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• Never Ask Your Client for an Expert ( January 2007 )
  

  When IP lawyer John P. Hutchins needs a referral to an expert witness, there is one source he always avoids – clients – and another he solicits only warily – law partners. A misguided referral from either one, he has learned, puts the relationship at risk and may send his expert search back to square one.

• 'Gatekeeper' Review Must Be More Than Cursory ( May 2006 )
  

  A federal judge's one-sentence conclusion that a witness qualified to testify as an expert was not enough to show that he had correctly exercised his "gatekeeper" function under Daubert, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided.

• My Kingdom for an Expert! ( February 2005 )
  

  Today, more than at any other time in the history of our profession, many cases are won or lost on the testimony of the expert witness. So, exactly what does an "expert" look like, and how do you find the right one? By definition, an expert is a person with specialized knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education which qualifies that person to form helpful opinions for a party in anticipation for litigation or preparation for trial.

• The Top Five Mistakes Expert Witnesses Make ( July 2005 )
  

  An expert is a person with specialized knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education which qualifies that person to form helpful opinions for a party in anticipation for litigation or preparation for trial. The court must find, however, in addition to the expert's qualifications, that the opinion evidence will be relevant to the issues in the case, that it is reliable, and that it will be helpful to the trier of fact.

• Recent Changes in the Admissibility of Biomechanical Expert Testimony in Delaware ( July 2004 )
  

  Delaware's Supreme Court recently decided a trio of cases concerning the admissibility of biomechanical expert testimony. Biomechanics is the study of &#quot;the mechanical bases of biological, especially muscular, activity; also: the study of the principles and relations involved.&#quot;

• Case Management And Expert Disqualification -- Two Important Delaware Patent Decisions ( July 2004 )
  

  In Commissariat A L'Energie Atomique v. Dell Computer Corp., et al., C. A. Nos. 03-484-KAJ, 03-857-KAJ, 03-931-KAJ, 03-1036-KAJ, 04-099-KAJ (D. Del. May 13, 2004), Judge Jordan addressed the thorny issue of how to weigh the parties' rights, and practical concerns, in the context of numerous motions to consolidate cases and motions to stay as to certain parties, in five cases brought by the same plaintiff (&#quot;CEA&#quot;) against more than sixty defendants.

• Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corporation:Third Circuit Upholds Defense Verdict on Proper Application of Federal Rule of Evidence 702 ( December 2003 )
  

  On November 18, 2003, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in <i>Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., et al.</i>. The unanimous three-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s decision to limit plaintiffs’ experts’ testimony because “an expert may be generally qualified but may lack qualifications to testify outside his area of expertise.”

• Corporate Governance Seminar. Seminar Summary of Richard Langan of Nixon Peabody LLP ( August 2003 )
  

  Richard Langan, Business Practice Group Leader at Nixon Peabody LLP, shared his insights on counseling the audit committee with attendees of FindLaw’s Corporate Governance seminar in New York. Mr. Langan observed that although corporate governance rule-making in light of Sarbanes-Oxley has taken some time for companies to synthesize, most companies have found that the changes can be incorporated into dayto- day activities at the board and audit committee level.

• Should I Accept that Invitation to be an Audit Committee Financial Expert? ( June 2003 )
  

  As mandated in Section 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the SEC adopted rules and amendments requiring each Securities and Exchange Commission reporting company to disclose whether it has at least one "audit committee financial expert" serving on its audit committee and, if so, the name of the expert and whether the expert is independent of management.

• Warning to Expert Witnesses… ( October 2000 )
  

  In a surprising change of the common law tradition of witness immunity, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has recen.