the country. But, they can, within those two small states, speak individually to many constituents. The results of those two races eliminate some contenders completely and put others at the forefront in the eyes of the nation.

The lesson: Face-to-face interaction matters. People choose - whether in elections or for professional services - people they know, or feel like they know. We remember faces and in-person conversations with much more affinity than we do a letter from a stranger or an ad in a publication.

So meet people. Include direct prospects but also possible referral sources and just anyone and let them know what you do. As Harry Beckwith says in The Invisible Touch, "Business is about people."

Tech Rant

I try not to get too personal in my blog posts, but I am frustrated. In preparing for the start of the new year, I have been evaluating our technology and anticipated needs, costs, etc. I am highly annoyed at the need to "update" everything, even when it has been meeting our needs perfectly well since the last update. But, one way or another, we are forced into upgrades - customer support will no longer be provided; replacement parts are no longer available; the product will no longer be compatible with the newer version, which our clients will likely be using; so forth and so on. AAAAARRRRGGGHH!

How do you handle this in your own homes and offices? With your computers, cell phones, printers, PDAs, software, scanners, etc.?

Expert Practice Management

One reader of our newsletter for experts recently shared with me these business model suggestions he uses in managing his own expert witness and consulting practice:

"These are basic operating rules that, in my opinion, if broken will cause problems:

1. Keep a low overhead. I work from my home, have resisted the temptation to pay anyone else rent. If the money is not coming in I don't have someone else looking for a check every month.

2. Stay out of debt. This sinks most businesses. I have a new car but it's not a Mercedes, BMW, etc. and I keep them 6 or 7 years. If you need a new car for a site visit or to impress a client, rent one for the day.

3. Keep a cash reserve. I always have at least a year of operating revenue in a CD. I do this not only for bad times but in place of buying disability insurance which has at least a 90 day deductible and is very pricey."

Do you agree with these suggestions? What are your "hard and fast" rules for maintaining a healthy practice? Share your policies and procedures in the Comments.

My Wishes for You in 2008

I don't know if it ever occurred to him that everything he said might someday be quoted but Benjamin Franklin had a knack for saying the right words for every occasion, so I will borrow his words in sending you my wishes for this new year:

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each year find you a better man."

Spend Your Profits on Yourself

End of the Year Tip:

If all went as planned, you've had a profitable year. But that has its own little downside - now you have to pay taxes on the profit. The upside is - you have two more days to invest some of that profit in your business. See if you can advance register for continuing education classes in your field; pre-pay for business development or marketing services; or purchase books, software, or other products that will benefit your practice. Check with your tax consultant about using this year's profit now on building your business for the coming year, instead of giving that profit to the government.

Website Question Made Our Day

In a recent email to our newsletter subscribers, Rosalie gave her views about the current economy and the subsequent need for professional service providers to spark up their businesses. The very first email received in response was from a long-term client asking whether his website that we had created several years ago needed to be updated. The kicker that we found so inspiring - this expert, still fully practicing both in his profession and in legal work, is 75 years young! May we all stay so ignited and inspired for years to come.

Marketing Your Professional Services Is Not Optional

Happy Thanksgiving! In appreciation of all our experts I would like to share one of Rosalie's best essays about expert witness marketing. If you are one of the many who, like my mother Rosalie, will be traveling this week (she's headed to her hometown, Wichita Falls, TX), print this out and you'll have something to read while waiting at the airport!

Marketing Your Professional Services Is Not Optional --

by Rosalie Hamilton

Sometimes professionals say, “I don’t market my services; I rely on word-of-mouth to get business.” They don’t seem to realize these two statements are contradictory -— if they are getting plenty of referral business, they have marketed their services quite well! The issue is not a decision of whether or not to market your services, but is instead a decision of whether to assume responsibility for it and become more effective at it.

Actions you might not realize are marketing decisions:

• What you name your business
  

• What information you print on your business card
  

• How you let people know you are available
  

• How your resume or company brochure looks
  

• Who answers the telephone and how
  

• How you dress for encounters with prospective clients
  

• How you respond when someone asks what you do
  

• How you treat not only clients and prospects but also employees, associates and even competitors
  

All of these factors contribute to the image people form of you and are far more critical to the success of your business than you might realize.

