About Us

nice to meet you.

Empirical Creative LLC is a boutique trial consulting firm. Our specialty is providing jury research and graphics consulting on complex, high-stakes civil and white-collar criminal litigation with an eye towards understanding and reducing risk and uncertainty for our clients.

Our aim is to bring integrity to our trial consulting practice by giving unwavering, focused attention to the matters for which we are retained and providing a high level sophistication in our work. We recognize that to be real value, trial consulting requires the skillful interplay between rigorous social-science research methodologies and artful advocacy. To this end, our consulting practice embraces three fundamental principles which guide its practice.

Trial Strategies that resonate with jurors’ common sense approach to the world and appeal to the virtue of fairness.

Juror Profiles that identify those characteristics, attitudes, values and beliefs essential to the jury de-selection process.

Graphics that educate and persuade jurors.

Our People

Principal

Jim has a broad range of experience in both civil and criminal litigation and has supported both plaintiffs and defendants in matters involving contract disputes, securities and accounting fraud, intellectual property, antitrust, medical malpractice and others. He has been recognized as having played key roles in the successful outcomes of some of the nation’s most complex and high-profile cases. After a long…

Principal

Dave has been in the jury consulting field since 2002. He first worked at a national jury consulting firm, where he quickly rose to become Director of its Jury Consulting Division, overseeing a group of ten jury consultants. In 2007, he co-founded Empirical Creative, LLC., a boutique trial consulting firm that specializes in providing jury research, trial graphics and…

Senior Jury Consultant

Elizabeth is an experienced trial consultant with expertise in securities litigation, patent and intellectual property cases, environmental litigation, employment disputes, pharmaceutical litigation and corporate governance issues. Elizabeth has assisted both plaintiff and defense teams with thematic case development and graphics.  Drawing on her academic expertise in…

Senior Jury Consultant

John P. Esser is Professor of Sociology at Wagner College. He received his B.A. from Haverford College, and his J.D., M.S., and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as the Hewlett Fellow in Dispute Resolution. He is the co-editor of The Science of Courtroom Litigation: Jury Research and Analytical Graphics (2008, ALM/Law Journal Press), as well as author and co-author of…

Senior Jury Consultant

Steve Tuholski came to the jury consulting field in 2004 after a successful academic career at Southern Illinois University. As a jury consultant, Steve is an expert in pre-trial research and how to effectively leverage data from research to increase his client’s success at trial, pre-trial mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution settings. Steve’s philosophy is to “practice like we play”, and…

Senior Graphic Designer

Jessica Genaw is a Senior Graphic Designer with Empirical Creative. She has been in the litigation design field for over nine years working with trial teams to create persuasive and strategic demonstratives for complex litigation. Jessica has supported a wide range of matters across the country such as pharmaceutical litigation, insurance, employment and securities matters…

Senior Research Associate

Tiffany has been in the trial consulting field for 16 years and has successfully executed trial-related projects for a variety of clients in numerous jurisdictions.  She has industry-leading insights into local demography and its impact on jury composition, as well as experience with multiple types of project delivery for clients.  As a Senior Research Associate, Tiffany has worked on…

Graphic Designer

Thomas Bryan is a Graphic Designer with Empirical Creative. He has over twenty years of experience as a designer, animator for advertising and over ten years of experience as a litigation designer simplifying complex concepts into easily understandable demonstratives for use in court. Thomas has supported many cases ranging from insurance, pharmaceutical, securities, medical malpractice and…

what our clients say.

“I worked with Empirical Creative on a very complex and challenging health care case in California. The exposure was in the billions of dollars, and the defense was highly technical. The defense team struggled with the question of how to present highlight technical material to the Judge and jury. Empirical Creative was fantastic. Through several iterations of both presentations and graphics, they developed an approach that allowed us to present the technical issues we need to present in a way that our audiences could hear and understand. The results were terrific. The EC team worked tirelessly (day and night for weeks on end) working up new approaches and graphics, and then presenting the work to the client representatives and, ultimately, to mock juries. During this work, I was extremely impressed by the talent and dedication of the entire staff. And I was most impressed with the ability of Jim Dobson and David Klein to work through difficult problems with us under a great deal of stress in a very effective, efficient, and professional manner. The EC team brought an element of creativity to our presentation that I would not have been able to bring myself, and for that I am extremely grateful. If you have a bet the business case, this is the team to have sitting next to you.”

Stephen Goff

King & Spalding