Meet the Experts & Attorneys from
Magna’s Battle of the Experts 2024!
The two-day CLE program took place on December 13th and 14th, 2024 at The W South Beach in Miami, FL. The event featured interactive micro-panel exercises involving teams of outside counsel, in-house counsel, claims executives and audience members working together alongside real life experts.
Micro panels worked on preparing their moderators and experts for direct examination role plays, and outside counsel moderators and experts went head to head in a “Battle of the Experts” in front of a judge and jury!
Jeffery Jannarone
Expert – Dram Shop & Public Safety Practices
MC Consultants, Inc.
“Hearing [the] juror feedback [was] incredibly valuable, as it provides direct insights into what aspects of testimony resonated with them and which elements may [have] not [been] as effective. It’s wonderful to see the commitment to understanding jurors’ likes and dislikes, as this feedback is essential for refining strategies and ensuring that expert testimony is both impactful and comprehensible. Legal professionals can continually adapt their approaches by listening to jurors, making complex information more accessible and engaging, ultimately leading to a more informed and fair trial decision-making process.”
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“It [Battle of the Experts 2024] was a professional experience from the moment I arrived until leaving. Everything was executed with careful planning and excellence. I appreciated the thought and care taken by the team. As a premises liability expert, I really appreciate the opportunity to help make the built environment safer and also utilize my knowledge-base and expertise in the legal arena to help a jury understand the dynamics of design, construction and maintenance of a premises and how they contribute to its overall safety.”
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Dr. Kenyon Conklin is a licensed veterinarian with over 20 years of experience in the private practice, corporate, military, and research sectors. She provides technical investigations, analysis, reports, and testimony towards the resolution of litigation involving veterinary standards of care, animal bites, and injuries to humans, working dogs, horses, animal abuse and neglect, animal behavior, facility design, and safety issues.
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“I really enjoyed the back and forth of the cross, getting to lay out for folks who might hire me as an expert my approach to a problem and demonstrating my presentation style. Jeremy Harris was a fantastic attorney to be paired with for this exercise. He prepared me exceedingly well for direct and has a similar sense of humor as me, so the touches of levity we worked into my presentation developed naturally and organically. Working backwards from artificially aging Peter Hecht, the blue nose pit (my dog Buddy) to Mr. Worldwide transition joke wrote itself. I was proud of that one, even if it hewed a bit to dadjoke land. Getting to butt heads with Daniel Rhynhart was a challenge, but I think I was able to stick to my guns and land some good punches with the jurors.”
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