Expert Testimony

I highly recommend Ms. Oppenheimer as an expert witness. My law firm, Kinman & Curry, successfully incorporated her testimony at trial in the matter of Kenyon v. Applied Technologies Associates in San Luis Obispo County. Mr. Kenyon was a 28 year employee who was suspended and later terminated after receiving his first written employee warning notice during a 10 minute meeting at a Starbucks coffee shop. The lawsuit rested entirely on the theory of a breach of an implied employment contract, a la Foley. Ms. Oppenheimer testified as to the inadequacy of the investigation by the employer and its in-house corporate counsel. Most important, in my opinion, Ms. Oppenheimer is perfectly capable of providing written and oral testimony under oath without instruction or coaching. She is an expert in the truest sense of the term. My suggestion is to simply give her the facts and let her do her job, what more can you ask for? The jury in our case awarded our client just over half a million dollars.

The jury returned a verdict of $3.8 million for the plaintiff in a case in which I retained Amy Oppenheimer as an expert in workplace investigations. Amy’s contribution to my, and, consequently, the jury’s understanding of what an investigation of workplace race discrimination and harassment should include, and where the employer fell far short, was critical to our success. Amy engaged the jury, talking to them without lecturing them, and got them to think about all the failures that contributed to a hostile and retaliatory workplace. Amy’s testimony gave the jury a clear lens by which they could see the hospital’s callous disregard for my client’s civil rights, leading to an award of $3.2 million in punitive damages.