Packaging Expert Witnesses

Rob Wallace has unique expertise in Trademark, Trade Dress, Copyright, Brand Identity and Package Design Infringement. For 35+ years, Rob ran one of the nation's top Brand Identity Strategy and Package Design Resources providing global branding expertise to Fortune 500 companies in virtually all CPG categories. His clients include P&G, Nestle, Pepsico, Unilever, Kraft, Colgate, The Home Depot, Brown-Foreman, Novartis, J&J and more than 50 market leading companies. Manhattan-based, Rob has been an expert witness for important litigation involving:

• Likelihood of Consumer Confusion
• Secondary Meaning
• Brand Valuation & Dilution
• Package Graphic/Structural Design
• Product Design
• Branding Industry Best Practices
• False/ Deceptive Advertising
• Corrective Advertising
• and all brand related issues.

Rob has commissioned literally hundreds of consumer surveys and is uniquely qualified to determine the results of all research. He has worked for attorneys on both the plaintiff and defense sides of his cases. He is effective and efficient with the average project report requiring between 10 and 12 hours.

Randy Phares has been retained in 57 expert witness matters as of this posting and counting — 41 for plaintiffs, 16 for defendants. He has been deposed 8 times and provided trial testimony twice. No opinion of his has ever been limited, excluded, or disqualified.

He is not an academic. Randy spent 30 years running the operations he now analyzes — corrugated and folding carton manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, load securement and shipping — rising from general laborer to the youngest and highest-paid General Manager at Temple-Inland, a Fortune 1000 corporation. He has held almost every job in packaging operations: manufacturing, distribution, sales, design, safety, transportation, and running entire multinational business units. That operational history is why his opinions rest on industry custom and practice, and the standard of care actually applied on plant floors and loading docks.

He has run packaging testing labs and design centers, managed truck fleets and manufacturing machinery, and led world-class packaging operations. He holds U.S. Patent #5,672,412 for a recyclable corrugated pallet, cited in 36 subsequent patents. He has worked on projects in Asia, Jamaica, Afghanistan, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, and Canada. He is a published international author, a speaker, and a former President of the South Texas Manufacturers Association. Since 2019, he has been a Packaging and Procurement Subject Matter Expert for SGS-Maine Pointe — the #1 supply chain consulting firm per Consulting.us and one of America's Best Management Consulting Firms of 2022 per Forbes — saving clients over $10 million.

Honors and Awards — Best Achievement of Organizational Business Improvement in Manufacturing, presented by the Global Six Sigma and Business Improvement Awards, for a plant turnaround at Temple-Inland (now International Paper). Best Performing Plant Award for four consecutive years out of 26 plants at Gaylord Container (now International Paper).

Litigation Support — Randy Phares performs forensic analysis of packaging, loading, unloading, and distribution failures that caused damage or injury. Matters involve crated, baled, palletized, unitized, banded, or boxed products; loads in railcars, trucks, vans, and parcel trucks; warehouse racking and storage collapse; and injuries involving pallet jacks, forklifts, or manual handling. His services include comprehensive reporting, depositions, consulting, and trial testimony. He accepts both plaintiff and defense retentions.

 Areas of Expertise: 

View Randy Phares' Consulting Profile.

More than 40 years experience: defective packaging; unreasonably dangerous products; failure-to-warn; materials-handling; warehousing; cargo loading and securement; falling cargo; insurance claims for loss or damaged cargo; falling merchandise; patent infringement; trade-dress infringement. Has testified in state and federal courts and knows how to connect with a jury. Has worked for Plaintiffs and Defendants. Services: consulting; analysis; cite inspections; exemplar testing; opining; report writing; testifying. Long list of attorney references. Self-employed consultant. Former employee at Fortune 100 firms. Former university instructor. Many published articles and speaking engagements. Knows how to combine theory and practice.