Advanced Deposition Preparation: Witness dynamics, remote depositions, objections, safeguards, exhibits, and use of evidence

Phillip R. Raine | Knight Nicastro MacKay, LLC

Phil is a trial lawyer who defends corporations, insurance companies, medical facilities, and transportation companies in State and Federal courts throughout Missouri and Kansas. Phil practices in all areas of civil litigation with a focus on serious personal injury and wrongful death. Since graduating from law school, Phil has honed his civil defense litigation skills with one of the largest defense firms in Missouri and a smaller firm that specialized in medical malpractice defense and healthcare law.

Michael J. Needleman | Reger Rizzo & Darnall LLP

Michael J. Needleman is a Partner in the Firm’s Philadelphia Office and member of the Litigation, Insurance, Employment Practices, Franchise & Distribution, and Corporate & Business Services Groups. He is a litigator in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. A former law clerk, he has been actively trying cases for more than a decade. He has extensive experience handling insurance defense, insurance coverage, employment litigation, and complex commercial litigation matters, including litigating franchise dispute matters.

Mr. Needleman has delivered lectures to the insurance industry on various topics and has taught several CLE classes on a variety of litigation-related subjects. He has also conducted training seminars for employers on maintaining harassment-free workplaces and minimizing claims.

James M. Beck | Reed Smith LLP

James joined Reed Smith’s Life Sciences Health Industry, Product Liability, and Appellate Groups in the spring of 2012.

James handles complex personal injury and product liability litigation. He has overseen the development of legal defenses, master briefs, and dispositive motions in numerous multidistrict litigations matters and other mass torts. On the appellate side, he has drafted major appellate briefs in significant product liability and related matters, including numerous amicus curiae briefs.

James is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Committee (PLAC) and has sat on PLAC’s case selection committee since 1997. He has written over 70 amicus curiae briefs on product liability issues for PLAC. In 2011, James was awarded the PLAC’s John P. Raleigh Award, the eighth time the group’s highest honor has been bestowed since PLAC’s founding in 1982.

James wrote PLAC’s successful amicus brief in the ground-breaking Tincher v Omega Flex decision where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned 35 years of product liability precedent. Following Tincher, he organized the “Tincher Group” of defense counsel, which has produced scholarship and suggested post-Tincher jury instructions to prevent the defense win in Tincher from being undercut.

James has also prepared amicus briefs for many other organizations, including AdvaMed, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association and several state affiliates, the Business Roundtable, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and the Washington Legal Foundation. James edited the newsletter of the ABA’s Mass Torts Litigation Committee for almost two decades, winning multiple ABA awards.

He is also the founder and co-host of the award-winning Drug & Device Law blog.

Charles Ehrlich | Insurance Expert Witness

Chuck Ehrlich is a consultant and expert witness who works primarily in the fields of insurance, reinsurance, and corporate governance.

Chuck’s half century of deposition experience began as an associate in a Los Angeles law firm, preparing and deposing experts in such varied fields as securities fraud, eye surgery, metallic corrosion, and automobile fires. Moving to a San Francisco-based national firm, Chuck’s work with experts included anti-trust, real estate, home building, banking, and a wealth of other topics.

In 1993, Chuck joined the corporate world as a senior claims and litigation executive in financial services/insurance. That role encompassed vetting and hiring experts on matters ranging from occupational diseases to environmental pollution to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

In 2012, Chuck began his present career as an expert witness and arbitrator. He has been deposed as an expert numerous times, as well as testifying in court and arbitration hearings.

Session I – Preparation, Techniques, and Witness Dynamics | 11:00am – 1:10pm

• Preparing to take depositions | 11:00am – 12:00pm

Break | 12:00pm – 12:10pm

• Deposition techniques | 12:10pm – 12:40pm
• Dealing with hostile witnesses | 12:40pm – 1:10pm

Break | 1:10pm – 1:20pm

Session II – Well, I do declare! How to thoroughly prepare for your next deposition | 1:20pm – 2:20pm

• How to prepare to take and defend a deposition | 1:20pm – 1:35pm
• When and how the attorney client privilege and various other rules may come into play | 1:35pm – 1:50pm
• Whether and under what circumstances the deposition should be recorded | 1:50pm – 2:05pm
• Other topics that will help a litigator master the process of a deposition | 2:05pm – 2:20pm

Break | 2:20pm – 2:30pm

Session III – Remote Depositions Are Here to Stay: A primer on objections, safeguards, exhibits, and use as evidence | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

• Circumstances when courts have required remote depositions over objection | 2:30pm – 2:45pm
• Maintaining procedural safeguards during remote depositions | 2:45pm – 3:00pm
• Handling documents during remote depositions | 3:00pm – 3:15pm
• Use of remote depositions as evidence | 3:15pm – 3:30pm

Break | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

Session IV – Effective Tactics for Expert Witness Depositions | 3:40pm – 4:10pm

• Establishing your goals: What do you want to accomplish? | 3:40pm – 3:45pm
• New FRE 702: Trap for the unwary | 3:45pm – 3:50pm
• Planning your time: Being efficient and covering what you need to cover | 3:50pm – 3:55pm
• Preparing the expert: What would Tom Brady do? | 3:55pm – 4:00pm
• Demeanor, body language, attire: Who do you want to be? | 4:00pm – 4:05pm
• Effective questions and effective answers: Focus, focus, focus | 4:05pm – 4:07pm
• Dealing with Evasive Witnesses and Obstructive Opposing Counsel: Keeping your eye on the ball | 4:07pm – 4:10