About Barr Group
“I know what it is like to be the one witness a case depends on. I have sat in the chair while opposing counsel tried to take my opinions apart, and I have watched good cases hinge on whether the expert could explain the technology and hold up. Attorneys should not have to become engineers to find that expert. That is the job Barr Group does for you.”
Michael Barr, co-founder
Barr Group carries his name. It is run by engineers, and it finds attorneys the expert a technical case needs, whatever the field.
Need a testifying expert witness?
Leadership
The team behind your expert search
Michael Barr is an electrical engineer who spent more than a decade writing embedded software. He designed the software architecture for a satellite TV set-top box, wrote device drivers and development tools for reconfigurable computing hardware, and built software for safety-critical control systems and consumer electronics. Software he wrote has powered millions of products. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, taught operating systems there as an adjunct professor, and was editor-in-chief of Embedded Systems Design magazine. He has written four books: Programming Embedded Systems (O'Reilly, two editions), the Embedded Systems Dictionary, the Embedded C Coding Standard, and Metacompiler, a science fiction novel about embedded systems and computer security. He has also written more than seventy articles and papers on embedded software.
As an expert witness, Mr. Barr has been retained as an expert in U.S. District Court, ITC, and PTAB cases and in foreign courts and arbitrations. He has testified before judges and juries more than two dozen times, in matters ranging from patent infringement and validity to product liability to theft of copyrighted software and trade secrets, and his opinions have survived Daubert challenges. He has been qualified in U.S. and Canadian courts as an expert in computer software, electrical engineering, and satellite TV security and piracy.
He led the team of software experts that reviewed millions of lines of Toyota's engine control source code and testified in the one unintended acceleration case that went to trial (Toyota case study). Earlier, he testified in 24 DirecTV satellite piracy cases on what the accused devices were designed to do (DirecTV case study).
Andrew Girson is an electrical engineer with more than thirty years in the computer industry. He holds master of science and bachelor of science degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia, began his career in software engineering, and went on to serve as chief technical officer, vice president, and chief executive officer of technology companies before co-founding Barr Group. As chief executive of InHand Electronics, he led a company that designed low-power handheld embedded systems running Windows Embedded, among them the Fingertip development platform, a 2.75-inch board built on Intel's StrongARM processor. He has authored dozens of technical articles and conference papers.
For more than a decade, Andrew has vetted and placed expert witnesses for litigation teams, from the Toyota unintended acceleration litigation onward. He reads the technology at issue in each case, judges which candidates can explain it and defend it under cross-examination, and puts a shortlist in front of the attorney with the reasons each expert fits. He runs Barr Group's expert searches and is the person you work with from the first call through introductions, terms, and the life of the engagement.
Why Barr Group
Why We're Different
Finding the right expert for a high-stakes technical case can feel overwhelming: too many names, too much jargon, and the nagging worry that a CV that looks good enough on paper will fall short in front of a judge and jury. Here is how we take that off your plate.
An engineer reads every CV before you do
Barr Group is led by electrical engineers and computer scientists, so each candidate is judged on whether they understand the technology in your case, not on how the resume reads. Co-founder Michael Barr has testified before judges and juries more than two dozen times, and he knows what a weak expert looks like under cross.
Picked for how they will hold up
Barr Group has placed experts on hundreds of cases in the U.S. District Courts, PTAB, ITC, and other venues. Before recommending anyone, we check their testimony history, prior Daubert challenges, and opposing-party engagements, so the expert you retain has a record you have already seen. See what an expert witness does at each stage of a case.
Your Search Stays Confidential
We treat each case with the discretion it deserves. Your confidential search won't be shared publicly, and you maintain complete control over how your case is presented and who knows you're seeking expert assistance. We also begin every conversation with a conflicts check.
Nothing to pay unless you retain
The search is free and confidential for the attorney. Our fee is built into the expert's hourly rate, so we are paid only if you retain. If the first shortlist does not fit, we keep looking.
Why not just run the search yourself?
Reaches only the people you already know. The exact niche expert, with a clean conflicts position, is usually outside it.
Spends billable hours on a task that is hard to judge. Telling a Daubert-proof expert from a polished resume is its own skill.
A generic, often pay-to-list set of names. You still do the work of figuring out who is real.
Engineer-vetted, conflicts-checked, and matched to your case. Free and confidential, and our fee is in the expert's rate, so we are paid only if you retain.
Ready to find the right expert?
Tell us about your case, and often by the next business day you will have a shortlist of experts who fit it. Free, confidential, conflicts-checked, and paid only if you retain.