Expert witness services and expert negotiations.
Called by attorneys when litigation involves safety, negotiation, or security failures in communities, schools, and the workplace. Cases handled include community and school violence, duty of care failures, and systemic security negligence. Both representing the plaintiff and defense.
EXPERT WITNESS
When a case turns on safety, you need an expert the jury will trust.
Safety litigation is a specialized field. It requires an expert who understands not just the standards and protocols involved, but the practical realities of how institutions operate: the pressures leadership faces, the training gaps that persist, and where systems fail the people inside them.
Bobby Kipper has spent over three decades working inside those systems as a police officer, a consultant, a trainer, a post-incident assessor, and an advisor to state and national bodies on school and community safety. He has served as a national expert witness in community and school litigation cases since 2018.
The Kipper Group accepts engagements for both plaintiff and defense counsel.
The Kipper Group does not publicly discuss active cases or disclose client information. All inquiries are handled with full professional confidentiality.
Initial case inquiry. Contact us directly with a brief description of case type, jurisdiction, and stage of litigation. All communications are confidential.
Case review and conflict check. We confirm relevance to our expertise and ensure no conflicts of interest exist before proceeding.
Materials review and opinion. Case materials are reviewed and a written expert opinion or report prepared as required.
Deposition and trial. Available for deposition preparation, deposition testimony, and trial testimony. Full CV and disclosure documentation provided.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Case types where our expertise is most relevant.
Community & School Violence
Cases involving violence on school grounds or in community settings, including whether appropriate threat assessment, reporting protocols, and prevention systems were in place and functioning.
Duty-of-Care Failures
Cases examining whether an institution met its duty of care, including failure to act on warning signs, inadequate safety training, or foreseeable harm that went unaddressed.
Systemic Security Negligence
Cases where inadequate physical infrastructure, access control, or security management contributed to harm, assessed against reasonable professional standards.
Workplace Incidents
Cases involving workplace aggression, threat management failures, and employer responsibility for employee and visitor safety.
Surveillance & Privacy Violations
Cases involving improper or hidden surveillance on school or organizational grounds, and the institutional failures that allowed such violations to occur.
Threat Assessment Breakdown
Cases where threat assessment protocols were absent, ignored, or improperly followed, and whether practices were consistent with accepted standards in the field.
Expert Witness Services
Expert witness services extend from initial case review through trial. Involvement is calibrated to what each case requires, from a preliminary opinion through full deposition and courtroom testimony.
Written Expert Opinion
A detailed written opinion addressing the specific standards at issue, whether those standards were met, and the connection between any failures and the harm alleged.
Case Materials Review
Thorough review of discovery materials including incident reports, training records, security audits, policies, and communications, with findings relevant to the case theory.
Deposition Testimony
Available for deposition with full CV and disclosure. Testimony is direct, grounded in experience, and resistant to efforts to undermine foundational expertise.
Trial Testimony
Courtroom testimony delivered clearly for a lay jury, communicating complex safety standards in terms that are accessible, credible, and impactful.
Attorney Consultation
Pre-deposition and pre-trial consultation to help legal teams understand the technical landscape, anticipate opposing expert arguments, and sharpen case strategy.
Site Assessment
Where relevant, on-site assessment of the environment in question, to provide firsthand observations that strengthen the expert opinion and trial narrative.
EXPERT NEGOTIATIONS
Providing over two decades of critical negotiation services.
Bobby Kipper served as a police crisis negotiator for nearly twenty years and completed the FBI’s Terrorist and Negotiations Program at Quantico along with advanced negotiations training at Northwestern University’s Police Traffic Institute.
Most consultants bring a different kind of negotiation background to a boardroom. Bobby learned his where the cost of getting it wrong was measured in lives, and that training applies directly to commercial and organizational situations where the stakes feel just as high to the people in the room.
Contract and commercial negotiation. Preparation, strategy, and direct negotiation support for agreements where the terms matter and the relationship has to survive them.
Conflict and dispute resolution. Internal disputes, stakeholder conflicts, and situations that have escalated past the point where the people involved can resolve them alone.
Business development negotiation. Partnership terms, vendor agreements, and the conversations that decide whether a deal is worth having.
Negotiation training for teams that negotiate regularly and want a repeatable approach rather than individual instinct.
QUALIFICATIONS
Credentials that hold up.
An expert witness is only as valuable as their credibility. These qualifications are grounded in three decades of real-world work rather than academic credentials alone, which is what stands up to rigorous cross-examination.
Full CV, case disclosure history, and fee schedule available on request following initial contact and conflict check.
26 years with the Newport News Police Department, retired Master Police Officer. Police crisis negotiator 1981–2000.
National expert witness in community and school litigation cases, 2018 to present.
School Safety and Discipline Specialist, Virginia Department of Education. Appointed to the Virginia Governor’s Task Force on Student Safety.
Author of six books including the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller No Colors.
FBI Terrorist and Negotiations Program, Quantico. Northwestern University Police Traffic Institute, Advanced Negotiations.
ATTORNEY INQUIRIES
Direct. Confidential. Professional.
If you’re evaluating The Kipper Group as an expert witness for an active case, reach out directly. Please include a brief case summary, jurisdiction, and preferred follow-up method. We typically respond within one business day.
Evaluating an expert for an active case?
Send a brief case summary and jurisdiction. All inquiries are confidential and we respond within one business day.