Business (General) Expert Witnesses: 36

David J. Brotman, FAIA, is an accomplished Senior Executive with proven career and solid experience in all aspects of Architectural and Engineering Firm Management, including project management, profit and loss, business development, mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing, and strategic planning. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, with over fifty years of practical experience. 

Principal at Sunset Consultants, Mr. Brotman provides strategic planning and management consulting services for various entities, including those that need help with planning or architectural projects. He has served as Chairman of the City of Malibu Planning Commission where he advised on land use matters including the local coastal program, specific plans, zoning, conditional use permits, and subdivisions. Mr. Brotman spent 25 years with RTKL Associates Inc., one of the World’s largest Architect and Engineering Firms where he eventually served as its Vice-Chairman.

Presentation by: David J. Brotman, FAIA

Litigation Support - David Brotman provides expert witness services to attorneys representing Plaintiff and Defense. His skills include all facets of Architectural practice. His worldwide, multi-million dollar project experience includes retail, office, hotel, institutional, and mixed-use. Mr. Brotman's services include affirmative and rebuttal report preparation, mediation, and trial testimony. 

Areas of Expertise:

View David Brotman's Consulting Profile.

Swenson Consulting offers Snow Removal Expert Witness Services to legal professionals needing assistance with snow and ice removal slip and fall cases. As recognized snow experts, they are proficient in addressing issues related to black ice, sleet, freezing rain, slick conditions, freezing fog, and re-freezing. Swenson Consulting is very familiar with the snow and ice removal industry standard operations and practices across the country, and will help determine how this relates to the snow removal agreement or operations in a slip and fall incident or snow related accident.

Principal, Jeremy Swenson, CSP, has satisfied requirements by SIMA (largest nationally recognized snow and ice trade organization-Snow and Ice Management Association) to become a Certified Snow Professional. There are less than 300 CSP’s in the USA. Mr. Swenson owned and operated Snowmen, one of the largest snow and ice management companies in North America. He has been Security Clearanced and trained for onsite snow operations at the IRS Regional Headquarters, FBI Headquarters, Department Of Treasury Buildings, and many types of Airport, Railroad, Organ Transplant Centers, and Medical facilities. After overseeing thousands of commercial accounts over the years, he has worked through most every issue that is relevant to a snow removal operation in the industry.

Litigation Support - Mr. Swenson works with attorneys on defense and plaintiff sides with regards to snow removal, ice treatment, and snow removal best practices issues. He works nationwide and will travel. Swenson Consulting also offers detailed Weather Analysis services and reports for situations surrounding a slip and fall event or accident and will offer detailed weather expert witness consultation regarding the weather surrounding the slip and fall accident.

View Jeremy Swenson's Consultant Profile.

GRANT D. STIEFEL, ESQ. | www.grantstiefel.com | grant@litigationlimited.com

• Grant D. Stiefel, Esq. is a nationally-recognized, full time attorney fee consultant, testifying expert and the principal of Litigation Limited, a boutique legal fee consulting firm
• Mr. Stiefel has testified in nearly 100 lawsuits, including matters in federal district courts, California trial courts, JAMS/AAA arbitrations, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, State Bar courts, and attorney-client fee arbitrations
• He has qualified to testify and has testified live at trials and arbitrations as a designated attorney fee expert
• Mr. Stiefel’s methodology for reviewing, auditing and evaluating legal invoices has been cited, approved and adopted by California state and federal courts
• He has been retained as a testifying attorney fee expert by the world’s largest law firms, including Reed Smith; McDermott Will and Emery; Jones Day; Sheppard Mullin; Sidely Austin; Dykema Gossett; Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; and Littler Mendelson, among many others
• Mr. Stiefel is a member of the California State Bar and is unique among fee experts in that he practiced law for many years at two of the world’s largest law firms (Akin Gump and K&L Gates)
• Mr. Stiefel has managed a multi-billion dollar litigation portfolio and has audited hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees from law firms nationwide since 2008 
• He has developed and implemented outside counsel billing and case management guidelines for Fortune 500 corporations
• He is a California State Bar-approved continuing legal education instructor on attorneys’ fees who has trained hundreds of executives and in-house counsel from a host of Fortune 500 corporations
• Mr. Stiefel is qualified as an attorney-client fee dispute arbitrator with the California State Bar’s Mandatory Fee Arbitration program and as a judge pro tem with the California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles

SAMPLE ENGAGEMENTS

• Grant Stiefel was the testifying fee expert on a series of fee applications by class counsel in Jones v. Wells Fargo, on behalf of aggrieved California consumers in the first consumer class action brought under the Unruh Act.  Relying upon Mr. Stiefel's testimony regarding the reasonableness of hourly rates and overall work performed, the trial court awarded more than $25 million in attorneys' fees to class counsel
• The district court for the Central District of California adopted and approved Mr. Stiefel's methodology for identifying and quantifying block-billed, vague and redacted billing entries in cutting Plaintiff's fee request by more than sixty percent in CNS v. Planet, from $4.8 million to $1.9 million
• In Vides v. ABM Janitorial Services, the trial court reduced Plaintiff's fee request in a FEHA action by over $1 million based upon Grant Stiefel's expert testimony.  Plaintiff moved for an award of $1,578,232.50 in attorneys' fees, which the trial court reduced to $544,183.12.  Mr. Stiefel's testimony showed that the hourly rates claimed by Plaintiff's counsel were unreasonable under the circumstances, that excessive time was spent on inter-office communications, and that the matter was overstaffed

View Grant Stiefel's Consulting Profile.

