Expert Witness & Litigation Support

Matters this covers

• Product liability — whether a material, component or product failed, why, and whether the failure was foreseeable or preventable.
• Intellectual property — infringement and invalidity analysis, prior-art searching, patentability research, and support on initial filings, valuations and prosecution or defence before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
• Manufacturing and supply disputes — specification conformance, materials substitution, process deviation and batch quality.
• Insurance and subrogation — independent determination of cause where a materials question sits at the centre of the loss.

What is provided

Independent technical determination

The engagement is to reach the conclusion the evidence supports. An opinion that bends to the retaining party is worth nothing under cross-examination, and counsel is better served by knowing early where the technical weaknesses are than by discovering them in deposition.

Data acquisition, analysis, interpretation and presentation

Investigations run from inception through to litigation-related expert testimony. Where the product under evaluation cannot be assessed with standard equipment, custom test equipment can be acquired or built to suit it — which is often what produces the measurement that actually decides an infringement or a causation question.

Testing through independent laboratories

Analysis is commissioned through an established network of university and industry laboratory partners, with government national laboratories available through collaborators where a specialised resource is required. Not being tied to a single in-house laboratory means the method is chosen for the question rather than for the equipment already owned.

Explanation a jury can follow

Molecular degradation, environmental stress cracking and fibre debonding decide cases, and they have to be explained to people with no technical background without being distorted in the process. Four decades of teaching graduate and undergraduate engineering, and of presenting technical findings to boards and non-specialist audiences, is directly applicable here.

Credentials relevant to admissibility

• PhD in polymer science and engineering, University of Manchester (UMIST), England.
• Professor Emeritus of Polymer Science & Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi; formerly professor of chemical engineering and of materials science and engineering, Iowa State University.
• Registered Chartered Engineer (UK) and Registered Chartered Scientist (UK).
• Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (UK), the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.
• Holder of seven patents; author of more than 150 publications in refereed archival scientific and engineering journals and books.
• Senior industrial experience, including as Senior Project Leader and Engineer at Corning Incorporated.

The full record, including awards and appointments, is set out on the credentials page.

Material systems and technical subject matter

• Engineering plastics
• Polyurethanes
• Polyamides
• Biodegradable plastics
• Polyesters & polycarbonates
• Styrenics
• Polyolefins
• Thermosetting plastics
• FRP/GRP
• Carbon & aramid fibre composites
• Biomaterials
• Magnetic materials
• Nanomaterials & nanocomposites
• Glasses & ceramics