For instance, does your business name indicate what services your business performs? If it doesn’t, is your business name accompanied by a tagline that states your field of work?

Does your business card provide all necessary data such as the type of work performed and your complete contact information? As a marketing consultant reviewing and analyzing professionals’ marketing materials, I see cards with important information omitted, such as the email address and even telephone area codes. I’ve seen two cards with no zip code after the address. What do these cards say about the professionals, i.e., what impression does their marketing create?

Particularly if you have chosen not to advertise your services, how did you announce that you had opened a business or practice? However you did it, and whether you did it effectively or not, it was a marketing action.

You're Not Alone

Fortunately, you’re not expected to already be knowledgeable about marketing, any more than you would expect people in other professions to be proficient in your discipline. Marketing help is available from books, magazines, the Internet, knowledgeable friends and marketing professionals. The key point is to realize that the decisions and actions that create others’ perception of you should be planned and well thought-out, as they constitute your marketing.

Prospective clients have no way of knowing what quality of service you will provide, so they must take clues from the appearance of your business card, stationery, resume or brochure and other materials, and website; your physical appearance and grooming; your manners and communication on the telephone; and even your promptness in returning phone calls.

The quality of your materials influences the perceived value of your services. Printed materials, whether produced professionally or on your personal computer, don’t have to be costly, but they should be error-free. Typographical, spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors in printed materials are inexcusable. We all make mistakes as we create and craft, but editing, correcting and proofreading comprise the second half of the job.

It is critical to have someone else proofread your writing and composition, because we all have difficulty finding our own mistakes. I frequently notice errors in professional brochures, even some that are quite expensively prepared. I have to conclude that not enough people proofread them.

Your Office Speaks

Often the initial impression you make on a prospective client results from the phone response in your office. If the phone rings several times before being answered by a person or a recording, the caller feels that his time has been disrespected. If the person answering is flippant, cold or, worse, rude, your image has been tarnished, perhaps permanently.

The time it takes you to return calls answered by someone else on your voice mail or through an answering service is also a factor in the prospect’s view of your services. An inquirer can’t help but associate your promptness or tardiness with your perceived work ethic and respect for deadlines.

In addition, if you determine that you can’t or won’t accept the proposal, are you as polite and as helpful as possible under the circumstances? You may not want this engagement, but you do want this person to be a referral source—the most effective kind of marketing.

Appearances Do Matter

“Dressing for success” doesn’t necessarily mean wearing a suit for a man, or stockings and low heels for a woman if she wears a dress or a suit with a skirt. What it does mean is deliberately deciding what to wear for encounters with prospective clients, keeping your impression in mind. Whether the most effective look would be a business suit or other attire representing your profession or trade is an individual decision, but make it a conscious decision, because it matters. Perhaps a person could be sloppy or careless in appearance and be meticulous in work performance, but the prospective client has no way of knowing that—he can only conclude by what he sees and hears.

Does Your Dry Cleaner Know What You Do?

When asked what services your company provides, do you respond completely, smoothly and briefly or do you stammer, give a terse, incomplete description or ramble? Articulating your area of expertise and services is the core of marketing. Compose a brief statement that explains your work, using words people outside your profession will understand, and practice saying it aloud.

Business owners don’t always realize that their services are publicized, either positively or negatively, by individuals they might not consider referral sources or detractors. Employees discuss their work with others. Competitors speak either respectfully or resentfully about you, based, at least in part, on your attitude and actions toward them.

Remember that when you interact with another person, regardless of who the person is, you are marketing yourself and your services. You are enhancing his picture of you, or you are diminishing it.

____________________

Performing marketing is NOT optional. Marketing is the actions, whether deliberately strategized or unplanned, that communicate the availability, quality and value of your services. Marketing shapes the image people hold of you and your business and reflects your judgment, thoroughness and professionalism. You can take charge of this message and make it contribute to your success.

by Rosalie Hamilton, the Expert's Expert, author of The Expert Witness Marketing Book and President of Expert Communications, the business development firm helping experts get more clients.