Eric Kimberling, MBA, is one of the most recognized and respected independent Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems expert in the world, giving 100% unbiased advice to clients for more than 20 years. Mr. Kimberling has been quoted in hundreds of articles, including the Wall Street Journal, CIO Magazine and Fortune. He provides keynote speeches at industry conferences and universities worldwide, and continually provides industry thought leadership through his YouTube channel, along with blogs, podcasts, webinars. He is the author of multiple acclaimed books, including, “Lessons from 1,000 ERP Implementations,” “Guide to Successful Digital Transformations,” and others.

Throughout his career, Mr. Kimberling has been called upon to investigate the feasibility of litigation, provide witness testimony and build background reporting for the industry’s highest-profile ERP lawsuits, Waste Management v. SAP, Lyons Magnus, Inc. v. Fujitsu America, Inc.; Partner Services, Inc v. Avanade; Kathy Pishghadamian v. Nicor Gas; Flotek Industries, Inc. v. CD Group, Inc.; Midwest Tape LLC v. ESR Associates, Inc.; and Whaley Food Service Repairs v. Epicor to name a few. Eric is actively involved in implementations and project recoveries, giving him a unique and up-to-date experience with modern enterprise technologies.

Areas of Expertise:

Eric holds an MBA with an emphasis in operational strategy and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. He is also Six Sigma certified and a certified practitioner of multiple ERP solutions, including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor and Infor, among others. He has won numerous industry awards for his experience and contributions, including Supply Chain Pro to Know and Best Independent ERP Blog from ERP Focus.

 View Eric Kimberling's Consulting Profile.

Brent Coker, PhD, is an Online Consumer Psychologist. With a PhD in Electronic Commerce (“Predicting Internet Purchase Intention”), Dr. Coker's research focusses on consumer behavior within the realm of psychology, digital business models, and marketing. He currently teaches Digital Marketing and Digital Business Models at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Coker prepares scientific reports pertaining to consumer behavior, branding, and Digital Marketing and technology related topics, based on scientific findings published in academic peer reviewed journals, and other third party relevant research. Any opinions expressed by Dr Coker are supported by peer reviewed academic research, established academic theory, industry standards, and other relevant logical evidence. 

Dr. Coker’s award winning research into digital marketing and consumer behavior has been published in top peer reviewed academic journals, beginning in 2004 when his research into the integration of the internet into business models won Best Paper Award at the 15th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS). In the late 1990s, Dr. Coker had a dot-com (fernland.com), and he is currently director of Deloosh Pty Ltd.., inventor of the web analytics tool Webreep., and author of the book Going Viral, and advisor to Wear Cape, Influencer Marketing Agency

 Dr. Coker is available for expert witness work, consultation, and advisement in Australia and internationally.

Areas of Expertise:

View Dr. Brent Coker's Consulting Profile.

Max Holmes has over 40 years of experience as a portfolio manager, research analyst, board member, lawyer, NYU Professor and expert witness.

Max Holmes has been an Expert Witness in various Federal & State Cases including Jury Trials / AAA, FINRA, ICDR & JAMS Arbitrations / Mediations.

Since 1993, Max Holmes has been an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Stern Graduate School of Business at New York University, teaching "Bankruptcy and Reorganization."

Max Holmes has been the Chief Investment Officer / Lead Portfolio Manager for two large hedge funds ($2.7 billion and $5.4 billion of peak assets under management) as well as a small insurance company portfolio and a small mutual fund portfolio.

Mr. Holmes has been the Chair, Chief Executive Officer and Director of a life, health and annuity insurer and reinsurer.  Mr. Holmes has been a Vice Chair and Director of a large crypto bitcoin mining company.

Mr. Holmes worked in investment banking, research, trading and capital markets at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Salomon Brothers, NatWest Markets and Royal Bank of Canada.  Since 2015, Max Holmes has been a Senior Advisor to American Industrial Partners LLC, a private equity firm with $17.8 billion of assets under management.    

Max Holmes is a lawyer (member of the NY, TX and DC bars), has served on numerous boards of directors, and has previously held FINRA licenses for securities (Series 3, 7, 9, 19, 16, 24, 56 and 63), RIA, ERISA QPAM, Federal Reserve, FDIC, insurance, mortgage origination and servicing, municipal waste, FERC, ISO, and gaming in Nevada, New York and Canada.

Mr. Holmes is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School.

Areas of Expertise: