LinkedIn profile tips for expert witnesses: how to set up each section

Key LinkedIn profile tips for expert witnesses: state your discipline and expert witness work clearly in the headline; ensure every qualification and date matches exactly what’s on your CV; don’t include any information about retaining side or case results; and review the profile every quarter. It’s a public record that opposing counsel will read.

This is a guide for expert witnesses setting up LinkedIn for the first time or tidying up an existing profile. It explains each element of the profile in plain terms, lays out the nine steps to setting up your profile in order, and finishes with a check you can run against your CV before going live.

What is a LinkedIn profile and why does it matter for an expert witness?

A LinkedIn profile is your public profile on LinkedIn (the professional networking site). It’s essentially your work history, qualifications, and activity. It’s important because opposing counsel may well look at it in conjunction with your CV. A retaining attorney may use it to check your background. The other side may review it line by line against your CV.

Any difference between the two could raise questions about your accuracy, even if it started as a simple typing error. That’s why these tips focus on consistency first and presentation second.

Will a LinkedIn profile help you get retained?

Whatever the channel data may show, an accurate profile can confirm your background to an attorney who already has your name from a referral or a directory. That’s the profile’s primary function in this scenario.

What are the components of a LinkedIn profile?

A LinkedIn profile is made up of sections, each with its own set of fields to populate. The table below explains each section in plain terms with the Goldentell rule of thumb for expert witnesses.

Section	What it is	Expert witness rule of thumb
Photo and banner	Your headshot, and the wide image behind it	Recent, professional headshot. Banner text gets the same review as the rest of the profile.
Headline	The short line under your name, shown with your name across LinkedIn	Your discipline and that you serve as an expert witness. No superlatives, no retaining side.
About	A free-text summary below your headline	Adapted from your approved bio so the facts match.
Featured	Items you pin to your profile, such as posts, links, or documents	Your CV, your website, and published work already reviewed.
Experience and Education	Your roles, employers, dates, and degrees	Identical to your CV, including months and titles.
Licenses and certifications	Credentials, with issuing body and dates	Exactly as they stand, with lapsed or in-progress status marked.
Skills and endorsements	Skills you list, and connections who confirm them	Skills tied to your discipline. Hide endorsements that don’t fit.
Recommendations	Written statements other members post about your work	Goldentell recommends against recommendations from attorneys.

How to optimize your LinkedIn Profile

About me section

Start with the headline and the About section (the sections that people see first). Go through the steps below in order whether you’re creating a new profile or editing an existing one.

1. Gather your source documents first

Before you type anything, open up your CV, your testimony list, and your bio (the one you use on your website and on your directory listings). Every fact you put on LinkedIn has to come from one of those three documents. It has to be traceable to one of those. You cannot just rely on memory.

2. Write a headline that states your discipline and your expert witness work

Your headline should state what you do and that you are an expert witness in plain terms. Be specific so the right lawyers can find you, and you don’t have to go back and defend a claim.

Headline examples (hypothetical):

• Emergency physician | Expert witness in emergency medicine
• Licensed structural engineer (PE) | Expert witness in structural failure analysis
• Certified public accountant (CPA) | Expert witness in forensic accounting and damages

Don’t use superlatives such as ‘leading’ and don’t refer to any plaintiff or defense work. If you have a board certification or license, then use the exact wording as on your CV.

3. Decide whether expert work or your primary practice leads

Whether your expert witness work or your clinical/technical work comes first is a positioning call rather than a rule. It’s a decision you have to make based on your own practice mix and how you want the lawyers to find you. Once you’ve made that decision, then be consistent with it on your website and in your directory listings so that all three are in the same order.

4. Write the About section from your approved bio

The LinkedIn ‘About’ section is your free text summary beneath your headline. Take your existing bio from your website and directory profiles and adapt it for that section. You can use first or third person; it’s purely a stylistic choice, and neither has any defensibility value.

A four-part structure works for most expert witnesses:

1. Your discipline and your present role.
2. The subjects you’re going to be reviewing and testifying about in general terms.
3. A credential summary that matches your CV.
4. Where lawyers can find your CV or contact you.

Example (hypothetical): “Jane Example, MD is a board-certified emergency physician with over 10 years’ experience in hospital EDs. She reviews issues relating to ED assessment, triage, and discharge. CV and contact details available at [website].”

How do you populate the experience, credentials, and the ‘Featured’ section?

Fill in the sections by copying from your CV rather than retyping, and select a small number of Featured items. Minor variations in dates or titles are trivial to introduce and trivial for the other side to pick up.

5. Enter experience, education, and credentials exactly as on your CV

Copy the titles, employers, and dates (including the month) from your CV. Flag any lapsed memberships as lapsed or remove them. Mark in-progress and honorary appointments as such. An overstated qualification is easy to verify and difficult to justify.

6. Describe experience without specific case counts

Describe your years of experience in general terms. Only include a specific case or testimony count if it can be traced to a source and is an exact match to your testimony list.

The reason is disclosure. In federal civil cases, FRCP (Federal Rule of Civil Procedure) 26(a)(2)(B) generally requires the written report of a retained expert to list the other cases in which the expert has testified at trial or by deposition in the previous 4 years. A number on LinkedIn that doesn’t match that list creates a contradiction on the record. State rules vary, so check what applies in your jurisdiction.

7. Curate the Featured section

The LinkedIn ‘Featured’ section is a section on your profile where you can pin various items (posts, links, documents, etc.). This is where you’d pin your CV, your website, and any other published work that has already been reviewed. You wouldn’t pin client testimonials or anything with case-specific detail, as that could be seen as partial or as a breach of confidentiality. If you’re pinning a CV file, you’d replace it every time your CV changes.

How do you deal with recommendations and keep your profile up to date?

