Leadership In Law Podcast

S02E82 Expert Witness Strategy for Winning Cases with Dr. Jordan Romano

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 2 • Episode 82

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Navigating the complex intersection of medicine and law demands specialized expertise. Dr. Jordan Romano brings exactly that to this enlightening conversation about the strategic role medical experts play in legal proceedings.

With two decades of clinical experience at prestigious institutions like Massachusetts General Hospital and now Tufts Medical Center, Dr. Romano shares how his journey into medical expert witness work evolved from occasional case reviews to comprehensive consulting for law firms nationwide. His passion for elevating the entire system shines through as he explains his dual mission: mentoring physicians to become more effective expert witnesses while helping attorneys make better strategic decisions about their cases.

What sets Dr. Romano's approach apart is his focus on moving "upstream" in the litigation process. Rather than simply testifying on established cases, he helps attorneys assess case merit before significant resources are invested. This service proves particularly valuable for smaller firms without extensive internal resources or partners to bounce ideas off. As Dr. Romano explains, "A lot of people use time and money or chase things that really waste everybody's time and are inefficient for the system." His consultative approach helps attorneys avoid pursuing frivolous cases while identifying those with legitimate merit.

Through his platform MedicalExpertWitness.com, Dr. Romano has created a sophisticated system for matching attorneys with appropriate medical experts while simultaneously providing education and mentorship to physicians entering the expert witness field. This dual focus ultimately serves to raise the caliber of expert testimony across the board. For attorneys handling medical malpractice cases, Dr. Romano offers this advice: establish relationships with qualified medical consultants before urgent needs arise so you'll have trusted expertise ready when critical cases emerge.

Reach Dr. Jordan here:

https://medicalexpertwitness.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-jordan-romano-5598144/

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, Marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, Dr Jordan Romano, to the show today. As a board-certified internal medical physician with over 14 years of clinical experience, Dr Romano has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. In addition to his clinical work, Dr Romano has become the go-to resource for medical malpractice law firms nationwide. Dr Romano has become the go-to resource for medical malpractice law firms nationwide, providing highly valued expert testimony and consultation. With nearly a decade of medical expert witness experience, he's not only honed his skills, but has also mentored physicians at all stages of their expert witness journey. Dr Romano is passionate about utilizing his expertise to help other professionals succeed. I'm excited to have you here, Dr Romano. Welcome. Thanks for having me Absolutely, so tell us a bit about your leadership journey. I'm excited to have you here, Dr Romano Welcome.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. Tell us a bit about your leadership journey. I'm excited to hear that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say you know, like many things in life, it's slow at first and then all of a sudden you look back and you know there's individuals in the hospital asking you, medical students asking you for recommendations, letters of recommendation. So all of a sudden you look back and you're like I have 20 years of clinical experience behind me and boy did that go fast. So I would say things started off slowly at first, showing up doing lots of clinical work and then being afforded opportunities within the hospital, specifically Mass General Hospital, where the bulk of my career thus far has been spent. The past 15 years has been there. I recently transitioned to Tufts Medical Center where I'm continuing my clinical work, but my leadership journey has really just been one of being present and being helpful, and listening, I would say, is the best way to start.

Speaker 3:

And then opportunities come your way. You'll serve on boards, you'll serve on committees and that, depending on how you perform, could lead to more work. And so my early leadership work was not only in a clinical realm and being the medical director of a floor at Massachusetts General Hospital, but delved into committee work and other opportunities and medical director roles at the institution. During that time I also started. I would say in the past. It said roughly a decade. It's been probably over a decade now doing medical expert witness work. I was that was sort of serendipity that I that I stumbled into to that work. It was just through a colleague who one day mentioned it and introduced me to, due to him not having time to to review a case, he actually got me started in the space.

Speaker 2:

Oh, how excellent. Okay, great. Well, I noticed that you do mentoring, so I'm assuming you had a mentor that kind of led you in that or helped you be open to these types of opportunities in your growth.

Speaker 3:

I've had several different types of mentors, whether it's from business to medicine, to a combination of both, and I would say, depending on the chapter of my life that I've been in, I've had many different mentors from prior institutions that I've worked for or current institutions that I work for. So I would say I draw from a lot of different resources people within the hospital and people outside of the hospital and it's been fantastic to have that network to draw from. But I wouldn't say it's one particular individual. You know it's like to me it's sort of like saying who's what's your favorite song? I would say it depends. So I, I, I draw, I draw from a, I draw from a, a vast network.

Speaker 2:

That excellent. Yeah, I, I agree. Yeah, but the concept of coaches or mentors, I agree that you know you have for a season, then the next and then the next. So it's it's just interesting the concept of a lot of people have coaches. I have coaches for different, different aspects of my life as well, so it definitely makes sense to be able to talk to somebody who sees a different perspective. So absolutely perspective, so absolutely. And let's talk about the cases that you work on and how you work and help law firms with the expert witnessing. Can you explain a bit more of how you make yourself available, what you do, that sort of thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so for over a decade now I've been a testifying expert witness myself.