© 2007 Expert Communications. All rights reserved. www.expertcommunications.com

Expert Witness Groups and Events

Expert witness Dr. Gerry Goldhaber emailed me this week about an upcoming event for expert witnesses. He would like to invite expert readers in the NYC area to attend the Gotham Networking Group's first meeting of expert witnesses on November 26 at 12:30 p.m. at Fabio Piccolo, 230 East 44th. The cost of the luncheon is $40.

The Gotham Networking Group consists of over 550 professional members. There are already two lawyer groups and Dr. Goldhaber decided enough of the members and their colleagues were expert witnesses to start such a group with the purpose of helping each other professionally and personally. For more information, email Dr. Goldhaber at
geraldgoldhaber@yahoo.com or phone his offices at 212-379-6661.

Another group that many of you are familiar with is expanding and each chapter has regular events scheduled. The Forensic Expert Witness Association, or FEWA, was started in 1994 in Orange County and now has chapters throughout California and a new one starting in Texas as well. Check out their events and the other services they offer their members at the FEWA website.

And last but not least, I strongly recommend all experts attend SEAK 's Annual National Expert Witness Conference. This year's event is scheduled for June 19-20, 2008 in Hyannis, MA (Cape Cod - beautiful at that time of year!) They haven't put up the brochure on their website yet, but I will let you know as soon as the do.

Expert Witness Questions Holiday Cards

Like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. What business development activities do you use during this season? Do you send cards or gifts to your clients (past and present), referral sources, and prospects? Do you sign each card personally?

One expert has some questions about this and sent me the following email this past week:

It is coming up on the holiday season and in past years the firm I worked for mailed a card to clients, past and present. I considered it a good way to put our name in their head again. I also usually tried to personally sign all the cards (no rubber stamp or pre-printed signature). I also tried to write a brief message to those that I have worked with and recall a recent event, like if they had just had a child in the past year, a note to enjoy the holidays with their new child. Nothing too involved, just a little something. I have also had several clients over the years mention how nice it is to get a card with a personal touch.

This year the idea has come up to send a "nice" professional e-mail greeting in place of the card. Obviously no personal greeting or signature. My first thought is tacky, same as I have heard from a few people I have discussed this with. What are your thoughts? How about your readers?

I forwarded this email to Rosalie and here was her response:

This is the first time I've had this question posed, and I've never thought about it. My first thought is to use it to present a nice compromise - send an email instead of a postal mailed card, but do each one individually, with the personal greeting just for them. It would be easier, quicker and less costly than to do the same thing with postal mailed cards.

A group email doesn't sit well with me at all. I'm not even fond of pre-printed cards with no personal signature or note, although after signing and hand-addressing 200+ cards I'm not nearly as critical ; )

Readers - what are your thoughts? What do you plan to do this year? What have you done in the past?

Attorneys Getting the Most Out of Their Experts

The Expert Witness Committee of the ABA's Litigation Section publishes a quarterly "Expert Alert" for attorneys about working with expert witnesses. The latest issue (Fall 2007) features the article "Tips From the Experts: Getting the Most Out of Your Experts." Although written for attorneys, it highlights some best practices for the attorney-expert relationship. Making the process easier for the attorney is definitely good marketing, so it's worth a read.

Growing Your Expert Practice

Some time ago we did a random survey of our newsletter readers about the issues they face in building and expanding their expert practices. Experts mentioned five concerns/challenges above all the rest:

1. Identifying and locating the specific attorneys who handle issues issues involving their expertise, reaching them at the right time, and targeting the decision maker.

2. Attaining visibility/credibility and educating the attorney about their expertise and how they differ from the competition.

3. Avoiding appearing like a 'hired gun' and how to defend marketing and advertising on the stand.

4. Choosing the most effective venues in which to advertise and determining how attorneys find experts.

5. The time and money involved in effectively marketing an expert consultant practice.

Are these still the main challenges? What is the biggest issue you face in your practice today? What questions would like to have answered that would help you achieve your business development goals? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments below.

