Contact: Rick Cook
Cook & Schmid
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EXPERT SUITES LAUNCHED BY HICHBORN CONSULTING GROUP
Specialty Office Suites and Services Tailored to Needs of Expert Witnesses
ORANGE COUNTY, CALIF. — With the opening of Expert Suites, Hichborn Consulting Group, an industry leader highly experienced in offering specific expert services and providing specialized consultation and resources for independent consultants in the expert witness profession, today inaugurated a new concept in commercial office space and business services.
Expert Suites is tailored to meet the unique needs of expert witnesses and others who serve or are associated with the legal community. Designed to accommodate expert’s hectic schedules, Expert Suites offers services geared toward completing “busy-work,”
In addition to the receptionist, phone and related services found in “executive office suites,” Expert Suites accommodations include: technology-oriented office spaces and meeting areas, secure storage for evidentiary materials and special evidence examination workspaces. It also has an information resource library, one of the largest private libraries in the country containing information for expert witnesses and pertaining to the forensic investigation of concrete and cementitious materials. In addition, the facility offers extensive photocopy, imaging, data storage, scanning, UPS/FedEx shipping and receiving, reprographics, and an administrative staff who recognize and honor the strict confidential nature of expert witness communications, documents and evidentiary materials.
The newly renovated 13,000-square-
Expert Suites offers virtual offices for experts occasionally in need of managed and furnished meeting space, as well as a mailing address unconnected to their home office and with a more prominent location than a standard post office box. As with on-site expert practitioners, the virtual office services include clerical support, telephone answering and message taking, and access to evidence examination benches, the resource library and secure storage.
“Through Expert Suites, we are providing needed services to expert witnesses in any specialty field,” said Geoffrey D. Hichborn, Sr., PE, president of Hichborn Consulting Group, which is recognized nationally as a leader in forensic investigations of construction defect issues as they relate to concrete and cementitious materials.
“And because many expert witnesses are sole practitioners, this facility also provides them with an opportunity for brainstorming, camaraderie, training and mentoring,” he added. “I envision expert witnesses from a wide variety of disciplines exchanging tips and offering mutual insight into business puzzles and professional practices that are rarely encountered by most businesses.”
Hichborn developed the Expert Suites concept after experiencing difficulty in obtaining office space that met his needs as an expert witness. After he out-grew his home office, he had to refurbish commercial office space to provide a material examination area and secure storage. He also amassed a large library of resource material.
“I realized that if I had trouble finding appropriate office and storage space to meet my specific expert-witness needs, then others must face a similar challenge,” he said. “Discussions with other forensic experts validated that premise, and I developed Expert Suites as a solution to our collective challenge.”
Hichborn, known as the “Concrete Detective,” is the vice president of the Forensic Expert Witness Association (FEWA) and the president of the organization’
“I am not aware of anything like Expert Suites, and given the complexity of society generally, and expert witnesses specifically, it fills a void that probably did not exist fifteen years ago,” said Normal S. Fox, executive director of FEWA. “Expert witnesses have specialized needs in terms of security, work space, resources and trained office staff, and this service fulfills those needs.”
About Expert Suites
Expert Suites, a division of Hichborn Consulting Group, is a specially designed facility that provides office space and business services tailored to the unique needs of expert witnesses. In addition to office space, the facility has an audio/visual equipment center and reception area, a resource library and is equipped with services that include clerical support, parcel/mail shipping and receiving, telephone answering and message taking, and access to the facility’s common areas for on-site and “virtual” tenants. The Expert Suites administrative staff upholds the strictly confidential nature of expert witness communications, documents and evidentiary materials.
About Hichborn Consulting Group
Hichborn Consulting Group provides specialty consultation, guidance and resources for consultants in the expert witness profession, and offers unparalleled office and business services tailored to the needs of expert witnesses through its Expert Suites division. For more information about Hichborn Consulting Group, go to www.hichborn.com.
