Management pioneer Peter Drucker, who died in November at age 95, is credited with foreseeing the potential influence of “knowledge workers” on the success of large industrial organizations.

Drucker believed that harnessing the talents of experts would in time become required as an approach to effective management.

While executives and entrepreneurs have been slow to grasp the concept, litigators are leading the way through use of global talent in the selection of expert witnesses.

“Litigators turned theory into practice in the area of expert witness selection,” said Russ Rosenzweig, a co-founder of Chicago-based Round Table Group. The organization of lawyers and business leaders provides clients access to experts in all fields.

While expert witnesses can make the difference in complex litigation, attorneys often rely on what Drucker would call “industrial age” ways of locating them.

Typical ad hoc approaches include asking around the office, cold-calling academics, and relying on experts used in the past or suggested by clients.

The Internet has made things worse, Rosenzweig points out. “Google and the profuse ‘expert directories' on the Web have only led to information overload,” he said. “Attorneys simply don't have the time to flail about in the dark trying to find unbiased, non-conflicted expertise.”

Round Table Group was established in 1994 to actualize Drucker's “knowledge worker” vision in the expert witness context.

“It takes lawyers to understand the nuances of an attorney's expert needs,” said Michael Stern, an attorney who helps litigators locate experts.

“Firms such as Round Table Group will use rigorous methodologies, relationships with numerous firms, and proprietary databases to quickly find unbiased expertise,” he said.

An advocate of the organization's services since 1995 is Kimball R. Anderson of Winston & Strawn, Chicago. “They have the department chairs, the Nobel Prize winners, the absolute cream of the crop,” he said.

“You turn to the Round Table Group if you want someone with gold-plated academic credentials,” said Anderson, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers.

Thomas F. Sax, of counsel to Pedersen & Houpt, Chicago, agrees. “Round Table Group has consistently identified highly qualified and motivated experts on subject matter ranging from common to arcane,” he said.

The organization was named recently by Inc. Magazine to its “Inc. 500” list of the fastest growing private companies for the third year in a row.

For more information, contact Rosen-zweig at (312) 280-1930 or RussR@roundtablegroup.com, or visit the Web site, www.roundtablegroup.com.