Speaker 3:

You know that starts off from you know an initial call where you'll have a few minutes with the attorney to make sure you're the right match for the case that they have and then you know if they decide to move forward or if you feel it's a good match and you decide to move forward.

Speaker 3:

It's kind of a mutual decision. I review records and after reviewing those records we'll discuss with the attorney if there are breaches in the standard of care or not, depending if I'm retained by defense or plaintiff's counsel. As I've grown in my testifying expert witness experience I've started to find that moving further upstream is something that I feel very comfortable doing. So I work almost as an advisor to insurance companies and defense firms as well as plaintiffs practices, helping them vet cases and figure out sort of game strategy as they're moving further along in their cases. So that's something that over time I felt more comfortable and confident doing in advising attorneys on even further upstream should they even bother speaking to the specialists with regards to a case and helping them craft the strategy of which experts they're going to engage with.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so now the transition is is that you're helping with a completely a strategic strategy when it comes to the entire case and if there should be a case?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say think of it as different verticals, right? So my coaching and mentoring is the way it's structured now is through medicalexpertwitnesscom, and so I have an agency that helps match experts to attorneys and attorneys to experts In that vehicle, attorneys and attorneys to experts In that vehicle. I'm also coaching expert witnesses through Q&A sessions, question and answer sessions, through recorded educational materials on the nuts and bolts if they're brand new, to maybe higher level discussions about testimony and what that's like. In addition to that, in parallel to that, I also have a structure whereby myself and other individuals in my business help attorneys with that strategy and with the structure of should they move forward with the case even further upstream than when they're engaging an expert witness. So think of those as two structures moving in parallel.

Speaker 2:

Okay, excellent. And with medical malpractice, I know that can be a very long and drawn-out process, but it also, as a friend of mine once said, you have to kiss a lot of wrongs to find if a case is actually a case that has legs to move with. So you're working with them in the very, very beginning to determine if it is a case that needs to be moved, and then perhaps you won't even be the expert witness in that, but you can help them find the right person to do that. Is that correct?

Speaker 3:

That's absolutely right.

Speaker 3:

It's about efficiency.

Speaker 3:

It's efficiency for the system, it's efficiency for, you know, the attorneys the plaintiff's attorneys certainly don't want to waste time or money, and I suspect that the defense firms don't want to wade into situations where or defend things that are very problematic, and so having the unfiltered, unbiased opinions and strategy of upfront I think is quite helpful.

Speaker 3:

Now, sometimes that requires that specialty and jumping to the specialist immediately is helpful, but having a generalist who can read the field, if you will, and has seen how a lot of these things play out, can speak to the attorneys about truly the merit of something moving forward or not, or just even help them. A lot of these firms that I work for while I do work for larger firms, both plaintiff and defense, and this is for the strategy piece a lot of them are smaller firms and they just don't have the resources or a partner to bounce things off of. So think of that structure for the smaller firms as really having a guide and a mentor, because they may be new to the expert witness space or just not as used to dealing with experts, and so they just want someone to help guide them in that process.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that makes a lot of sense, especially as some people are transitioning into medical malpractice or personal injury or something like that. So you are definitely a great resource to have to be able to call Liddy to help them move forward.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and depending on their volume or how much work they're doing, the relationship can look very different in terms of how we engage with them and the fees associated with it. There are a number of firms, again, that are. The structure I think is beneficial for smaller firms and that's a space we've definitely been growing in is how do we support these smaller firms? And again, the idea is making the whole system more efficient. Through the medicalexpertwitnesscom, I want to be training and making sure that expert witnesses on the whole in caliber are raised, that the overall caliber of an expert witness body is improved over time by using my expertise and training and educating those folks and mentoring them through their practice in this space, but also simultaneously helping the attorneys so that the cases that are moving forward are, you know, are not frivolous.

Speaker 3:

I think that a lot of people use time and money or chase things that really waste everybody's time and are inefficient for the system, and I'd like to think that most attorneys don't want to bother in that wasting their time nor their money and certainly don't want to risk their reputations. And it can go both ways If some of those firms speak to an expert and they say, yes, there's something here when there isn't. That's problematic, and so that's why I want to be helping folks in both ways helping the experts build their practice and get connected to attorneys, but also make sure that the attorneys are well protected and in their assessment of is there a case or not?

Speaker 2:

Okay, All right, that sounds great. That makes a lot of sense. And do you feel like being an expert witness has helped you become? The practice of that has helped you become a better physician and be able to see more? And obviously, practice you're seeing more. See what the courts are looking for, what the the courts are looking for, what the insurance companies are looking for or not looking for.

