Description
Learn how to have a more successful expert witness practice. We provide a holistic look at practice development including marketing, sales, fee setting, collections, practice management, branding, and positioning. The focus is on simple and easily implementable techniques and strategies. Each attendee will create a written action plan and receive personalized feedback from SEAK.
You will learn how to:
- Make yourself more attractive to potential clients,
- Get new clients to come to you,
- Optimize your fee structure and minimize collection difficulties,
- Convert more case leads into paying clients,
- Position yourself in a well-placed niche,
- Data mine your old cases and case inquiries,
- Maximize repeat and word of mouth business,
- Cost effectively market your expert witness practice,
- Reduce non-billable time,
- Leverage yourself, and
- Make your expert witness practice more successful.
Registration/Tuition/Discounts: Tuition is $1395 on or before July 19, 2024; $1495 July 20, 2024–August 23, 2024; and $1595 after August 23, 2024. Your tuition includes a detailed conference manual (both PDF and hard copy). Group discounts are available for two or more persons registering together from the same employer. Discount prices depend on the size of the group. Our programs can also be brought onsite to your organization. Please call 508-457-1111. A special 50% discount is available on one new or renewal standard listing in the SEAK Expert Witness Directory placed by attendees during the September 19–22 seminars. This course is also available to stream on-demand, to register please click here.
Cancellations: Conference cancellations received in writing on or before August 23, 2024 will receive a full tuition refund. Conference cancellations received after August 23, 2024 will receive a full tuition credit.
Continuing Education Credits: There are no continuing education credits available for this program.
Faculty:
James J. Mangraviti, Jr., Esq., has trained thousands of expert witnesses over the past 25+ years through seminars, corporate training, training for professional societies, and training for governmental agencies including the FBI, IRS, NYPD, SEC, Secret Service, and Department of Defense. He currently serves as Principal of The Expert Witness Training Company SEAK, Inc. (www.testifyingtraining.com). Jim has been retained to prepare expert witnesses in a wide variety of cases such as catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, antitrust, patent infringement, homicide, commercial litigation, and product liability. He is a thought leader on expert witness business development who has mentored numerous experts and helped them grow successful practices. Jim is a former litigator with experience in defense and plaintiff personal injury law and insurance law. He received his BA degree in mathematics summa cum laude from Boston College and his JD degree cum laude from Boston College Law School. Jim is the co-author of numerous texts on expert witnessing. Jim can be reached at 978-276-1234 or jim@seak.com.
Kelly J. Wilbur, Esq., is an expert witness trainer and consultant for SEAK, Inc. She has assisted and taught numerous expert witnesses through SEAK seminars and one-on-one training. She was an insurance defense and commercial litigator for five years where she regularly worked with and against expert witnesses in wrongful death, personal injury, premises liability, construction defect and patent cases. Kelly received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts School of Law and graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a B.A. in Political Science. She may be contacted at 781-491-6802 or kelly@seak.com.
Day One: Saturday, September 21, 2024
9:00 – 9:45 AM Eastern What Potential Clients are Looking For in Expert Witnesses
The faculty will detail what attorneys are looking for in expert witnesses. Questions & Answers.
9:45 – 10:30 AM Eastern How to Recognize and Showcase What Makes You Most Attractive To Potential Clients
A first step in developing a business development strategy is creating and refining your “elevator speech,” —i.e. a concise summary of what potential clients would like about you. Building upon the previous segment, the faculty will explain a protocol for developing your ideal elevator speech and provide examples of effective elevator speeches. Questions & Answers.
10:30 – 10:45 AM Eastern BREAK
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern Finding Your Niche and Utilizing it to Increase Your Income
The potentially enormous benefits of finding a good niche will be explained and attendees will be provided with numerous successful examples as well as a protocol to identify/develop their lucrative niche. Questions & Answers.
12:00 – 12:45 PM Eastern Positioning Yourself in the Best Possible Light
The faculty will explain how to make yourself as attractive as possible to potential clients, including: how to project a positive and professional image (and the biggest mistakes experts make in this area), how case selection influences your image, which cases/law firms to seek out and which cases/law firms to avoid, how to demonstrate effective communication skills, how and when to fill in gaps and build your CV, why you should keep a low profile, and how to gain hands-on and relevant testifying experience. Questions & Answers.
