Meet Our Team...

At heart, a consulting firm is its people. We're proud of our accomplished team, which is committed to bringing you the most creative and empirically rigorous trial consulting in the business.

Consultants

David Graeven, Ph.D. (President)

Dave Graeven is one of the pioneers and innovators of the trial consulting field. He is an expert at designing and evaluating mock trials, advising on case themes and case theory development, and using survey research in litigation. Dave has been involved in thousands of cases over the past twenty years, including numerous high profile cases. He is recognized as a leading national trial consultant in insurance coverage and bad faith, product liability and mass toxic tort cases, but his range of experience is broad and includes cases in antitrust, professional liability, personal injury, intellectual property, wrongful termination, contract disputes and complex commercial litigation. Besides his ongoing research and trial work for clients, Dave has also prepared affidavits and testified as an expert in both State and Federal courts on a wide range of issues, including change of venue; the proper design of social science research; and the impact of trial strategy choices on trial outcome.

Dr. Graeven has also played a prominent role in educating the bar about the value of trial and jury consulting through his many articles in industry, legal, and academic publications. He frequently speaks before law firms and professional associations around the country on issues such as voir dire and jury selection, trial dynamics, juror attitudes, and trial strategy. He has contributed articles to the ABA publications: Jury Trial Innovations, Toxic Mold Litigation, and Managing Notorious Trials. Dave has served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Trial Consultants. Dr. Graeven's opinions have been sought by The New York and Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio and such television news programs as Good Morning America, ESPN, and CBS Morning News. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Iowa and taught as a Professor of Sociology at California State University for more than twenty years, acting as Department Chair for six years.

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Adam Boesen M.A., Ph.D. Candidate

Adam Boesen is an organizational psychologist with special expertise in case evaluation and trial strategy, witness preparation, jury selection, and mock trial research design. He has fifteen years of consulting experience bringing quantitative and qualitative methods to bear on solving real world problems. Before joining TBC as a senior consultant, Adam co-founded Jury Strategies, a Tulsa-based full service trial consulting firm serving Oklahoma. Before becoming a trial consultant, Adam was a management consultant, providing strategic planning, leadership coaching and organizational development to Fortune 500 clients. Adam's understanding of corporation organizational structures gives him special insight into cases involving general corporate litigation, contract and other complex business disputes, patent and intellectual property disputes, employment discrimination and product liability issues.

Adam received his Masters in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Tulsa, where he later served as an adjunct professor, teaching management for the College of Business Administration. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation on how employee personalities and values shape corporate cultures. Adam loves teaching and has extensive experience conducting CLE programs and workshops on a variety of topics, including case strategy and witness preparation.

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Kristin Modin, Ph.D.

Kristin Modin is a psychologist with specialized training in legal and clinical psychology. She joined Trial Behavior Consulting with a solid, well-rounded foundation of trial consulting experience, having previously worked in all facets of the industry for several years, including logistics and operations, methodological design and analysis, and consulting. She has continued to develop her experience at TBC, conducting post-trial and shadow jury interviews, mock trial and focus group research, and assisting with jury selection in both state and federal court. She has also helped prepare and evaluate witnesses in all types of cases.

Kristin received a B.A. in Psychology and B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Kansas and completed her M.A. in Forensic Psychology at the University of Denver. Kristin received her Ph.D. in Forensic Psychology from Alliant International University in Fresno, California. Her dissertation explored the impact of graphic photographic evidence on jury decision-making. Kristin presented the findings of her research at the 2007 national conference of the American Society of Trial Consultants in Austin, Texas. Kristin is an active presenter and participant in CE courses and voir dire workshops and has worked extensively on complex business, catastrophic injury, and product liability litigation but enjoys working on a broad range of civil and criminal cases. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychology Law Society.

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Jennifer Dietrich, M.S.W.

Jennifer Dietrich brings her clinical training in psychology with expert knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis to Trial Behavior Consulting. She assists with developing trial themes and strategy, conducts venue analyses, analyzes mock trial qualitative and quantitative data, and assists with juror questionnaire creation, evaluation and in-court jury selection.

Jennifer received her BA in Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Master in Social Work from the University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan, Jennifer was selected as a CIVITAS Initiative Fellow, trained as a specialist in child abuse assessment and family law advocacy. Her areas of focus were domestic violence, child abuse, and juvenile delinquency. She was trained in preparing witnesses for trial and forensic interviewing. She also has a wide range of clinical experience, working with diverse populations conducting individual and group therapy for the past 15 years.
Prior to joining Trial Behavior Consulting, Jennifer was a senior project director for a market research consulting firm. Jennifer’s extensive research experience runs the gamut from developing innovative online survey techniques to managing large-scale tracking studies to conducting new brand/product qualitative studies.

