How to Assist an Expert Witness Practice

An expert witness’ support staff is an integral and critical member of the expert witness’ team. How to Assist an Expert Witness Practice: SEAK's Support Staff Program shows support personnel what they can do to make an expert’s practice more valuable and successful by providing concrete advice and tips to help an expert witness succeed.

This all-new program was recorded in March 2026.

You will learn:

-How to thoughtfully communicate internally and externally given the potential discoverability of your communications;

-19 Tips for optimizing and maintaining your expert's CV;

-How to best handle inquiry calls;

-How to perform due diligence on prospective attorney clients;

-How to prepare an expert fee schedule, with an example provided;

-How to introduce automation into new client onboarding;

-Suggestions for document creation, management and retention;

-16 techniques to improve the persuasiveness of your expert’s written reports;

-9 ways to assist with your expert’s depositions;

-11 ways to assist with your expert’s trial appearances;

-How to help research potential niches for your expert;

-7 ways to build a targeted database of potential attorney leads;

-Extensive advice for how you can better assist with business development/marketing including networking, exhibiting, direct outreach, speaking, advertising and expert witness brokers/referral services;

-15 ways you can assist with billings and collections;

-Numerous suggestions for taking over and reducing non-billable work and thus freeing up your expert;

- 8 pitfalls to concentrate on when risk managing and maintaining your expert’s web site;

-How you can bill for your own time where appropriate;

-Effectively calendaring and managing your expert’s schedule;

-15 suggestions for how to protect your expert's image and reputation; and

- 17 ways you can prevent problems/manage risk.

What's Included:

• Over 11 hours of on-demand streaming instruction (1 year license);
• A detailed 74-page coursebook, provided as both a digital download and upon request (USA only) a bound printed copy;
•  Personalized feedback on your expert’s CV;
•  Personalized feedback on your expert’s SEAK Expert Witness Directory Listing (if they have placed one);
• The ability to submit a list of up to three questions to SEAK's Faculty;
• Up to 20-minute private Zoom call with SEAK to answer your submitted questions and follow-up questions and provide the feedback specified above; and
• A 30-Day money back guarantee.

SUMMARY OF TOPICS

Understanding the Expert Witness Process

Participants will learn: the expert’s role in an adversarial litigation, what attorneys are looking for in expert witnesses, what experts do and how you can help, how the discovery system works, including the limited protections available and how and why discoverability is a concern during almost everything an expert and his or her staff does. Also included is an explanation of common legal terms you may be exposed to when supporting an expert witness.

How to Maintain and Bulletproof Your Expert’s CV

A prime function of any support person should be the maintenance, proofing, formatting, and general care of their expert witness’s curriculum vitae. Participants will learn specific techniques they can implement to maintain and optimize their expert’s CV.

Best Practices in Inquiry Calls, New Case Intake, and Communicating with Counsel

Participants will learn best practices for handling inquiry communications from counsel. Included are pointers on turning more inquiries into retainers, how to perform due diligence on an attorney interested in hiring your expert, how to prepare a fee schedule for your expert, the proper onboarding process for new cases, how to use technology to automize components of the onboarding process, handling common onboarding problems, and how (and how not) to communicate with counsel and other parties.

How to Proof, Quality Control and Improve the Persuasiveness of Your Expert’s Reports

Participants will learn specific techniques for improving the quality and persuasiveness of their expert’s reports. A large portion of this segment will be focused on teaching techniques to optimize the effectiveness of the attendee’s quality control review of their expert’s report. Participants will be provided with a detailed checklist of problem areas to look out for. Participants will also learn specific techniques of formatting, layout, and using the built-in features of their word processing programs to improve the persuasiveness of their expert’s reports.

Document Management: Best Practices

How to organize documents and files, how to open and close files, what to keep and what not to keep when closing a file, and how to prepare and organize documents for your expert to refer to during deposition and trial.

Assisting with Depositions and Trials

How you can help with scheduling, logistics, tech issues for remote depositions, payment, exhibits, travel, preparation (including demonstrative aids), and the errata sheet process (reading and signing).

How You Can Help Improve Your Expert’s Image & Reputation

Participants will learn concrete action steps they can implement to help improve and protect the image and reputation of their expert.

How to Best Assist Your Expert to Market and Expand Their Practice

Participants will learn how they can help build their expert’s brand, research potential well-paying niches for their expert, identify the lawyers most likely to hire your expert, advertise their expert’s practice, help their expert network to past and prospective clients, help with email marketing, help with expert witness brokers and referral services, and assist with paid search engine marketing.

How to Maintain Your Expert’s Web Site

Participants will learn how to avoid the common and avoidable mistakes involving expert web pages including puffery, claiming to be an expert in too many areas, keeping score, listing past cases and marketing gimmicks that are inappropriate for expert witnesses. Participants will learn how and why “less is often more” when it comes to an expert’s web site. Participants will also learn what they can do to keep their expert’s web site accurate and up-to-date and how to police their expert’s web presence.

How to Make Sure Your Expert Gets Paid Fairly, In Full and On Time

Participants will learn how to best draft invoices so as to avoid unnecessary and potentially damaging cross-examination, how to help their expert get paid, how to track an expert’s time, how to use automation to assist with billing, and how to handle reimbursable expenses that an expert may pass along to their client. The importance of a yearly review of billing rates and practices will also be explained.

Ethics and Risk Management

Participants will learn the legal and ethical risks experts most commonly face. More importantly, participants will learn specific action steps they can take to help protect their experts from liability and risk. 

How and When Support Staff Can Bill for Their Own Time

Participants will learn how, when, and why support staff can bill for their own time on a case, thus adding to their value and further reducing the practice’s non-billable time.

Conclusion and Takeaways

Final advice from the faculty.

Contact SEAK, Inc.: 508-457-1111 mail@seak.com PO Box 729 Falmouth, MA 02541 www.seak.com