Richard Matthews received his J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law, and is a member of the State Bar of California and the American Society of Trial Consultants. He brings an impressive background of litigation and negotiation to his trial consulting practice. His trial consulting expertise encompasses:

• Case issue analysis, to identify where laypeople are likely to focus their attention in your case, and where that is good or dangerous
• Focus group and mock trial research, to identify your case's traps & strengths, as well as to have laypeople teach us how to tell your story
• Thematic message and communication strategy, including drafting opening statements & closing arguments, as well as helping create visual ways of presenting information at trial
• Witness preparation, to ensure that the jury hears the best, clearest possible version of the truth of your story
• Jury selection, including drafting supplemental jury questionnaires, voir dire questions and creating a jury profile strategy-- taking into account not the just the individual merits of jurors, but being mindful of how they will fit together as a group
• Using focus group and mock trial results to assist you in settlement and mediation talks, reframing the discussion from "we think the facts and law say such-and-such" to "based on solid research and not just breathing our own smoke, we believe that a jury will conclude such-and-such, and find X significant and find Y insignificant..."

In addition to working with both plaintiff and defense clients in a broad array of cases, Rich has addressed thousands of professionals, executives, and students at some of the world's largest and fastest-moving companies, and such schools as Stanford University and Boalt School of Law at University of California, and has provided expert commentary on major jury trials for Fox News, ABC, CBS, Court TV, KTVU-2, and national print media. He leads the San Francisco office of Decision Analysis.