When a lawyer needs an expert witness I assume he looks for three things:

  1. Unimpeachable credentials
  2. Motivation to support his case
  3. The ability to favorably impress a jury, via a compelling demeanor and convincing, lucid, and engaging testimony.

For commonly litigated fields like medicine I assume there are directories and services for experts? But what about less common fields? Maybe statistics, ballistics, chemistry, applied physics?

Or, looking at this question another way: Suppose I am an expert in a field and I have been told that I have a gift for engaging a lay audience in it. How might I alert interested lawyers to my willingness to serve as an expert witness? Is there a competitive market for expert witnessing?


tl;dr: Yes, there is a competitive market for experts.


As an example, firms like Compass Lexicon, Analysis Group, Cornerstone, and Charles River all do economic and forensic consulting, which is helpful for antitrust, securities, and corporate cases writ large. In the U.S. they're frequently brought in by a client's legal team, so the analysis is generally protected by the work-product doctrine in Fed. Rules of Civ. Pro. 26(b)(3). This speaks to #2 above.

Regarding #3 and #1, the firms bring in prominent faculty members or researchers to enhance the credibility of testimony.

If you're an expert in _______, a good starting point might be to get in touch with a few forensic _______ consulting firms. By nature, they'd have their ear to the rail concerning upcoming litigation.

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