My company, Root Labs, has consulted on various lawsuits. We aren't trial witnesses but we've done supporting work, such as reverse engineering and writing a detailed technical analysis of how a product works. This report was then reviewed by the testifying expert, who wrote their own report to be entered as evidence.
I recommend not working as a testifying expert for a few reasons:
- You have to take sides, and the other side will never want to work with you again. Are you sure you'll never want to work with AT&T if you represented Verizon once, for example? What if you want a job there some day?
- Despite the term "expert", it comes down to how you present yourself in the courtroom versus what you know. The opponent's "expert" might seem more believable than you, despite being wrong about the technical issues.
- You have to stick to one particular area of technology your whole career, and many of the cases cover the same ground. Do you want to be "Ethernet Implementation Person" your whole life?
- A lot of the work is boring, and lawyers are generally not technically adept. Juries are worse. So if you love explaining something repeatedly in oversimplified terms, maybe you'd like this.
Usually testifying experts are older and do it after they've finished a career in some subject area. It might make sense at that point as a second career.
I recommend not working as a testifying expert for a few reasons:
- You have to take sides, and the other side will never want to work with you again. Are you sure you'll never want to work with AT&T if you represented Verizon once, for example? What if you want a job there some day?
- Despite the term "expert", it comes down to how you present yourself in the courtroom versus what you know. The opponent's "expert" might seem more believable than you, despite being wrong about the technical issues.
- You have to stick to one particular area of technology your whole career, and many of the cases cover the same ground. Do you want to be "Ethernet Implementation Person" your whole life?
- A lot of the work is boring, and lawyers are generally not technically adept. Juries are worse. So if you love explaining something repeatedly in oversimplified terms, maybe you'd like this.
Usually testifying experts are older and do it after they've finished a career in some subject area. It might make sense at that point as a second career.