Their Own Words: A Fulfilling Career as an Expert Witness

Not only does capitalizing on your expertise supplement your income, expert witness work is meaningful. Externally, experts help bridge the gap between technical and lay, and serve as a guardrail for justice. Internally, expert witness work is fulfilling and can advance your career. On our podcast, Engaging Experts , experts opine on what they find meaningful about being an expert witness.?

Checks and Balances?

Generally, litigation can serve as a bulwark against corporate overreach. ?Telecommunications expert Keith Mallinson finds: ?

[L]itigation is essential. Some people are critical of the United States as a litigious society—and lawyers make a lot of money. There’s a lot of criticism of that. But I think it is an important check that is required on commerce. If there weren’t antitrust laws, if there weren’t patent infringement restrictions, I think there would be abuse. I think litigation is important. I feel what I do regardless of which side I’m working for, it’s an essential activity. It’s worthy, and that makes me feel that my work is worthwhile.?

Putting your Knowledge to Work?

Having spent considerable time, energy, and money becoming recognized in a field, you have earned the opportunity to profit as an expert. It also affords the opportunity to teach others, according to economics expert Dr. Charles Parekh :??

In high school or college, everyone said, “You need to learn this, but you’ll never use it.” [. . .]As an expert witness you do use it. At my desk I have all of my academic textbooks, and I refer to them. The fulfilling part of the job is you’re teaching. In this case, you’re not teaching in a classroom, but you’re teaching a jury, a judge, or an arbitrator about the case. If you are a person who is inclined towards teaching and if you are a person who has put a lot of work into academic training, you can use the skills you spent all that time learning to teach juries and other triers of fact. That’s a fulfilling part of the work we do.?

Reality Check?

Expert witnessing affords academics an opportunity to expand on their academic knowledge. Forensic accounting expert, Professor J.W. Verret :?

It gives me a chance to do something real. One of the frustrations with being an academic is sometimes it doesn’t feel like what you’re doing is real. It’s just mind games with jargon in a journal article—it’s not always like that, but sometimes it feels like that. It gives me a chance to make my academic research meaningful, significant, impactful, and more well-informed than someone who only has the experience of reading a few articles. I do that, and I sit in a chair in real disputes, so I understand how theory meets practice. For me, it’s honing the ability to move in and out of both worlds. It’s taken a lot of time and has been very hard. It’s a challenge to do both at the same time, but I’m better off for that challenge. I’m a better practitioner, a better expert, and a better teacher and scholar for wearing all those different hats and trying to survive with all those different hats. Now that I’m coming into mid-career and midlife, I feel a strength in each of the things I do because of my abilities in the others.?

A Symbiotic Relationship?

For those that work directly in their field in addition to expert witnessing, there is a synergy that benefits both. Working as an expert contributes to staying current in your field , and working in your field is essential to maintaining credibility . Orthopedic surgery expert Dr. Nasser Heyrani finds both rewarding:??

What’s nice about being involved in [expert witnessing] is that you’re involved in seeking the truth. I’m sure that [is] why attorneys go into the field that they do. You’re able to provide your years of training, knowledge, and clinical experience to help bring some light into the situation [. . .] And I also think it makes me a better clinician because it forces me to keep up with the literature. Everything is connected and I get enjoyment from playing detective, going through medical records, and trying to help solve the puzzle. “This is what I think is going on.” It is a rewarding part of what I do in my career.?

According to a 2024 Equal Representation for Expert Witnesses (ERE) survey , more women than ever are becoming expert witnesses, but there remains a good deal of work to be done.??

For the Fun and Challenge?

Most guest expert witnesses on Engaging Experts have expressed enthusiasm for the challenge of expert witnessing. Like solving puzzles, some experts find fulfillment through the process. Law Professor Gregory Ogden explains:??

What I like about expert witness work is you’re presented with a problem and conflicting views on that problem. You can use your brain power to help solve that problem in a way that is responsive to the needs of the lawyer you’re working for and the client (or clients) they’re representing. It’s fun. It’s dynamic. There are unknowns, but I always enjoy doing trial work. As a young lawyer, I didn’t do complicated cases, but I like trial work for the same reason. Being an expert is fun from that standpoint, but it can be challenging because you’re in an adversarial environment and there are always experts on the other side who disagree with your opinions.?

Taken Seriously?

Unfortunately, extremely talented women are not always taken seriously. In fact, attorney and tax expert, Nancy Ortmeyer Kuhn, uses expert witnessing to help turn the tables:??

This may be a little self-serving, but when I first started out as a young female tax attorney, I wasn’t always taken seriously. I would be in meetings, and I would say something and be disregarded. Then, others would say the same thing and it was like it was the best thing that the client—or whoever we were talking with—had heard. That got old after a while, so all these years later, it’s gratifying to be regarded as an expert in my field of tax and nonprofit, and for attorneys and judges to respect my opinions. I love the give-and-take of litigation. I also litigate tax cases and represent taxpayers—including nonprofits—and I enjoy the variety of being involved in litigation as an expert. It’s a different perspective and skill set [compared to being an attorney]. I enjoy the variety.?

Doing Well by Doing Good?

Experts can make a real difference for people who find themselves in unfortunate situations. Your expertise allows you to spot facts that the attorneys may miss. Mechanical engineering expert David Smith recalls one such case:?

At the end of the day, what’s fulfilling—and this isn’t every case—but sometimes there are cases where someone’s trying to get money from someone that shouldn’t be paying that money, or someone’s trying not to pay someone money that I feel they should be reasonably paid. It’s always sad when someone gets hurt. Sometimes it’s the equipment manufacturer’s fault, and sometimes it’s not. In one instance, I was working on a case where an equipment operator truck driver had managed to run himself over with his own truck. As we did the research, the truck he was driving was in a very poor state of repair. The company had [placed] strict conditions on the amount of work they needed to get done each day. To do that, the operators were using unsafe practices—and the kicker in this case was they had produced all the police bodycam footage from six different officers that were at the scene. It was over ten hours of bodycam footage. I had it playing on one monitor while I was doing work on another monitor because most of it was nonsense, just people walking around. In the middle of one of these videos, there was a one-minute clip where the guy’s boss was talking to the police officer and said, “This is just like that accident we had two weeks ago. The one where it ran over a mailbox and into a field.” We could point out that not only [that] this company’s truck was in a poor state of repair, but they knew that their operators were doing these unsafe things and they didn’t do anything to fix it.?

Conclusion?

Expert witness work affords the opportunity for personal fulfillment while positively impacting society. Through helping clients, overcoming challenges, and forming relationships, your career can be as rewarding as it is important. ?

For over 30 years, Round Table Group has been connecting litigators with skilled and qualified expert witnesses. If you are interested in being considered for expert witness opportunities , contact us at 202-759-5912 for more information or sign up now!?