12:45 – 1:15 PM Eastern LUNCH BREAK
1:15 – 2:00 PM Eastern How to Develop and Implement an Income Maximizing Fee Structure
Faculty will provide suggestions and a “litmus” test attendees can use when reconsidering their fee and retainer structure. Emphasized will be techniques to make sure that you are not undercharging. Questions & Answers.
2:00 – 2:45 PM Eastern How to Minimize Collection Difficulties and Write Offs
Simply put, every billed dollar that is not ultimately collected comes right off your bottom line. In this segment the faculty will provide practical advice for minimizing both collection losses and write-offs. Questions & Answers.
2:45 – 3:30 PM Eastern How to Convert a Higher Percentage of Inquiries into Paid Assignments
Faculty will share with attendees: how to prepare for calls, what counsel are looking for, key “talking points” and numerous strategies and techniques for excelling during the call and its aftermath and converting the inquiry into a paid expert witness assignment. Questions & Answers.
3:30 – 3:45 PM Eastern BREAK
3:45 – 4:30 PM Eastern How Much Are Your New Clients Worth?
Attendees will learn how to consider the true worth of a new client. Such an understanding is critical in order to accurately assess the cost-effectiveness of the business development techniques discussed later in the course. Questions & Answers.
4:30 – 5:15 PM Eastern Fundamentals of Expert Witness Business Development
Faculty will discuss and explain the art and science of business development for expert witness practices. Emphasis will be placed on cost-effective techniques that attendees can immediately use to increase their income without creating a backlash or fodder for cross examination. Questions & Answers.
5:15 – 5:45 PM Eastern How to Track Your New Client Development
Faculty will explain techniques for tracking inquiries and cases. A model tracking form will be provided. Questions & Answers.
Day Two: Sunday, September 22, 2024
9:00 – 9:30 AM Eastern How to Data Mine Your Old Cases and Inquiries to Make More Money
Maximizing your revenue requires a periodic analysis of your past cases and inquiries. The faculty will provide a protocol and form to conduct this analysis and will demonstrate through examples the highly valuable and actionable data that may well be within your easy reach. Questions & Answers.
9:30 – 10:00 AM Eastern How to Identify and Reach the Attorneys Most Likely to Hire You
Faculty will discuss and demonstrate how you or your staff can easily locate the particular attorneys most likely to hire you for new expert witness assignments. Questions & Answers.
10:00 – 11:00 AM Eastern How to Maximize Repeat and Word of Mouth Business
By far the most valuable and cost effective business development technique for expert witnesses is generating positive word of mouth. The faculty will provide dozens of suggestions and strategies for increasing repeat business with resulting increased income. Questions & Answers.
11:00 – 11:15 AM Eastern BREAK
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern How to Develop a Comprehensive and Effective Internet Strategy
An effective internet strategy goes far beyond just putting up a web page. The authors will provide advice for developing a comprehensive and effective internet strategy involving URL selection, web site design, blogging, social media, search engine optimization, pay per click, inbound marketing, and calls to action. Questions & Answers.
12:00 – 12:45 PM Eastern How and Where to Advertise: Evidence Based Best Practices
Research and evidence suggests that advertising and listing in expert directories can be remarkably cost effective and that, for most experts, there is little if any backlash from tasteful, factual ads. The faculty will specifically explain what should and should not be in expert witness advertisements, how specifically to maximize the effectiveness of your ads, and how and where to test advertising. Questions & Answers.
12:45 – 1:15 PM Eastern Advanced Networking Techniques for Expert Witnesses
The faculty will explain and provide examples of six specific techniques for staying in front of clients and how specifically to implement each. The faculty will further describe methods for networking with one’s colleagues and how this can lead to case referrals. Also discussed will be which professional organizations to join, how to leverage your personal relationships, why you should serve as a mentor, which conferences you should attend, and how to use online networking through LinkedIn to boost your expert witness practice. Questions & Answers.
