• videocam On-Demand Webinar
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Litigation
  • schedule 90 minutes

Expert Witness Depositions: Preparing to Attack the Opponent's Expert

Obtaining Testimony to Support Challenges Under FRE 702, Impeachment at Trial, and Gain Settlement Leverage

About the Course

Introduction

This CLE course will equip litigators with skills to obtain deposition testimony from opposing experts that can be used to impeach or disqualify the expert from testifying at trial and to gain leverage for favorable settlements. Our authoritative panel will provide techniques for eliciting favorable testimony from even the most seasoned expert witnesses.

Description

Litigation involving experts is becoming increasingly more complicated and oftentimes the case is won or lost at the expert deposition. Our authoritative panel will address approaches to attack the opposition at the expert's deposition by eliciting testimony to support a Daubert challenge of the expert's qualifications, destroy the expert's credibility at trial, and obtain ammunition to obtain a favorable settlement.

Facing a deponent who is a professional witness armed with a level of expertise beyond a layperson requires in-depth preparation prior to the deposition and deposition-taking skills to gain admissions from the expert that break the opponent's case.

This presentation will provide litigators with actions that should be taken prior to the deposition in order to prepare an attack on the experts' qualifications, prior opinions, and testimony. Our speakers will also provide tips for setting up the expert for impeachment at trial, challenging the expert's methodology, and gaining the upper hand in settlement negotiations.

Listen as our authoritative panel provides proven strategies for overcoming the most complex expert deposition hurdles and using those depositions to obtain favorable settlements or verdicts by taking the wind out of the opposing expert's sails.

Presented By

Anthony L. Cochran
Partner, Co-Head of the White-Collar Practice
Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP

During the 50 years Mr. Cochran has been practicing law in Atlanta, he has represented many individuals and businesses on a wide variety of complex matters. Mr. Cochran has tried dozens of jury trials in many areas of the law (both civil and criminal, federal and state), bench trials (in federal and state courts), administrative and regulatory hearings (before both federal and state agencies and boards), and medical peer review hearings at hospitals. His unique experience allows him to handle parallel civil, administrative and criminal proceedings, which are common in today’s legal environment. Mr. Cochran is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. In addition to his law practice, he served as former Chair and Director for the Zaban Paradies Center which assists homeless couples obtain housing and employment. Mr. Cochran regularly appears on continuing education panels, speaking at a large number of seminars on a variety of topics, including summary evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 1006, the application of Daubert to expert testimony, representing individual physicians, white-collar criminal defense, and internal investigations.

Henry D. Fellows
Partner
Fellows Labriola, LLP

Mr. Fellows represents corporations, partnerships and individuals in cases related to commercial contract disputes, fraud and RICO recovery, Georgia Trade Secrets Act, ERISA, and numerous other matters. He has tried cases in numerous Georgia Superior and State Courts, and also successfully argued cases before the Georgia Supreme Court, the Georgia Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

John Lockett
Partner
The Lockett Law Firm

Mr. Lockett is a trial lawyer specializing in high-stakes business disputes. He has significant experience representing members of the real estate, financial services, hospitality, and technology industries. He has developed particular expertise in litigating fraudulent transfer claims on behalf of both creditors and borrowers and representing lenders in disputes involving intercreditor and loan participation agreements. For eight years, he was a partner at an Am Law 200 law firm based in Atlanta. His practice is national in scope, and he routinely handles cases and arbitrations around the United States.

Credit Information
  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Wednesday, October 11, 2023

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  1. Preparing for the deposition
    1. The expert's qualifications
    2. Prior opinions and testimony
    3. Working with retained experts to identify flaws in the opposing expert's methodology
  2. Deposing the expert
    1. Gathering testimony for a Daubert challenge
    2. Setting up the expert for impeachment at trial
    3. Identifying holes in opinions for settlement leverage

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • Preparing to attack the expert's qualifications
  • Locating expert's prior opinions and testimony
  • Attacking the expert's methodology at the deposition
  • Setting up deposition testimony for use in Daubert motions
  • Increasing settlement value by discrediting the opposing expert