by Robert Ambrogi - Editor
BullsEye Newsletter: April 2007
When hiring an expert, the most important quality to look for
is someone who presents well, litigator Christopher A. Riley
believes. Assess how he speaks, how he appears, and his degree
of comfort with himself and his area of expertise.
"Jurors will tend to believe someone more easily who presents well," says
Mr. Riley, a partner with the law firm Alston &
Bird in Atlanta.
In selecting an expert witness, lawyers sometimes focus too heavily on what the
expert will say, but how the expert speaks and presents can be even more important,
Mr. Riley contends.
Hand-in-hand with how the expert presents himself is the nature of his experience.
For Mr. Riley, it is important that the expert has practical, working experience
in the field – not merely knowledge drawn from the Ivory Tower. This allows
the expert to tie his testimony to real-life examples – to say, "I've
done this."
"That goes a long way in establishing trustworthiness with a judge or jury," says
Mr. Riley, a litigator who focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation
with an emphasis on financial services cases.
These two characteristics – presenting well and real-world experience – build
on each other and help establish credibility. Because he considers both important,
Mr. Riley never hires an expert witness or litigation consultant without first
meeting him in person.
"The expert can have spotless credentials and plenty of experience, but
if, for whatever reason, he does not present well to a jury, the jury will focus
on those nonverbal qualities and never hear the testimony."
In the initial interview, Mr. Riley assesses the expert's level of comfort with
himself and with his area of expertise. "I tend to have a gut feeling within
the first few minutes of talking to someone," he says. He describes the
trait he looks for as a form of self-confidence, but one that comes not from
an inflated ego, but rather from knowing one's field of expertise.
Not only do these qualities make an expert witness more trustworthy, but they
also make him less vulnerable to attack. "If an expert is comfortable with
himself and with what he knows, he can better handle cross-examination."
This is because the expert who is comfortable with himself is less likely when
questioned to stray beyond his area of expertise, Riley explains.
"I see it happen all too often that an expert testifies beyond his expertise," he
says. "The expert is then subject to an effective cross-examination on those
areas where he went out on a limb. That ultimately discredits his entire testimony."
In his own practice, Riley works with a variety of experts. In each, he looks
for that quality of presenting well. "Maybe it's a Southern thing," he
jokes, "but it's my golden rule for hiring an expert."
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