At the Round Table with Technology Expert, Robert Sherwood

In this episode…Our guest, Robert “Bob” Sherwood, has been a senior board member to 30 companies, was profiled in Fortune and Business Week, was the winner of the 1995 Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Ernst & Young, NASDAQ, and Inc. Magazine, presented seminars on Leadership and Technology to more than 3000 executives, and as an Expert Witness, he has testified in court on behalf of such prominent companies as Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook. Bob holds a Series 65 license which covers laws, regulations, ethics, retirement planning and portfolio management.On this episode, Bob shares stories about the importance of preparation. Whether it is understanding the basic case details before the initial interview or how law firms prepare their experts for the cross-examination, preparation plays a large role on your success as an expert. Bob emphasizes, “You have to prepare much more than you think you should . . .”Being a successful expert witness is not just about preparation. It’s also about growing with your role and learning to adapt. Early on, Bob did all the expert witness work himself, but realized later that having an effective team in place will benefit him and those attorneys that hire him. For him, having a great editor saved money and time.Additional insights are shared in this episode, including how to organize case files, the expert’s role on the stand, and not taking cross-examination personally. He expands on this last point, “Experts should realize that no matter how challenging the question is, no matter how personal the questioning gets . . . the lawyer is doing their job.” The benefit of understanding this is that the same lawyer that cross-examined you “may come back and hire you two or three years later because they know you understand that.”