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Kay Durante

Kay started in the trial consulting industry to support her college studies and became so interested in the field that she turned her career interests to trial consulting. She came to Trial Behavior after four years of work for another trial consulting firm in Los Angeles, where she worked her way up from operations and logistics work to research assistance and data analysis. Kay is skilled in analyzing qualitative and quantitative data. She has a broad range of research support and data analysis responsibilities, including the collection, entry, processing and presentation of mock trial, shadow jury and jury selection data, as well as questionnaire and database design. She helps organize and run mock trials, focus groups and shadow juries. Kay also assists in verdict and venue research in venues around the country and is a "go to" person for researching alternate venues.

Kay is continuing her work to complete her B.A. in Business Administration at Cal State–Long Beach, where she learned many of the statistics and research skills she has further developed and put to good use in her trial consulting work. She plans to continue her graduate studies in a field that supports her desire to develop herself as a jury researcher and trial consultant.

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Chase Hensel M.A., Ph.D.

Chase Hensel is a socio-cultural and linguistic anthropologist specializing in the development of case themes and persuasive trial narratives; mock trial research and research design, including how to conduct valid research in alternative venues; and how cultural factors shape testimony and its interpretation by jurors. For a number of years, he has worked as an independent consultant in Alaska, focusing on cases involving rural Alaska and/or Alaska natives that have presented substantial challenges in cross-cultural communication. In 1991 he was recognized as an expert on Alaska Native Cultures and Languages by the Superior Court in Alaska. He has also served as an expert witness on a variety of civil and criminal cases, and was extensively cited in the constitutional challenge to Alaska's Official English Law now before the Alaska Supreme Court.

Dr. Hensel received his M.A. from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and his Ph. D from the University of California Berkeley. He taught as an Associate Professor of Anthropology for the University of Alaska, teaching a wide range of subjects. He has received research grants from National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (as research director of a three year, multi-million dollar study of Alaska Native Sobriety). He continues to run his own firm, Morrow & Hensel Consulting, located in Fairbanks, but is now affiliated with Trial Behavior and is applying his insights to a broad range of complex commercial litigation, including insurance coverage and intellectual property.

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Sarah Murray, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate (CIO)

Sarah Murray is a social/cultural anthropologist recognized for her expertise in trial strategy, jury selection, witness preparation and visual communication. She excels in translating complex technical issues into persuasive trial themes, testimony and graphics. Sarah combines training in statistics with expert knowledge of qualitative research methods and analysis, including sociolinguistic analysis and cross-cultural communication, media content analysis, focus groups, and qualitative interviewing. In her time at Trial Behavior, Sarah has selected over 200 juries, interviewed hundreds of jurors, and conducted a wide range of survey, focus group and mock trial research. She has also worked with trial counsel as an integral team member from pre-trial research and strategy through trial outcome, helping to develop trial strategy, prepare witnesses and graphics, and write openings and closings. Her anthropology background helps her evaluate jurors in multinational jury pools as well as uncover and solve the cross-cultural communication problems of foreign witnesses. While she works on a wide range of cases, she has developed special expertise in antitrust, complex commercial disputes, contract and partnership disputes, construction defect, medical malpractice defense, asbestos defense, pharmaceutical product liability, and intellectual property. She has also assisted in defending a number of cases involving investigations by professional organizations or oversight bodies that could result in stripping of an individual's license to practice.

A Fulbright scholar and Social Science Council Research Fellow, Sarah conducted two years of field research in Indonesia towards her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. She has also been a teacher, writer and media worker, including a two-year stint developing PR and analyzing research for a major political campaign. While in graduate school, she taught anthropology and qualitative research methods and analysis at Berkeley, twice winning campus-wide teaching awards. She frequently presents on jury selection, persuasive communication and trial strategy issues at local and national legal and professional organizations. Her expertise in voir dire and jury selection has led to a contract to co-author a book with colleague defense attorney Jonathan Mandel, Picking Criminal Juries, slated to be published by James Publishing in 2011. She is also a frequent commentator on jury issues and notorious trials in print and on radio and television. She is a member of the San Francisco Bar Association. As Chief Information Officer of the company, Sarah keeps abreast of technical developments that affect the litigation field and develops strategic partnerships between Trial Behavior and the best of the graphics and trial support vendors that we encounter in our work.

