Today we are getting to know Steve Lipson, CIH, CSP about how his knowledge and NV5’s services can help clients.
We understand you routinely provide litigation support as an expert witness for NV5’s clients. Can you tell us a little more about how your testimony can benefit an NV5 client?
Just like any business entity, our clients can sue or be sued by employees, vendors, customers, the government, or third party entities. Lawsuits can range from the trivial to injury/loss of life. Defense against such suits often requires the testimony of experts in the field in question. A knowledgeable expert can explain to juries difficult concepts, define regulatory or industry standards, and/or present site data to assist in defense or plaintiff positions. This can be critical in obtaining a favorable ruling.
Are you testifying in response to human-caused losses, natural disaster-caused losses or anything else in particular?
Both, plus other matters such as building/construction failures, insurance claims, work-related exposures and injuries, chemical and biological hazards.
Given successful legal defensibility, what is the typical range of savings your testimony can save a client? Meaning, are we talking thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or maybe even millions?
Most cases settle without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. It is not at all uncommon for expert testimony under deposition to define the terms of settlement. When a case goes all the way to trial, the final judgement can range from zero to many millions or even hundreds of millions (as has happened in multiple asbestos and mold suits).
When a client first reaches out to NV5, how do you begin the process of supporting them and what is the experience that they can expect when working with you and NV5?
Each job must be individually tailored to the client’s needs and the nature of the litigation. Typically, an attorney will send us the complaint (as filed in court) and a request for assistance. How we can help is predicated on NV5’s area(s) of expertise (i.e. I can testify on the biology of mold and how/where/why it grows, but as I am not a medical doctor, I cannot opine at all on individual health effects). Discussion with the client is critical to set what we can and cannot do, and how to best serve the client’s needs. Sometimes the work requires a site visit and testing/evaluation. Other times, the work can just involve consultation.
What is it about NV5’s specific approach that clients tend to comment favorably upon?
We make it a priority to never attempt to offer information outside our area(s) of expertise. Also, responsiveness/availability, and breadth of knowledge and experience are areas where we receive favorable commentary. Additionally, NV5 ensures that work is based upon sound, defensible science wherever possible. Finally, explaining difficult information to laypersons in a manner that is easily understood can be challenging, but goes a long way in benefiting our clients causes.
Do you tend to see repeat business from client relationships and experiences?
Great question. It has long been a source of pride for me and my group (as a legacy company (AQC) founded in 1999 and an NV5 entity since 2014) that nearly all of our business comes from repeat business and word-of-mouth client referral.
We understand you have done some rather interesting work internationally for COVID-19 and even presented on the topic here in the US. Can you tell us a little about these experiences?
COVID work was both terrifying and extremely rewarding. Early in the pandemic, part of the work involved touring COVID wards in hospitals in the Midwest and Southern US. The client for that project requested assistance in evaluating their decontamination procedures as they vacillated hospital wings from COVID treatment to standard services as infections peaked and troughed.
Other projects involved development and monitoring of decontamination procedures, re-training of custodial staff and abatement workers, and offering webinar presentations. Since no protocols or standards were available for testing of air or surface cleanliness, field documentation was performed during cleaning following outbreaks in order to provide clients with a defensible work product. Travel restrictions made the international work rather interesting, in that we had to subcontract field labor for anything outside the US. We teamed with colleagues in Canada and Australia to assist.
I presented at the American Industrial Hygiene conference and exposition (AIHce) on the challenges encountered with confronting a never before seen hazard. The AIHce is the world’s largest occupational health conference, drawing IH professionals from around the world.
Do you see the opportunity to leverage litigation support as an expert witness into supporting other clients in untapped service areas?
Sure. It has already happened. NV5 has no shortage of competitors offering similar consulting services, but experts capable of offering litigation support aren’t nearly as easy to come by. A successful defense (or prosecution) can lead the client to ask how else NV5 might be of assistance both in the same area, and for other services we offer. In my experience, clients tend to prefer offering work to a trusted partner with whom they have had a positive experience. If we can establish ourselves as “the experts” in one field, clients tend to be willing to trust us to offer expertise in other areas as well.
If you’d like to explore working together with NV5’s environmental team, or to inquire about how expert witness support can benefit your organization, please reach out to Steve today!
Steven A Lipson, CIH, CSP | Principal Scientist