Communication & Professional Skills Expert Witnesses: 5

Margaret M. van Naerssen, PhD, (Applied Linguistics) is an Expert in Second Language Development and Language Assessment, as well as Language in Social Contexts (sociolinguistics). Since 1997, she has done consultant work in forensic contexts, focusing primarily on cases involving non-native English speakers.

Dr. van Naerssen brings her over 50 years of world-wide experience (US and 47 other countries) to legal cases involving non-native English speakers. She has strong language skills in Portuguese and Spanish, and a range of functional skills in Dutch, French, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and some exposure to German, Malay, Cantonese, Russian, Samoan, Arabic, and Urdu.

This gives her valuable insights on what it is like to be a non-native speaker and to function in different cultures. She has also specialized in workplace and professional communications. 

Since the early 1990s she’s also been an English language specialist in short gov’t assignments:

in South America, Asia, North Africa, Europe, and independent consultancies: Taiwan and France.

Promotion of Communications across Linguistics and Courts/ Law Enforcement

• Attended semester-long citizens' police academy course
• In Communication of Rights Group: Development Guidelines for Communicating Rights to Non-native Speakers of English in Australia, England and Wales, and the US, (e.g. Miranda Rights /  Waivers)
  
• Made selective significant presentations at: 
  • FBI Academy and Florida Association of Defense Lawyers CLE
  • Pennsylvania State Trial Judges Conference (opening plenary speaker)
  • Smithsonian Institute in forensic sciences series  
• Organized Panel: Applied Linguists meeting judge & state supreme court Interpreting

Litigation Support - Dr. van Naerssen has primarily consulted and testified in Forensic Linguistic cases involving non-native English speakers. She’s worked with both defense and prosecution primarily in criminal case including:

Civil cases have included violations of civil rights (including communication of Miranda Rights/ Waivers): prison treatment and Federal Individual Disabilities Act. Also, contract and Plain Language guidelines, slander, medical malpractice. 

Dr. van Naerssen has worked primarily on cases in Daubert jurisdictions with one Frye exception (Pennsylvania). Other 8 state cases (Daubert) have been in Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia (mixed Daubert & Frye). 

Federal cases in which she has provided expert support have been in the US District Court jurisdictions of Western District of Oklahoma, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, District of Southern California, Southern District of New York, District Court in Waco, Texas, and the District Court of Hawai’i.

Three federal cases also involved the US Military, two proceeding to hearings and one to a court martial trial (US Navy: San Diego and Great Lakes). Another federal case involved the US Department of Labor. 

Dr. van Naerssen has testified in 5 federal courts, in hearings, depositions stipulated by judge, and in bench trials.

Prudence L. Gourguechon, MD, is a clinical Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst with over 35 years of in-depth experience diagnosing and treating patients with Trauma, Depression, and Anxiety Disorders. She is a nationally known leader and educator in the field and is frequently sought out by the media as an expert commentator on human behavior. 

Dr. Gourguechon is Yale and Michigan-educated and Northwestern-trained. She is Past President of the American Psychoanalytic Association, former Northwestern Faculty, and former Dean of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Gourguechon has clinical expertise in trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, moral injury and other types of emotional injury, and psychological damage due to trauma, discrimination, accidents, abuse (including the effect of childhood abuse in adulthood) and harassment.

Litigation Support - Dr. Gourguechon has over 10 years of experience as an expert witness and independent medical examiner, and has worked with both plaintiff and defense attorneys. As an expert in the Psychology of Leadership and Decision Making , she is interested in the conditions leading to and the consequences of executive malfeasance, or “Leadership Malpractice,” and its effects on victims and survivors, a particular kind of emotional damage known in psychiatry as “moral injury.” 

Leadership malpractice is one way of describing the neglect by institutional bystanders who fail to act and protect when informed of abuse by their employees. The ideal client for her expertise is an individual who was subject to sexual abuse by a doctor or coach within the context of an institution that failed in its duty to protect, or covered up the abuse.

Areas of Specialization:

View Dr. Gourguechon's Consulting Profile.

Michael T. Motley, Ph.D. has over thirty-five years of experience in the fields of Communication & Psycholinguistics. Dr. Motley serves as an expert witness for opinions on the  clarity, lack of clarity, and most likely interpretation of common messages such as  warning labels, instructions, advertising, contracts, waivers, and so forth. He has served on over 30 cases; about 2/3 for plaintiff and 1/3 for defense. Dr. Motley is a Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of California at Davis. He has authored almost 200 books, articles, and research papers in communication and psycholinguistics. He has won eighteen excellence awards for his research and was recognized as among the "Top 1%" of communication scholars of the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's. Areas of Expertise:

• Communication Messages: Meaning, Ambiguity, Likely and Alternate Interpretations, Communicative Intention
• Adequacy/Inadequacy of Messages: Product Warnings, Instructions, Waivers, Advertisements
• Male / Female Misunderstandings: Sexual Consent/Resistance, Date Rape

Services Offered:

• Expert testimony & Consultation
• Opinion on Adequacy of Communication Messages
• Opinion on Likely Consumer Interpretation of Warnings, Instructions, Advertising
• Opinion on Likely Intrepretation of Sexual Resistance/Consent Messages and Behaviors
• Social-scientific testing of expert opinion (his and others')

View Consulting Profile.