Treat your recommendations and endorsements as you would treat the text you write yourself. Then set a review schedule so that they’re all in order. Both of these are visible to anyone who looks at your profile.

8. Manage recommendations, endorsements, photo, and banner

A LinkedIn recommendation is a written statement from another member that they post on your profile about your work. An endorsement is a one-click ‘yes’ from a connection that you have the listed skill.

Goldentell advises against taking any recommendations from lawyers. A recommendation from your retained counsel (particularly one which is in praise of a result) is advocacy. If you have one, LinkedIn allows you to hide the recommendations you’ve received without deleting them 

Curate your skill endorsements so they are in line with your discipline and hide any that aren’t. Use a recent professional headshot, and run any banner text through the same review process as the rest of your profile.

9. Update your LinkedIn profile on a schedule and keep dated copies

Review your profile every quarter (alongside your website and directory listings). Do the same after a CV update, a new case type or jurisdiction, or any challenge to your testimony or credibility. Each review should be accompanied by a search of your own name.

Save a dated copy of each version when it goes live. LinkedIn’s ‘Save to PDF’ option (in the More/Resources menu on your profile) produces a resume-style export. A full-page browser print or screenshot will capture the sections that the export might miss. If a statement is ever in question, you have your own record of what it said and when.

How do you check your LinkedIn profile against your CV?

Compare the two field by field prior to the profile going live and again at each quarterly review. The Goldentell LinkedIn match check below details what to compare and what a mismatch typically looks like.

LinkedIn field	Compare against	What a mismatch looks like
Headline	CV title and website	Different specialty wording, or a credential the CV doesn’t show
Experience	CV appointments	Start or end dates that differ by months, or an outdated title
Licenses and certifications	CV credentials	A lapsed credential shown as current
Education	CV education	A degree or institution named differently
About	Approved bio	Case types or jurisdictions that aren’t on the CV
Featured	Current CV and website	An old CV file still pinned
Recommendations	Goldentell recommended practice	A recommendation that mentions a case result

When you come across a mismatch, determine which version is correct, amend the other, and record both the change and the date. To run the same check across your entire website and directory listings, use the Digital Presence Consistency Checklist.

What should expert witnesses avoid on LinkedIn?

Expert witnesses should completely avoid LinkedIn with respect to active and recent matters. General education in your field, comments on published work, and the like are low risk. Don’t do any of the following:

• Anything to do with an active or recent matter (even if anonymized) if the context would allow it to be identified.
• Commentary on a particular ruling, verdict or another expert’s evidence.
• Jokes or anything in the casual category that in any way damages your professional credibility.

During a live matter, avoid any new connections, likes, or comments that would involve counsel on either side. LinkedIn’s profile-viewing options also determine whether people see your name when you view their profile.

What are the common LinkedIn mistakes of expert witnesses?

Typical LinkedIn mistakes by expert witnesses include minor inconsistencies and content that existed before the expert work began. Look out for:

• A job title or date which is different from what’s on your CV.
• An old recommendation which refers to a case result.
• Endorsements for skills which have nothing to do with your discipline.
• A headline which implies you work for one side.
• A CV that’s been pinned in and is no longer current.

How Goldentell helps with LinkedIn for expert witnesses

At Goldentell, we offer LinkedIn marketing services for expert witnesses. We know your reputation is everything, and your LinkedIn needs to demonstrate your expertise, credibility, and experience without compromising your professional status.

Our services include

• LinkedIn profile optimization: We’ll help you create a professional profile that accurately reflects your skills, experience, and areas of expertise, while improving your visibility in relevant searches.
• Content strategy and creation: We produce informative, relevant content that will demonstrate your subject matter expertise and help establish your professional credibility.
• Ongoing LinkedIn management: We handle content planning, writing, scheduling, and publishing so you can maintain a consistent presence without extra work on your part.
• Personal and company page management: We’ll help you build a cohesive LinkedIn presence across your personal profile and your company page.

Our approach is to build a credible, discoverable professional profile that helps the lawyer understand your expertise and whether you may be the right expert for their case.

Frequently asked questions

Should expert witnesses be on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is optional for expert witnesses. An attorney researching you may be looking for a profile, so an accurate, consistent one will confirm what’s in your CV and on your website. If you do have a profile, then treat it as part of your public record. Review it quarterly, ensure it matches your CV, and keep a dated copy of each version.

Should my LinkedIn profile state which side I’m normally working for?

No. Take the retaining side completely off your profile, including the headline, the About section, and the banner. Saying you do plaintiff work or defense work, or implying any preference of that sort, suggests allegiance to one side and fatally undermines the impartiality for which you are retained. Just describe what you know and what you have done in the same terms as you would in your CV.

Can I take a LinkedIn recommendation from an attorney?

Goldentell would advise against it. A recommendation from your retaining counsel (particularly one which is in praise of the result) is going to read as advocacy and can be raised on cross-examination. If you already have one, LinkedIn allows you to hide it rather than delete it. A recommendation from a colleague in your field describing your professional work is less likely to be seen as advocacy.

Can people see when you view their LinkedIn profile?

Depending on your settings, yes. LinkedIn’s profile viewing options, under Settings & Privacy, control whether the people you view see your name and headline, limited profile details, or a private viewer label. If you would rather not appear in someone’s viewer list, such as counsel in an active matter, change the setting before you view their profile.

Should I connect with attorneys on LinkedIn?

Connecting with attorneys is ordinary professional networking. The exception is a live matter: during an active case, avoid new connections, likes, or comments involving counsel on either side. Keep a note of each matter’s status so you know when that pause applies, and resume normal networking once the matter closes.

Get in touch

If you’d like your profile reviewed alongside your CV, schedule a consultation with Goldentell.

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