Profiles

Rick Fuentes

Rick R. Fuentes, Ph.D.

Dr. Fuentes is a founding partner of R&D Strategic Solutions, LLC. He has specialized in jury behavior and decision-making and the evaluation of complex evidence for more than 20 years. He has worked with trial teams on hundreds of civil and criminal cases involving issues of tort, contracts, anti-trust, intellectual property, product liability, and professional malpractice. Through the use of focus groups, mock trials and surveys, he assists Trial Attorneys and in-house counsel in the development…
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Ross P. Laguzza, Ph.D.

Ross P. Laguzza, Ph.D.

Dr. Ross Laguzza is a founding partner of R&D Strategic Solutions, LLC. He is an expert in the psychology of persuasion. Over the last 30 years, he has consulted on hundreds of complex and high-risk matters in this country and in Europe. His clients include major corporations faced with the challenge of developing persuasive messages for many different types of stakeholders (juries, judges, federal and state regulatory agencies, politicians, environmental and other activist groups, communities, and employee groups).Dr. Laguzza’s special expertise…
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James L. McGarity

James L. McGarity, M.S.

James McGarity has been studying jury behavior and trial strategy since 1999, and is a recognized expert in medical malpractice cases. In addition to consulting on over a thousand medical malpractice cases, James has consulted on many other civil and criminal matters including product liability, premises liability, copyright/patent litigation, white-collar crime, and many other types of litigation in venues across the country. Mr. McGarity has assisted with case strategy preparation, jury selection…
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Mark A. deTurck, Ph.D.

Mark deTurck is a former professor of communication at Cornell University where he researched jury decision-making, attitude-change theory, and social cognition (how people process information, make decisions, and act on information), and has published dozens of articles and chapters on these topics. His research on jury decision-making has won national awards. Given Mark\’s specialized understanding of how people process information, he has testified as an expert witness on numerous…
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Ray Fuentes, B.A.

Ray Fuentes, B.A.

Ray Fuentes has interviewed more than a thousand jurors in cases involving medical malpractice, product liability, patent infringement, securities law violations, and many other areas. He has participated in well over 500 jury focus groups, summary mock trials and data collection exercises encompassing virtually all areas of litigation and all geographic regions of the United States, including Puerto Rico. Prior to working as a Strategic Litigation Consultant, he was a Correctional…
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Rebecca (Becky) M. Fuentes

Rebecca (Becky) M. Fuentes, M.S.

Becky Fuentes has assisted trial teams on hundreds of cases nationwide in several types of civil litigation including product liability, medical malpractice, securities fraud, toxic tort, intellectual property, anti-trust, and insurance cases. She has also worked on criminal cases involving white-collar crime and capital murder. Becky has extensive experience preparing witnesses for deposition and trial testimony, developing juror profiles for jury selection, and assisting trial teams with jury selection and…
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Alayna Lutz

Alayna Lutz, Ph.D.

Alayna Lutz has specialized in jury decision-making for twenty years. Dr. Lutz earned her doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Social Psychology program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Throughout her academic and professional career, she has conducted research on juror and victim behavior. Dr. Lutz has worked with trial teams nationwide on hundreds of cases involving all types of civil litigation including contracts, product liability, insurance, toxic tort, securities and accounting fraud…
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Maithilee K. Pathak, Ph.D., J.D.

Maithilee K. Pathak, Ph.D., J.D.

Dr. Pathak has worked on civil cases involving issues of tort, contracts, product liability, and malpractice, as well as on civil and criminal cases relating to fraud, anti-trust, and domestic terrorism. She has delivered CLE presentations on a variety of topics including medical malpractice, employment law, and premises liability. Dr. Pathak has conducted research on human decision-making in law and policy arenas. Recently, Dr. Pathak worked in conjunction with the South Carolina Defense…
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