John Fildes, Ph.D. Joins Solution Engineering Group LLC

Dr. John Fildes has a significant track record of making a large difference in high stakes cases involving complex and multidisciplinary scientific and technical issues.  John has completely changed the course of complex cases even for example when clients used him late in cases because they were unhappy with the quality or thoroughness of existing investigations, or as another example when John has modeled complex processes to effectively fill-in key gaps in the existing data, or in other cases when clients have been able to resolve cases headed to trial solely on the basis of John's reports - sometimes without a deposition, or when cases involving a limited amount of evidence have been resolved by John's use of analytics to fill-in the data gaps.  The superior outcomes John achieves are typified by a case where John was the only expert to testify at trial in a case against the County where the trial took place and the jurors found for the side that hired John (as the only expert and as the main witness) even though the jurors as taxpayers were incurring the large cost of the loss in doing so.

How Does Dr. Fildes Consistently Achieve These Outstanding Results?

John's investigations are objective, data-driven, and thorough.  John has an exceptional scientific background, top-notch analytical skills, and a well-honed approach to finding and analyzing existing relevant information.  John also has extensive experience in explaining complex scientific and technical issues to people with and without scientific training.  John explanations are clear, understandable, to the point, sound, and compelling.  This unique set of capabilities ensures that John’s investigations identify the key issues at the outset, are properly focused and comprehensive, and are explained in clear and compelling terms.  

John also has an outstanding track record as a doctoral level scientist.  John has received over $27.5 million of R&D funding for projects involving leading companies and the Government, and he has also conducted numerous scientific investigations to help resolve litigation disputes, insurance claims, and intellectual property issues.  John has a B.S. in chemistry from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and he was a post-doctoral research associate in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech.  Physical chemistry provides the scientific basis for a broad spectrum of important engineering areas, so John's background brings fundamental insight that cannot be gained solely by engineering investigations.  John addresses codes and standards, but failures and accidents happen because the scientific principles that underlie engineering are violated, so John's investigations also assess the underlying scientific principles to identify the cause and origin in a way that is more understandable and compelling even to people with no technical expertise.

John also brings extremely strong skills in analytics.  Combining the limited existing data that typically exists in cases with fundamental scientific principles allows John to answer questions about what could and could not have happened, which effectively addresses gaps that may exist in data from an accident or failure and that also predicts what additional testing would show, and that provides another (sometimes multiple) way(s) to support an opinion giving it more credibility.  John has specialized throughout his career on investigations of multidisciplinary chemical and materials-related issues.  John is an expert in materials science, advanced composite materials,  building and civil construction materials, aviation materials, materials processing including sensors and controls, materials compatibility and corrosion, decorative and protective coatings, ceramics, semiconductor materials, gas sensors, tribology (the science of friction, wear, and lubrication), materials property modeling, analytics (data mining and modeling based on well-established scientific principles), experimental design, product and process design, the conduct of R&D, and intellectual property.  John is also experienced with chemical processes, materials fabrication processes, water treatment processes, natural gas transmission and use in boilers and kiln, and many construction processes.

Having led two scientific and licensed engineering companies with hundreds of professionals conducting thousands of litigation-related projects annually, clients have also used John to evaluate both the appropriateness and reliability of their experts' data and opinions, and the appropriateness and reliability of the opposing experts' data and opinions. It takes a different and relatively unique experience to assess the appropriateness of an investigation's approach and methods, the suitability of sampling and statistical analyses, and the applicability and limitations of test methods and interpretations.  John is an expert in the technical methods used in investigations, the ways in which investigations are conducted, and the standards that investigations are expected to meet.  John is one of relatively few experts with this experience.

Click Here to go to a library of case studies and technical methods based on John's work.