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Max Bloom, B.A.

Max received his degree in political science from the University of Richmond in Virginia, where he was one of a select group of students performing cross-disciplinary scientific research under a grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He was one of five members of the U.S. National Debate team, and has competed internationally.
Since joining Trial Behavior, Max has helped conduct mock trials with a variety of complex research designs. He works with both quantitative and qualitative data, focusing on venue studies, transfers of venue, and broad data analysis in serial litigation. He is currently developing more accurate and efficient methods of analyzing juror questionnaires.

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Kim Silbert has a background in general psychology studies and women's studies. Now an associate consultant, she began at Trial Behavior as a research associate, organizing mock trial research, coordinating jury selection and other trial work, analyzing mock trial data and assisting with juror questionnaire evaluation and in court jury selection. She has built upon her research experience to develop top level skills in post trial interviewing, jury research design, witness preparation, and trial strategy. Kim was the coordinator and a primary researcher for a shadow jury in a four-month long, high stakes fraud trial in Texas that was named as one of the top defense wins of 2005. She has extensive experience in personal injury, trucking, wrongful death, and medical malpractice cases but enjoys working on a wide range of both civil and criminal cases, particular cases where individual emotional responses and family emotional dynamics play a key role.

Kim received her B.S. in Psychology from Guilford College in North Carolina with a concentration in women's studies. She also studied criminal justice and organizational development. During a college internship, Kim designed a curriculum to teach life and parenting skills to female prisoners for an innovative alternative to prison for women with children.

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Carolyn Spencer-Mork is a socio-cultural anthropologist with specialized training in gender issues and sociolinguistics, the understanding of human communication in social context. Carolyn's training in anthropology provides a strong background in both qualitative and quantitative research, as well as powerful insights into the interpretive frameworks of jurors from diverse backgrounds. She is fluent in Russian. She provides jury consulting on case themes, case evaluation through jury research and post-trial interviews of jurors and has been involved in ongoing witness preparation work with a large multinational corporation.

As a Fulbright Scholar and National Science Foundation Research Fellow, Carolyn conducted extensive ethnographic field research in Russia. Carolyn's research focused on how people translate social needs and evaluations of social problems like health care into monetary measures–in other words, how morality and money intersect. She has found that her research translates directly into understanding how jurors who may share similar evaluations of evidence nevertheless have strikingly different ideas about how social damage should translate into monetary compensation. She is currently writing her doctoral dissertation in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the American Anthropological Association.

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Mike Tiktinsky, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Mike Tiktinsky is a licensed psychologist who is an expert in statistical methodologies, data analysis, personality assessment and coaching. He also has a background in the computer industry and has knowledge and expertise in sales, distribution, software development, and microprocessor design and process issues. As a trial consultant, he has special expertise in jury selection, witness preparation and trial strategy. His background and expertise combine well in his two favorite areas of litigation: employment and intellectual property. He has worked on over 50 patent cases around the country and has developed extensive experience in key patent venues, including Marshall, TX; Los Angeles, CA; and Wilmington, DE. Before joining Trial Behavior Consulting, he worked for fifteen years as a management consultant on employment issues and served as an expert witness in employment cases. Dr. Tiktinsky has consulted on patent cases involving process and design patents; medical devices; LCD technology; and microprocessor design. He has also consulted on cases involving race, sex and age discrimination; personal injury and product liability; general business issues; wrongful termination; wrongful death; employer hiring practices; hostile work environment; and workplace violence. He has also frequently done data analysis and expert witness work on complex hiring and firing data to determine if there is statistical evidence that a company has engaged in discrimination.

Dr. Tiktinsky received both his Ph.D. in Psychology and M.P.H. in Public Health Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. He completed a two-year post-doctoral clinical training program at the Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry. Besides teaching graduate statistics and research methods as an associate professor for six years, for ten years Mike coached the Napa High School mock trial team, leading them to the State Championships a number of times . In 2004, the Constitutional Rights Foundation gave Mike their Outstanding Commitment to Youth award in recognition for this service.

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Amber Watkins Yearwood, B.A.

Amber Watkins studied psychology with an emphasis on socio-cultural studies, and has conducted extensive pre-trial and trial research, including mock trial, focus group and shadow jury research. She is skilled in questionnaire development and both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Amber is exceptional at developing a rapport with jurors and has extensive experience conducting post-trial and shadow juror interviews. She has selected a number of juries in both civil and criminal matters and has successfully coached attorneys in voir dire, jury selection and trial strategy. Amber has worked on a wide range of cases, including complex contract, product liability, catastrophic personal injury, intellectual property and criminal trials.

