Early Bird Rate: Member $1075 /Non-Member $1295 - AFTER 02/09/2016 Member $1275 /Non-Member $1495
Nadine Nasser Donovan, Esq.
Purpose and Background
How to Start, Build, and Run a Forensic Engineering Practice will teach you how to diversify your practice and create a new recession-resistant profit center by assisting lawyers and insurance companies on legal disputes. Forensic engineering is a growth area, low risk, and requires minimal overhead. A practice can even be run part time, from home and into retirement.
Time spent by engineers on legal matters is commonly billed out at $150-$300 or more per hour. How to Start, Build and Run a Successful Forensic Engineering Practice is an intensive, content rich workshop that is designed to show you how to start, build, and run a successful expert witness practice. This course is appropriate for engineers with all levels of legal-consulting experience including prospective and novice expert witnesses. Attendees will learn from an experienced faculty in a step-by-step fashion how to start, build, and run a successful and ethical forensic engineering practice.
You will start by learning the role of forensic engineers in civil litigation and what successful experts have in common. You will be shown how to identity a lucrative niche, make a favorable impression on retaining counsel and pull together a CV appropriate for forensic engineering. You will then learn how to bulletproof both yourself and your opinions. You will then learn how to run a low risk and profitable forensic practice and how to obtain and retain clients. Fee setting, billings, collections, will also be covered along with excelling at depositions and report writing.
Forensic engineering is low risk, low overhead, and recession resistant. How to Start, Build and Run a Successful Forensic Engineering Practice is designed for any engineer looking to diversify their practice, increase their income, and develop or expand a new and challenging aspect to their practice.
Seminar Benefits
- Learn how to obtain lucrative and challenging assignments from lawyers and insurance companies
- Understand how to best position yourself to do more forensic work
- Find out numerous techniques to deliver a superior work product to lawyers and law firms
- Discover techniques for reducing overhead and risk associated with your forensic practice
- Determine how to best charge for your time and which types of work command premium fees
- Understand what lawyers are looking for and how to deliver for them
- Discover how to diversify your practice and make forensic engineering a recession resistant profit center
Learning Outcomes
- The role of expert witnesses in civil litigation
- What attorneys are looking for from their experts
- How to properly define your area (s) of expertise and practice areas
- How to draft a curriculum vitae appropriate for expert witness work
- How to get cases
- How to avoid ethical problems and maintain your integrity
- The essentials of expert witness report writing
- How to set your fee and collect it
- What to bill for and when
- How to draft a retention agreement to protect your rights
- How to form defensible opinions
- The testifying skills and techniques attorneys are looking for
- Techniques for maintaining your independence and objectivity
- How to exceed expectations
- How to build a tremendous reputation
- Ethics
- Expert witness risk management techniques
Assessment of Learning Outcomes
List techniques to start and expand a forensic engineering practice
- Lecture, Questions and Answers
- Topics: Advanced Marketing Techniques for Building a Forensic Engineering Practice; Finding and Developing Your Niche in the Expert Witness Marketplace
- Written Assessment
Describe methods for delivering high quality service to attorneys and insurance companies
- Lecture, Questions and Answers, Case Examples, Videos
- Topics: Role of Expert Witnesses in Civil Litigation; What Successful Expert Witnesses Have in Common
- Written Assessment
Identify methods for bulletproofing your forensic work product
- Lecture, Questions and Answers, Mock Trial Demonstrations
- Topic: Bulletproofing Your Opinions
- Written Assessment
Explain best practices for reports and depositions
- Lecture, Questions and Answers
- Topics: Reports Best Practices, Deposition Best Practices
- Written Assessment
Describe techniques to make yourself more attractive to potential clients
- Lecture, Questions and Answers, Case Examples
- Topics: Pulling Together a CV Appropriate for Expert Witness Work; Bulletproofing Yourself
- Written Assessment
Discuss ways to minimize risk associated with a forensic engineering practice
- Lecture, Questions and Answers, Case Examples
- Topic: Ethics and Risk Management
- Written Assessment
Explain how to set your fee, bill and collect for forensic engineering services
- Lecture, Questions and Answers
- Topic: Best Practices in Fee Setting, Fee Schedules and Agreements, Billings and Collections
- Written Assessment
Who Should Attend?
Any engineer regardless of experience who would like to start a forensic engineering practice or improve and expand an existing forensic engineering practice.
Summary Outline
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
DAY 1
- Role of Expert Witnesses in Civil Litigation
- What Successful Expert Witnesses Have in Common
- Finding and Developing Your Niche in the Expert Witness Marketplace
Break
- Achieving Excellence: Going Beyond the Expectations of Retaining Counsel
Lunch Break
- Pulling Together a CV Appropriate for Expert Witness Work
- Bulletproofing Yourself - Your CV, Qualifications, Marketing Activities & Web Site
Break
- Bulletproofing Yourself - Your Image and Reputation
- Bulletproofing Your Opinions- Passing the Daubert Tests, Your Methodology
- Bulletproofing Your Opinions - Research, Investigation, Chart Review and Examination
DAY 2
- Bulletproofing Your Opinions- Managing the Potentially Damaging Influence of Retaining Counsel
- Bulletproofing Your Opinions- Rebuttals and Commenting On Other Experts
- Bulletproofing Your Opinions- Best Practices in Expressing and Supporting Your Opinions in Your Written Report and While Testifying
Break
- Best Practices in Forensic Office Management
- Best Practices in Dealing With Counsel
Lunch Break
- Reports Best Practices
- Deposition Best Practices
- Best Practices in Fee Setting, Fee Schedules & Agreements, Billings and Collections
Break
- Advanced Marketing Techniques for Building a Forensic Engineering Practice
- Ethics and Risk Management
Discounted hotel rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis. See discount deadline and rates below.
Important Details About Your Seminar
Holiday Inn Long Beach Downtown Area
1133 Atlantic Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90813
(562) 590-5585
ASCE Hotel Rate: $153 Single/Double
Hotel Cut-Off: 2/24/2016