Interior Design Expert Witnesses: 2

Gary R. Coburn is an award-winning restaurant executive, operator, consultant, and expert witness with over 45 years of experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry. His background includes service as an owner, operator, franchisor, consultant, President, Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, Executive Director of Food Services, and VP of National Accounts & Design Build.

Mr. Coburn has helped create, open, operate, reposition, and advise hundreds of restaurant, bar, hospitality, and foodservice concepts throughout the United States. His experience includes restaurant operations, staffing and training systems, operational safety, franchising, commercial kitchen design/build, concept development, business viability, and restaurant-related disputes.

He remains actively involved in restaurant operations and concept development through Restaurant Concept Innovations and current projects including Lily’s Donuts & Pops and Lily’s Donuts & Coffee in Santa Barbara.

Mr. Coburn maintains an active expert witness practice involving restaurant and hospitality operations, premises safety, slip/trip/fall incidents, burns and hot beverage incidents, staffing and training, alcohol awareness, business interruption, restaurant concept viability, and hospitality industry standards. His engagements include over 70 cases across 14 states with matters historically remaining relatively balanced between plaintiff and defense.

Services available to counsel include site inspections, operational analysis, reporting, depositions, mediation support, and trial testimony.

Recent cases retained by Plaintiff:

Mr. Coburn has been retained as an expert in matters involving:

• Restaurant and hospitality operational standards and practices
• Premises safety and slip/trip/fall incidents
• Burns and hot beverage incidents
• Staffing, training, and operational supervision
• Guest incidents involving warnings, procedures, and reasonable safety practices
• Restaurant safety and security practices, including foreseeability, notice, and reasonable intervention
• Alcohol awareness and responsible beverage service
• Restaurant concept viability and operational feasibility
• Business interruption, loss of income, and operational impact analysis
• Lease disputes, lease assignment issues, and restaurant operational viability
• Restaurant development, franchising, concept conversion, and operational systems
• Furniture handling, maintenance practices, and operational safety procedures
• Foodservice operations, protocols, and industry standards

View RCI's Consulting Profile.

J. Robert Bazemore is a Furniture, Product, and Interior Designer with more than 40 years of professional experience in the design, development, manufacturing, specification, installation, and field performance of furniture and interior products. As Principal of J. Robert Bazemore Designs, Inc. since 2002, he has designed and developed hundreds of products and environments for commercial, hospitality, healthcare, institutional, workplace, retail, and residential applications.

Litigation Support - Ideal clients include law firms, insurance carriers, manufacturers, property owners, and other parties requiring independent analysis of Product Liability or Premises Liability matters involving furniture and interior components. He accepts engagements from both plaintiff and defense counsel. The ideal engagement allows for early involvement, a clearly defined scope, preservation of the subject product, access to relevant drawings, specifications, photographs, maintenance records, and discovery materials, and an opportunity to conduct a site or product inspection when appropriate.

Areas of Expertise:

Mr. Bazemore's background combines design leadership with extensive practical experience coordinating engineers, manufacturers, fabricators, suppliers, installers, and end users. His products have been manufactured and marketed by nationally recognized contract-furniture companies. His work has received Best of NeoCon Gold, NeoCon Editors’ Choice, and other industry honors.

Mr. Bazemore also served as a Professor of Furniture Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design from 2009 through 2017. His combination of design expertise, manufacturing knowledge, and field experience allows him to identify and explain complex product and interior-environment issues in clear, practical terms.