Expert Witness Deposition on YouTube

Expert witness video has made it to YouTube. Check out this video clip from the deposition of an accident reconstruction often retained by insurance companies. Search a little through the videos - there is a surprising amount of expert witness related material.

Practice Management Tips

Although written for lawyers, I found many realistic tips applicable to any professional service providers - in a solo practice or firm. Written by Jason Krause for the ABA Law Journal, the article is titled "Law Hacks - 101 tips, tricks and tools to make you a more productive, less stressed-out lawyer."

Krause includes both high and low-tech tips on subjects as varied as email to time management. Don't miss tip 101 - I let loose a big guffaw when I got to that one!

Too Much Litigation Experience?

In a blog post at Science Evidence, attorney Cliff Hutchinson comments on a Georgia trial court's standards and decisions regarding expert testimony in the case Bowers v. Norfolk Southern Corp.

Does the number of cases an expert has been retained on determine his classification as a "hired gun"? If so, does this warrant a stricter application of Daubert to the admissibility of that expert's opinion? Can wishy-washy terminology be cause for exclusion of an expert's testimony? (Take note of the italicized terms in his post).

Computer Maintenance as Marketing Tool

One of the very best techniques for generating more business for your expert practice is the quality of your work. Especially in the deadline/calendar-dominated legal world, your responsiveness, promptness and dedication to meeting agreed-upon dates of completion can mean the difference in creating a source of referrals or ruining your reputation.

When you can't access your files, data, report, etc. because your computer crashed - your attorney-client is not going to be sympathetic. With all the technology even the smallest firm uses today, I think we should all have a dedicated computer tech on staff. Since that is not realistic, it would be wise to know some basics that can help prevent the worst from happening (but keep a techie's number on hand at all times just in case ).

This post from The Working Guy, Christopher Null, “How to Keep Your PC From Crashing” explains seven steps even a novice can take to prevent disasters such as losing that expert report due tomorrow.

Top Ten Credibility Killers

As an expert witness, the most effective marketing technique in your arsenal is the quality of your work. In addition to the strategies you can use to improve your consulting, reports, testimony, etc., you would be wise to also steer clear of the following damaging mistakes:


1. Accepting conditional engagements or contingency fees.

2. Reporting or testifying on matters beyond your area of competence.

3. Using misleading data to form or express opinion.

4. Not meeting deadlines.

5. Allowing attorney client to unduly influence your opinion and/or report.

6. Accepting a case with a known conflict of interest.

7. Contradicting prior positions or statements.

8. Ignoring available data.

9. Producing unclear or incomplete reports.

10. Unnecessarily discussing the case with others.

It Doesn't Have to Be Complicated

When looking at growing your expert practice, have you ever thought -

"I just don't know where to start. I could list in directories, but - which ones? And what do I list under? Should I do something to my website? What should I add, take away, or change? Should I try publishing articles or speaking at conferences? What about trade shows? Does direct mail still work? How about an email newsletter? Would press releases and media exposure help my expert practice? Do cold calls have any value?"

When looking at the various marketing options out there, I hear from many of you that the choices are just too overwhelming. I think that's why many experts end up just putting their time and money into the latest 'sounds good' offer to hit their email inbox. While one of my recommendations is to always track your marketing efforts and subsequent results (a topic ALL of its own), you can simplify the decision-making process even prior to that.

At its most basic, marketing your expert services is the process of making the attorneys who need your services aware of your availability and of the value of your expertise. It is effectively communicating (to the right audience) the four "C's" that attorneys are looking for in an expert consultant:

- Competence

- Credentials

- Communication Skills and

- Credibility

So to sum it up, marketing your expert services consists of three steps:

1. Identify the attorneys (types of cases handled, geographic area, etc.) who need your services.

2. Let them know you are available as an expert legal consultant.

3. Establish an identity and consistently reinforce your strengths in each of the four C's.

Yes, there will still be specific decisions to make. But once you really get the basic purpose of your actions, those decisions are not nearly as difficult.