Areas of Practice
Expert Witness
Being an expert witness is an important role in the justice system. In the previous five years I have been involved in Product Liability cases involving consumer, medical, vape battery fires and industrial applications, class action lawsuit with leading computer manufacturer and Intellectual Property IPR.
I have successfully completed many inspections, reports, IPR declarations, depositions and trial prep. References available upon request.
Product Liability
Lithium-ion cells and batteries are generally safe but when billions of cells are manufactured ever year and zero ppm failure rates not possible, a small number will fail leading to personal and property injuries.
Root causes can be anything from user error to design or manufacturing defects or simply the wrong battery for the specific application. I have significant experience with lithium-ion failures in vape cases, as well as a number of consumer, industrial and medical applications.
In Product Liability this work typically involves forensic analysis through physical inspections of the battery, charger and application device; followed by an expert witness report, deposition and trial.
Intellectual Property
In patent litigation, patents are either defended or invalidated by thorough analysis, literature and patent research, competitive device design efforts, followed by preparing declarations, deposition and trial.
Securing and maintaining intellectual property rights for your work is critical.
General Consulting
I am available for general consulting in all areas of lithium metal and lithium-ion cells and batteries, and supercapacitors, from research, development, testing and evaluation, technical marketing and IP portfolio management.
Knowing where one can’t assist is as important as knowing where one can help. I have a network of scientists, business types, engineers and venture capitalists that I can connect you with in the event your requirement is outside my fields of expertise.
Product Design and Qualification
Doing the work upfront, being confident in your product design and testing will prevent issues down the road, including product liability, injuries, warranty, recalls, etc. I spent 34 years developing new lithium-ion and supercapacitor cells and batteries and can assist with yours, including running full qualification programs. Having set up numerous R&D, performance and abuse testing labs, I can also provide guidance, training and blueprints.
Even the largest cell manufacturers can and do have design issues with cells and batteries. With thorough autopsies and detailed performance and abuse testing, you can take your product to market with confidence. The most detailed qualification programs I have done were for medical applications but all applications will benefit from this upfront effort.
Startup Assistance
A requirement I identified over and over when running a contract services company was that many start-ups and even established material companies that have cool new materials may not know how to assemble high quality pouch, cylindrical or prismatic cells.
In early research, coin cells are commonly used but can only take your development so far. It is critical to prove out new technologies in high quality, high capacity cell designs. This is easier than you can imagine when you know how and where to get this done, or what equipment and procedures are required to do this in-house.
Auditing Services
Understanding the technical capabilities of a company before one invests money or begins a supplier relationship is important. I have experience with due diligence of lithium-ion and supercapacitor technologies for investors and auditing cell manufacturers.
Venture capital and corporate investors often look for a technical deep dive prior to investment. Due diligence efforts can be completed to varying levels of depth, depending on the size of the investment.
Cell manufacturers can be ranked in tiers. Know who you are working with after a one-day technical manufacturing audit and receive a full report based on over 200 process parameters.