NITA Publications

Selecting and Preparing the Expert Witness

Through a series of vignettes, this DVD offers critiques and practical instruction that cover all aspects of the pretrial "care and feeding" of expert witnesses. This interactive tool centers around a gender discrimination case (citing the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure), but its principles can be applied to any expert in any case and at any level.

• >> AUTHORS
  
  
  • Anthony J. Bocchino
    
    
    • Professor Anthony Bocchino is an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law after which he was a Bradway Fellow at the Duke University School of Law. He served as a full time faculty member at both the University of Connecticut School of Law and the Duke University Law School before joining the Temple University Beasley School of Law faculty in 1979. At the Beasley School of Law for the period 1979 -1989 he was Director of Temple's Trial Advocacy and Clinical Programs. He has designed the program, written materials and taught in the law school's Integrated Trial Advocacy Program which has been twice awarded the Gumpert Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers, in addition to receiving the Gambrell Award for Teaching Professionalism from the American Bar Association. In 1997 he was named by Temple University as the Jack E. Feinberg Professor of Litigation.
      
      Professor Bocchino has been honored with teaching awards from Duke University School of Law where he received the Mordecai Society Award and the Beasley School of Law where he was the first recipient of the George P. Williams II Memorial Award. In addition, he has received the Oliphant Award from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and the Richard S. Jacobson Award from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America for excellence in teaching the art and science of trial advocacy.
      
      In addition to his law school duties Professor Bocchino has served as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) since 1974, served as NITA's Director for five years and served as the organization's Editor in Chief. Bocchino has written materials and designed programs for trial, deposition, fact investigation, motion practice and appellate advocacy programs for more than 30 law firms and numerous public agencies. He has also conducted needs analyses and designed litigation skill curricula for numerous law firms. His CLE materials and program designs are among the most frequently utilized by those organizations. In addition, he has and will customize materials to the specific needs of individual clients.
      
      Professor Bocchino is the author of over 60 books and articles, predominantly in the fields of Evidence, Trial Advocacy, Civil Litigation and Professional Responsibility. His trial advocacy and/or deposition practice materials are used in a majority of the law schools in America, as well as in CLE litigation skills training in the public and private sectors.
      
      Professor Bocchino has been elected as a member of the American Law Institute, and named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Litigation Counsel of America and the International Society of Barristers.

  
  

  • John Chesney
    
    
    • John Chesney has been a partner in Drinker, Biddle and Reath's Litigation Department since 1984, concentrating in complex civil litigation at both the trial and appellate levels. Chesney concentrates his practice in intellectual property litigation and is co-chair of the firm?s Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation Practice Group. He also has extensive experience in insurance coverage litigation, securities, banking and antitrust litigation. Mr. Chesney received his undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh and his graduate degree from Oxford University before attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he graduated in 1976. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and various federal bars, as well as a variety of ABA committees, and was enrolled as a barrister and solicitor of the Law Society of Alberta, Canada, in 1978.

  
  

  • David A. Sonenshein
    
    
    • David A. Sonenshein is the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple University. He has also been a faculty member at George Washington University National Law Center, DePaul University College of Law, and Boston University School of Law, teaching civil procedure, criminal procedure, evidence, professional responsibility, trial advocacy, and complex civil litigation. He has received the Outstanding Professor Award at both DePaul and Temple Law Schools a total of six times. He is a nationally recognized lecturer on the law of evidence in the courtroom. As a consultant to the Federal Judicial Center, he leads seminars for all new Federal District Court Judges on the law of evidence, as well as offering seminars for experienced U.S. District Court Judges. He has served as an instructor on evidence and trial advocacy for NITA, AILTO (of which he is the Director), ALI-ABA, and the National Practice Institute. Professor Sonenshein earned the Francis E. Rawle Award from the American Law Institute and American Bar Association for his outstanding contributions to the field of post-admission legal education. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.