1:15 – 1:45 PM Eastern LUNCH BREAK
1:45 – 2:15 PM Eastern How to use Public Speaking and Writing to Increase Your Revenue
Speaking and writing can be very good for your bottom line. The faculty will explain and demonstrate the subtle nuances that need to be navigated to get the most out of your speaking engagement. The faculty will explain where to talk, how to get invited, when the best time to talk is, and how to get invited back and will offer advice on risk management so that the expert’s presentation does not come back to haunt the expert. In regards to writing, the faculty will explain how to choose the correct topic to write on, the various types of writing that experts can do (white papers, articles, peer review articles, blogs, books, etc.), how to calculate the cost of writing, risk management considerations influencing your title, content, and where to publish—all with the aim of generating lucrative cases. Questions & Answers.
2:15 – 2:45 PM Eastern Direct Outreach
The faculty will explain how to draft an effective communications piece and who to target this piece to. Also included will be tips and advice on how to make your outreach cost-effective. Questions & Answers.
2:45 – 3:15 PM Eastern Reducing Non-Billable Time
The less time you spend on non-billable time the more time you will have to bill, develop your practice, and increase your skills. The faculty will explain how to create large amounts of extra time by leveraging yourself through technology and proper staffing. Questions & Answers.
3:15 – 3:30 PM Eastern BREAK
3:30 – 4:00 PM Eastern Leveraging Your Name and Reputation to Earn More Money: Bringing on Additional Experts
Many expert witnesses work in firms or group settings. Expanding your practice to a group can allow you to greatly increase your billings and revenue as well as build residual sale value in your firm. The faculty will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of expanding beyond a one person firm and will give practical advice for doing so successfully. Questions & Answers.
4:00 – 4:15 PM Eastern Personalized Action Plans
Attendees will work with faculty to pull together a personalized action plan to greatly expand the profitability of their practices. These plans will be discussed and critiqued. Questions & Answers.
What past attendees have to say:
“Jim, Thanks for making the class extremely memorable. You did an excellent job teaching! I now have a large list of tasks I need to complete with my expert witness business.”
“Jim, thanks for the excellent course last week, which is changing my actions today and I am sure will have long term impact for the future.”
“I very much appreciate the approach, the professionalism, the frankness, and the organization. [Jim and Kelly] provided me with much needed direction.”
“Not only was the instruction useful, even to someone with as much experience as I have had as an expert witness, but the cross-pollination of ideas from the other participants was also quite valuable.”
“It was great to drill down on the details of how to improve our business.”
“A well prepared and presented course that truly addressed all the aspects of creating healthy growth in an expert witnessing practice.”
“Thanks again so much for the course! Definitely gave me a number of great ideas to make my expert witness practice grow.”
“Very helpful info, validated I’m doing a number of things well, but also showed me areas/opportunities for improvement.”
“Thank YOU, Jim, for an excellent course yet again. I am working on my 4 pages of to-dos and making progress. I am grateful for your guidance, instruction, and support in this exciting endeavor.”
“Jim, you are definitely a great pioneer in this area. I love that you give a lot of great information, but you make it an interactive and personal experience. Where we all learn from one another.”
“The course was spectacular, and I am fired up to develop my expert-witness work for the coming decade. The content was exactly the sort of informed and doable advice I was looking for.”
“Jim and Kelly, Thanks again as always for a great seminar. I have spent the better part of the week working on the 42 items on my to-do list to get my business into shape.”
“Treasure trove of real world, practical information.”
“Jim, It was truly a life altering experience! Thank you.”
“One valuable piece was simply absorbing some of the “norms” of this wild west adventure of expert witness work, and hearing how many of the issues are viewed from the perspective of the attorneys and excellent instructors. Understanding better the expectations of attorneys who hire experts, talking clearly about the uncomfortable subject of fees and invoicing super helpful, and most everything that Jim and Kelly had to say was very valuable.”
“This is the second SEAK course I have attended and the amount of valuable information and advice provided is almost overwhelming, but it is always top shelf and excellent!”
