About M&B
Expert Litigation Consultants
Malekpour & Ball works nationally on civil and criminal cases of every size and scope. The firm's methods are meticulously researched and thoroughly practice-tested for today's changing juries. The strategies we provide for trial are known to have changed the face of trial advocacy, and are widely considered the "gold standard" of the consulting field. As we develop and adapt these strategies for each specific case, you are provided with tools that maximize your chances of doing well at trial or in mediation. Learn more
Our Services
Case Workday
Malekpour & Ball offers a WorkDay or WorkSeries of sessions, available on either a flat fee or a sliding fee based on verdict or settlement. This intensive brainstorming workshop – conducted by video conference in a full day or spread over a 2 or 3 multi-day series (dependent on case needs and goals) – will frame your case into David Ball on Damages, Damages Evolving and other strategy principles. We start by conducting a critical overview of your case, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas that need more attention and the questions to address. Then we work with you and your team to develop the optimum case narrative and framing for the decision-makers. We end by applying the methods we teach and continually-evolving strategies to your discovery, jury research, trial preparation, jury selection and trial.
Timing of the WorkDays depends on the intent and goals of the session, so it’s best to contact us well in advance of trial to schedule accordingly, but no later than two weeks before the trial date. For WorkSeries, it’s best to begin scheduling session one as far in advance of trial as possible. We do a limited number of sessions per month, so if you're interested, contact us as soon as possible.
Research (Focus Group) Sessions
We place a great deal of importance and value on jury research (focus groups). Research is a key ingredient to fully vetting your case and shaping negotiation and trial strategies. Focus group juror deliberations or discussion sessions show what jurors will focus on, how they will handle the evidence, and what they perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of the case (from their decision-making role) – and they almost always reveal unanticipated but crucial factors.
A properly conducted research session helps create and refine the rules in your case and the analogies that put your case in their world. It also shows you what jurors believe they have personally at stake within their case decision-making and what evidence you might be missing and what evidence does not help (and can even hurt) you from the jurors’ (most important) perspective. A properly conducted research session also provides guidance on what to do about specific problems and questions you have. Additionally, you learn new arguments to support your side, undermine the opposition and how to arm your jurors at trial to fight for you in deliberations.
Research sessions are just as important for mediation as for trial and also provide essential guidance to maximize the benefits and minimize the dangers of discovery.
Focus group research is only as valuable as the ability of its consultants to turn its results into viable case strategies. This is why we design and conduct the case research sessions ourselves.
The success of the research depends on presenting a well-prepared, fair and unbiased assessment of the case. Our goal is not to win the research session but to learn how jurors react to the issues and work towards decisions. Based on what we learn, we guide you in preparing the strongest possible case strategies and presentation for mediation and/or trial.
Our Team
Get in Touch
Hourly Consultation
We are available for consultation on an hourly basis in person, or via phone or video conference. We tailor the conference format, length and topics to your needs and resources. We offer special guidance with developing and refining rules, openings, mechanism of harm explanations and tentacles spreading.
When to Bring Us On Board
We can get involved at any stage – from helping you decide whether to take a case, all the way through discovery and trial. Earlier is always better, as turning case analysis into mediation or trial strategy takes time, so we encourage you to plan ahead. See below for our recommended timeframe to maximum the benefits our services for your case needs:
Hourly consulting:
Available any point during the process, though the earlier the better.
WorkDays:
Before, during, or after discovery. It is best to leave at least two weeks between the WorkDay and trial. The longer the better.
WorkSeries:
Any time over your trial preparation, but the earlier the better in order to maximize the benefit of these multi-part sessions and allow more flexibility in scheduling and follow-up.
Research (focus groups) Sessions:
You need to get scheduling and preparation started with us no later than 90 days before trial so we (and you) can properly prepare. That will also allow the minimum one month necessary between the Research Session (focus group) date and trial date to analyze and strategize the results.
Emergencies:
We’re available for emergency advice for unanticipated matters that arise at any time. This service is offered on a priority basis to attorneys we have already worked with, but we try our best to be available on an emergency basis to everyone.
In-House Training Sessions:
We do half or full-day in-house training sessions in-person or by video conference.
