Organizational and Legal Consultation
Dr. Andrew B. Klafter provides expert-witness consultation for attorneys and organizational consultation for professional institutions, schools, communal organizations, and training institutes facing complex clinical, ethical, governance, organizational, and leadership challenges. He has served as a consultant for counsel representing both plaintiffs and defendants and has extensive experience working with non-profit boards and professional organizations.
Expert Witness Consultation
Dr. Klafter serves as a psychiatric expert witness in litigation involving questions of psychiatric diagnosis, standards of care, professional responsibility, and the psychological effects of injury, trauma, and family disruption in legal proceedings. His forensic work includes record review, case conceptualization, expert reports, deposition preparation, and courtroom testimony.
Areas of consultation include:
psychiatric malpractice and standards of care
mental competency and capacity
personal injury and psychological damages
treatment-related complications and adverse outcomes
guardianship and capacity determinations
parenting fitness and custody disputes
He has served as a consultant for attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants.
Rabbinical Court Consultation (Batei Din)
Dr. Klafter also serves as an expert witness for Rabbinical Courts (Batei Din) in Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Israel. He has experience working within both civil and religious legal frameworks in cases involving family conflict, custody disputes, mental health concerns, and questions of professional responsibility arising within religious communities.
His expertise as a forensic mental health evaluator and familiarity with rabbinical court procedure allows him to assist rabbinical courts and counsel in matters where psychological expertise and sensitivity to religious context are both required. A frequent area of consultation for Rabbinical Courts involves questions of mental competency, because of their central role in Jewish legal matters related to marriage, divorce, religious conversion, will preparation and inheritance disputes, and other civil matters in which financial decisions are challenged on the basis of decision-making capacity. These consultations often involve questions about a person’s capacity to participate meaningfully in religious legal proceedings or to make binding personal or financial decisions under Jewish law.
Organizational and Governance Consultation
Organizations and institutions are complex systems that regularly encounter periods of transition, conflict, and uncertainty. Leadership groups are often asked to make decisions in situations involving competing values, changing institutional needs, or tensions within boards, committees, or professional teams.
Sometimes, an organization discovers that its mission or purpose is no longer needed in the same way it was when the organization was founded. In other situations, longstanding structures or expectations may no longer function as they once did, or divisions may emerge between leadership and the communities the organization serves. Consultation can help organizations think more clearly about these challenges and identify constructive paths forward.
Dr. Klafter provides consultation to organizations seeking assistance in understanding and addressing these kinds of problems. His work in this area draws on his experience as Director of the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute and as Governance Chairman of the NEFESH International Network of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, as well as his broader experience teaching psychotherapists and working with professional organizations. He has also received formal training in board governance and leadership for non-profit organizations, and has served as a board officer for numerous communal, educational, and professional organizations.
Organizational consultation may be helpful in situations involving:
conflict within leadership teams or governing boards
polarization or divisions within organizations
role confusion within committees or administrative structures
institutional responses to professional or ethical concerns
tensions between organizational mission and evolving institutional needs
alienation between leadership and organizational membership or constituency
transitions in leadership or organizational structure
reconsideration of organizational purpose and mission
Consultation Process
Organizational consultation typically begins with a preliminary video conference lasting approximately two hours. This meeting provides an opportunity to clarify the nature of the concerns facing the organization and to determine whether consultation is likely to be helpful.
If consultation proceeds, a second meeting is usually scheduled with organizational leadership in order to develop a clearer understanding of the institutional structure, the concerns being addressed, and the goals of the consultation process. At that point, recommendations can be made regarding next steps, which may include additional meetings, interviews, or on-site visits as appropriate.
The scope and structure of consultation are determined collaboratively based on the needs of the organization.