Speaker 3:

I mean, first of all, it's made me a better clinician, without a doubt. I've seen situations, so many untoward events in the past decade that really, when I'm on service now, it helps guide me to deliver better care in the hospital, not just for myself but anyone that's on my team or that I'm helping educate while I'm on service. You know, in terms of being an active clinician certainly, and now, with 20 years under my belt, being an active clinician has really helped me gain that expertise to inform the attorneys as to you know, what direction they should be moving in. Now, just because you advise somebody doesn't mean they're going to necessarily agree with you, and that always, you know, as you know, in the legal space there's a lot is in the gray area and individuals may decide to move in a different direction, and that's always interesting and something I've grown comfortable with as well, which is having the you know, lively conversation as to why they may disagree with my assessment, and so you know that's something I also don't shy away from, which is having those hard conversations.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. And when it comes to your agency, how do you choose what firms can be to be worked with? Do you have qualifications and that sort of thing?

Speaker 3:

Well, I would say it depends on the physicians or the attorneys. I would say, for the physicians I take all comers. I really feel like, if you're willing, if you want to do more medical expert witness work, I want to open the tent to everyone. I really want to engage with as many expert witnesses as possible and help them through mentorship, coaching and connecting them to cases to really build up their skill set. Most physicians and clinicians in this space they want to get better, but they may not have had enough reps. They haven't done enough cases to become good at something and to become a better medical expert witness.

Speaker 3:

If you've only done two cases, how can you be expected to be a phenomenal expert witness? How can you be expected to serve the legal process very efficiently? And so I really welcome all comers to medicalexpertwitnesscom because I really want to make sure that I'm helping everyone skill up. It just helps the whole system. From the lawyer standpoint, it's more of a conversation between my team and their firm to make sure it's a good match, based on volume, based on the type of cases that they're taking, based on you know what they're looking for and who they've worked with before. So that's sort of a bespoke offering that looks a little different depending on the size of your firm and how active you are.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that's excellent Good way of so. People just need to go to your website, sign up at the end of the case and start talking with you and see the next step, so you can help them.

Speaker 3:

I would say, you know, from the attorney standpoint before, you can certainly access my calendar directly at medicalexpertwitnesscom. I would say, hit me up before, let's have a conversation, before you have those cases, because I like to be. You know, chance favors a prepared mind, so I want to make sure we're a match, rather than you have Now. If you have a situation you're up against the wall and that happens from time to time definitely reach out and my team will be available for you. But I, what I like to do, is prepare ahead of time. So, if you're thinking about doing this, if you're thinking of growing, if you're, if the nature or makeup of your team and firm has changed, a little bit, whether it's growing or you went solo and you're out on your own.

Speaker 2:

Let's have a conversation about what my team can do to help you. I love that being prepared, getting set up early. Get everything in place early this is excellent. So do you have a process for the strategy, the litigation strategy? So obviously you're saying that you know you want to get started with them before they have a case, but say they have a case and you're coming in. What would be the process to work with you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so typically there's most of it's done by phone conversations or Zoom these days and we have a shared depot. We favor a specific cloud-based software that we use for file sharing and it's looking at some records or whatever records they have. I think for the most part it's somewhat being patient because usually when we're starting the information could be dripping in, usually when we're starting the information could be dripping in.

Speaker 3:

Sometimes that's not the case and it was a case that was handed to a firm by another firm that just didn't want to take it because it wasn't their specialty, and that's maybe a little bit more advanced and the conversation can move forward a little faster. But usually it's here's where I think we're headed. You know, based on what they're telling us and based on the records, here's where I think you know things could unfold. You know, and this is kind of the story you have to kind of predict. It's like watching a movie and stopping it and trying to guess what's, what's to come early on. That you know what, based on the story it is. You know something untoward happened. But it's unlikely, regardless of what further information comes in, that the story is going to change to the fact where it shows that a provider was at fault, should have done something but didn't, or did something and shouldn't have.

Speaker 3:

But sometimes, and a lot of times, the answer is we just need more information and that takes time. So there's, without a doubt, patience is a big part of this process. You know, just asking for more information and you know a good firm and a good partner, a good attorney will understand that and will be patient. So some cases think of it like a restaurant. You know, there are some case, some people, things happen quite quickly and other people it just takes. It just takes some time. And so you'll have even if you get three cases at the same time to review for a firm the team.

Speaker 2:

Some of them, by nature, will proceed or conclude a lot faster than others, of course. Yes, that's typical, absolutely Well. This has been really interesting. I love that you can sign up and book some time on your calendar to get to know you and have that conversation Again. However, they reach out, to reach you and get in touch with you if you wanted to step, move forward with you.

Speaker 3:

Medicalexpertwitnesscom is an easy way to just reach out to me and again I would say, let's just have a conversation. I'd love to learn. I love learning from attorneys to see what they're up to and you know there are a lot of opportunities to, especially in this day and age. I would say, even since COVID, there've been a lot of medical expert witnesses coming into the space and you really just need to be careful about the individuals that you're choosing and who you're working with. I'd love to be that representative for you, so check me out at medicalexpertwitnesscom and I look forward to chatting.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. This has been excellent. I love that you have a resource for medical expert witnesses that you help bring up to speed. Thank you so much for your time being here today. I really appreciate it, and anyone who's interested in the medical expert definitely reach out to medicalexpertwitnesscom and that'll be in the show notes as well.

Speaker 3:

Thanks so much.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

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Marilyn Jenkins

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