Morrow & Hensel Consulting

Litigation
Alaska Native cultures and communities

Educational materials development

WHAT WE DO

Qualified in Alaska Superior Court as expert witnesses on Alaska Native cultures and languages for more than 20 years, Phyllis Morrow and Chase Hensel are Ph.D. cultural and linguistic anthropologists with research experience throughout Alaska and professional resources extending to a wide variety of other cultural traditions.

Litigation specialties:

Experience with both plaintiff and defense, typically as expert witnesses on the plantiff side and as members of the legal team on the defense side.

Trials and proceedings in Alaska regional centers: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Kotzebue, Nome, Bethel, Dillingham

Mock trials and focus group research in urban and rural settings

Jury research, selection and voir dire assistance

Establishing trial themes

Structuring effective arguments

Researching community and cultural information

Case background research

Cultural and sociolinguistic patterns and practices relevant to proceedings

RS 2477 cases

Alaska Native specialties:

Alaska Native cultures and communities: language; kinship and social obligation; dispute resolution; concepts of culpability/innocence; restitution; cultural change

Corporate, tribal and rural government practices

Dynamics of for-profit and non-profit corporations

Historical, political and social dynamics between local communities, among Alaska Native groups and between local and non-local entities

Educational materials development:

Language and cultural curricula and materials (K-12; College) – Yup’ik, Alutiiq, English

HOW WE CAN HELP YOU WIN

Community profiles and background (culture, history, population diversity; comparable communities; changes of venue)

Community Surveys (to determine important juror variables and possible proxy markers)

Jury Questionnaires (research; preparation; interviewing and interpreting jury questionnaires, including reactions to fundamental issues of the case and the identification of new issues for further research)

Jury selection (jury pool research and juror selection strategies; developing thematically-oriented voir dire questions; suggestions for achieving successful cause challenges; issues relevant to specific jurors)

Cultural issues pertaining to Alaska Natives (general cultural information and historic background; traditional practices and world views; variation in contemporary practices, life-ways and world views; arguments effective in particular cultural settings; cultural responses to corporate, tribal and rural government practices and processes)

Sociolinguistic issues pertaining to rural and/or Alaska Native juries and witnesses (paralinguistic issues such as pause length, eye contact, gestures, use of silence; issues of coercion/consent)

Language as pertains to rural and/or Alaska Native juries and witnesses (general knowledge of Alaska Native languages and dialects of English spoken in rural communities; analysis of video, audio and transcribed testimony; helping the legal team to communicate effectively in rural/Alaska Native settings)

Opening and Closing Statements (assisting with opening statements and closing arguments, e.g., culturally effective arguments, linguistic and socio-linguistic issues such as jargon and pacing, and overall credibility)

Advice and assistance on trial details (how to pay jury questionnaire interviewees in rural communities; where to get contemporary ethnographic or historic photographs, etc.)

Locating other experts (if we lack direct expertise in a particular community or topic, we can likely find an appropriate and effective expert.)

WHO WE ARE

Phyllis Morrow is a social/cultural and linguistic anthropologist with over 35 years of research experience in Alaska. She has conducted National Science Foundation funded research on the legal system in rural Alaska, centering on cross-cultural issues in jury selection and trial testimony. Dr. Morrow received her A.B. from Harvard and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is an Emerita Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Phyllis Morrow C.V.

Chase Hensel is a social/cultural and linguistic anthropologist with over 35 years of research experience in Alaska. He has worked with trial teams in cases in urban and rural Alaska, from Barrow to Dillingham. His testimony was cited extensively in Judge Torrisi’s decision on the constitutional challenge to Alaska’s Official English Initiative. A retired Associate Professor of Anthropology (University of Alaska Fairbanks) his education includes a B.A. from Cornell University, M.A. from UAF and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley.

Chase Hensel C.V.