Amber received her B.A. in Psychology from Michigan State University. She was a nationally accomplished intercollegiate debater and has coached hundreds of students in debate preparation and oral persuasion. Her competitive debate experience has proved invaluable in crafting persuasive arguments and trial themes. While studying psychology at Michigan State, she won an internship as an advocate for domestic violence survivors. As an intern, she worked with survivors to help them develop independent resource strategies and tutored other interns in interpersonal dynamics and effective communication.

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Naveen Khan, PgDL

Naveen Khan is an associate consultant at Trial Behavior Consulting in the company’s Los Angeles office. Trained in social science and law, Naveen helps design, organize and analyze mock trial research, and develop and conduct post trial interviews and shadow jury research, she also helps with jury selection in a wide range of high stakes civil and criminal cases in venues across the country. Naveen has worked on a range of cases including high personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, toxic tort, fraud, contract, sex-related crimes and securities.

Naveen earned a Post-graduate Diploma in Law from the College of Law in London, where she achieved a distinction for her essay on global money laundering. She later began working for a leading non-profit legal aid foundation. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Naveen worked in a transnational business organization as a business associate where she facilitated networking for businesses and researched trade policy between the United States and Britain. She then worked at a large investment firm in London as a global business analyst.She obtained a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology from the University of Sheffield in England.

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Jonas Jacobson, J.D., M.A.

Jonas is trained as a social psychologist and an attorney. Jonas received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, graduating Order of the Coif, and his M.A. from the Stanford Psychology Department. His graduate work in psychology focused on the psychology of judgment and decision-making. For his thesis, Jonas developed a method to efficiently and accurately predict jury awards by statistically combining the estimates of multiple attorneys. Jonas’s legal training focused on trial advocacy, negotiation, and jury decision-making, and he competed on the Stanford Law mock trial team.

Prior to joining Trial Behavior Consulting, Jonas worked for a New York trial consulting firm specializing in white collar criminal defense and securities fraud. He also has experience consulting on personal injury and patent cases.  

Jonas has lectured on the psychology of opening statements for the Stanford Trial Advocacy Program, and taught an undergraduate course at Stanford on the psychology of judgment and decision-making. He is a member of the American Psychology-Law Society.

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Alyssa Kreer

Alyssa received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University where she majored in Communication with an emphasis in interpersonal and organizational communication. Her research included intercultural communication, relationship development and effectual communication within organizations. She minored in marketing and studied advertising, strategic business management and ethics in business.

Before coming to Trial Behavior, Alyssa worked as a regional marketing and event coordinator in the banking industry.
 
Alyssa is involved in project and research coordination for focus groups, mock trials and community surveys as well as data analysis, venue analysis, preparing research reports and team coordination around the country.

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John Neece, J.D., Ph.D.

John Neece is an attorney and psychologist whose experience includes trial strategy consultation, mock trials, focus groups, jury questionnaire preparation, jury profiling, jury selection, witness preparation, and post-trial interviews. He also has many years of experience conducting psychological assessments and providing therapy to people with a variety of problems and personality disorders. He consults with attorneys as a non-testifying expert regarding psychological damages claims in personal injury or mental trauma cases.

Dr. Neece received his law degree from Baylor University School of Law and his Ph.D. in psychology from Texas A&M University. As an adjunct faculty member at Utah State University, he taught courses in theories of personality and human development and supervised masters and doctoral level psychology students in the assessment and treatment of mental disorders. Dr. Neece is an active educator for CLE programs, presenting on subjects including trial theme development, jury selection, and witness preparation. He is a member of the Texas State Bar, Dallas Bar Association, American Psychological Association, Dallas Psychological Association, American Psychology-Law Society, and American Society of Trial Consultants.

Click here to read reviews of books John recommends for trial practitioners.

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Chairman of the Board

Lowell Hellervik, Ph.D.
CEO, Personnel Decisions International, & Chairman, Trial Behavior Consulting Board of Directors

Lowell Hellervik is an internationally known management and organizational consultant who specializes in change management, executive coaching, as well as executive development and assessment. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Minnesota, where he is currently a Clinical Associate Professor. He founded TBC in 1984 after seeing the value of the synergy between organizational psychology and trial and jury consulting.

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