Frank Carr has extensive background and experience as an Investment Industry Employment and Compensation Expert Witness, especially Investment Management Firms, Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, Wealth Managers, and Broker-Dealers. Mr. Carr is a former corporate banker, investment firm Chief Financial Officer and a 20 year veteran of executive search for the Investment Management industry. He has written articles for and has been frequently quoted by publications such as Bloomberg News, CNN Money, Fund Fire, Ignites, Absolute Return, Hedge Fund Alert, and Hedge Fund Manager Week. Prior to entering the executive search field, he was the Chief Financial Officer of a Connecticut-based hedge fund and Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA). Mr. Carr started his career in commercial bank lending, initially with Citigroup in their Wall Street Commodities division and later specialized in financing independent feature film producers, TV producers, and television station owners on behalf of European American Bank in New York. 

Litigation Support - Frank Carr is an Investment Industry Employment and Compensation Expert Witness who has been retained by both plaintiffs and defendants for American Arbitration Association, JAMS and FINRA arbitration, mediation, and federal court litigation. Mr. Carr has over 30 years of experience in Financial Services, Investment Management, and Banking and his areas of coverage include Traditional and Alternative Investments – Equities, Fixed Income, Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, and Managed Futures. Specialist in Wall Street Divorce. 

Areas of Expertise:

Prior Expert Witness Assignments:

• Represented a hedge fund portfolio manager as an expert rebuttal witness in a high profile hedge fund employment/compensation lawsuit. Prepared a rebuttal opinion letter submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
• Represented a $12 billion Texas-based SEC Registered Investment Adviser and leading global alternative credit manager in a JAMS arbitration regarding a terminated employee. Prepared a rebuttal expert witness report and provided live testimony at the JAMS arbitration hearing.
• Represented a financial advisor in a FINRA arbitration against one of the top 5 U.S. wealth management firms. The scope of the opinion included projected career advancement, compensation analysis and calculation of lost earnings.
• Represented a portfolio manager/ investment analyst in a wrongful termination action against one of the largest U.S. Broker-Dealers with over $600 billion in assets. The scope of the opinion included projected career advancement and compensation analysis. Prepared an expert witness report and provided live testimony at the FINRA arbitration hearing.

Education - Mr. Carr is a graduate of Williams College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy. He completed the Management Training Program at Citigroup in New York, including courses in accounting, finance, and capital markets. He has previously held FINRA licenses, Series 3, 6, and 63 and has completed Level I of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) program.

View Frank Carr's Consultant Profile.

Aaron T. Olson has decades of experience in the field of Police and Human Resources. His foundation of knowledge and skills comes from a career in law enforcement, and being a college educator, expert witness, consultant, and trainer.

Mr. Olson's company, A.T. Olson Consulting, LLC, is certified by the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) as a Verified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); and the State of Oregon's Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID) as a Service-Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (SDVBE) and Emerging Small Business (ESB).

Background Experience: Mr. Olson has 26 years of police experience with the Oregon State Police managing assignments in communications, recruitment, and patrol. He supervised and evaluated both police and non-police employees. He was a member of the OSP Procedures and Rules Advisory Committee and worked with Oregon's Department of Justice legal team in rewriting and validating OSP's trooper and cadet applicant hiring process. 

As a patrol supervisor, Mr. Olson directed major crime scenes and motor vehicle fatalities investigations. He reviewed and approved administrative, police, and use of force reports. He investigated allegations of police officer misconduct, conducted background checks, and participated in specialized tasks in community policing, dignitary protection with the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies. In his tenure he had experience in police pursuits, the use of physical force and deadly force and next-of-kin death notifications.  

Mr. Olson is a former human resources investigator with Local Government Personnel Institute, Salem, OR. He conducted background and misconduct investigations on city and county employees and city and county elected officials, as well as city police chiefs. His misconduct investigations included sexual harassment, discrimination retaliation and hostile work environments. He wrote the investigative reports and made the findings of facts on all misconduct allegations.

Mr. Olson is a published co-writer of Multicultural Law Enforcement: Strategies for Peacekeeping in a Diverse Society, 7th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, and Multicultural and Diversity Strategies for the Fire Service, Pearson Prentice Hall. Further, he is an adjunct college professor teaching Civil Liability in Criminal Justice courses. 

Litigation Support: Mr. Olson meets the criteria of an expert witness as outlined in the Federal Rules of Evidence. He has experience as an expert on cases involving police misconduct, police procedures, police and non-police use of force, police pursuits; wrongful death; personal injury; employer investigations on employees; and cases involving employer negligent hiring, negligent training, negligent supervision, negligent retention, management performance and retaliation. Mr. Olson's services are available to attorneys' representing plaintiffs and defendants and include diagnostics, thorough reporting, depositions, arbitration hearings, and trial testimony as needed. Contact him today for a free initial consultation.

Areas of Expertise:

View Aaron T. Olson's Consulting Profile.