Artemis Malekpour, J.D., M.H.A.
Trial Consultant
artemis@consultmmb.com
Artemis Malekpour is a partner in the litigation consulting firm Malekpour & Ball, where she specializes in jury research, case strategy, jury decision-making, jury selection and identifying and solving case problems. As a lawyer with a background in psychology and psychiatric research, Artemis holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Healthcare Administration with a concentration in mental health issues from UNC’s School of Public Health. Before earning her degree with honors from Duke Law School, Artemis worked in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina Hospitals with children and adolescents coping with psychiatric disorders and legal issues.
Artemis began her path to litigation consulting while still in law school, working as an intern with David Ball. During her second and third years, she conducted post-trial jury interviews in both civil and death penalty cases, turning the latter into an independent study research project. It’s there where she first learned the value of listening to different and conflicting viewpoints to better identify what’s driving decision-making, as well as the importance and skill of framing an argument in a more productive, simple and persuasive way. After passing the North Carolina Bar Exam in 2004, she joined David full-time and eventually became a partner in the firm.
A member of the North Carolina State Bar, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, American Association for Justice and American Society of Trial Consultants, Artemis has contributed a number of articles and chapters in legal publications, including submissions within David Ball on Damages 3, David Ball on Criminal Defense, AAJ’s Trial, and Reptile in the MIST and Beyond, is featured in Trial Guides’ How to do Your Own Focus Groups, and has co-authored a book chapter, “Public and Private Sector Involvement in Managed Mental Health Care,” in Managed Care & Public Health. Artemis’ most recent project, Damages Evolving, written with co-authors David Ball, Courtney Rowley and Nick Rowley, was released in Spring of 2022 through Trial Guides.
Artemis has consulted on a wide variety of cases across the country. She is particularly well-known for identifying the potential landmines in a case, analyzing from the decisionmakers’ perspective, incorporating the knowledge she’s gained from years of observing jury deliberations, moderating discussions and talking with actual and potential jurors nationwide. Artemis also places a strong emphasis on case presentation and the development of a compelling damages story.
David Ball, PhD.
Trial Consultant
jurywatch@gmail.com
Born in NY’s Appalachian Mountains, lived on farm/applejack distillery with my bootlegging grandaddy, daddy, and uncles until the revenuers chased us clean out of the mountains and all the way down to Stamford, CT the year after WWII ended. Ran a lemonade stand and once mowed someone’s lawn. Drove taxis in high school. In high school came in second for class clown behind Charlie Karp, damn him, played football for one day, marched off to master science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic, avoided ROTC, eventually decided to leave engineering so started IN physics until the Dean gently observed that there are no B-minus physicists, so I drifted off to Alfred University in western NY state where I managed to drop out of pre-med because bio labs stink, continued to avoid ROTC, went on the first anti-Viet Nam war march, fell headlong into English lit, got permanently caught by theater, during the folk scare mastered most of the strings of a guitar and had the world’s second-best jug band, The Green Hornet and his Shazam Singers. Then grad school training for theater, ran off to save the world with Peace Corps in Afghanistan, while in Kabul mastered the rest of the guitar’s strings, returned to study more theater at D.C.’s Catholic U, Ph.D.’d at U of MN, spent a decade writing and directing at the Guthrie Theater, hid out for a bucolic year at Lawrence University in WI, then taught for a decade at Carnegie-Mellon’s professional theater conservatory where our students headed out to be brilliant and famous, followed by six or seven years of running Drama at Duke where students did the same, then I inadvertently began a trial-consulting career as the only one in NC or the surrounding states – a career which seems to be continuing, wrote some books along the way, turned 80 June 2022 about which I complain upon request, continue to respect and be astonished by trial lawyers more every day, still write for theater and have a screenplay under option, am again trying to save the world in a variety of ways though I’m lately been wondering if it should be saved, live in Durham, NC with lovely and amazing Susan in a century-old house, no cat/dog/indoor bird but a couple mice, plan never to see the inside of another airplane or hotel room, still avoiding ROTC, can’t find my guitar, eternally grateful for my trial-consulting partner, Artemis Malekpour, and have noted well that the view from 80 is splendid.