Meet the team driving a new era in trial preparation. With award-winning trial consulting experience and visionary AI product leadership, we're passionate about helping trial lawyers anticipate juror behavior, refine their strategy, and maximize case value.
Meet Robert
Co-Founder & Jury and Trial Consultation Expert
Robert Hirschhorn is an attorney and nationally recognized expert in jury and trial consultation with more than four decades of courtroom experience. Since 1985, he has helped select juries that have returned tens of billions of dollars in verdicts across the country, including multiple billion-dollar outcomes. His recent work includes a $2.065 billion RoundUp verdict in Georgia (2025), a $109.5 million house explosion verdict (2025), and a $60 million Enfamil baby formula award (2024). Robert is a frequent legal commentator and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, Dateline NBC, 48 Hours, and Nightline. He lectures nationwide on the art and science of jury selection and has authored four books and numerous articles on trial strategy and jury behavior.
Meet Gaurav
Co-Founder & Product and Technology Executive
Gaurav Tiwari is a product and technology executive turned entrepreneur with deep experience building and scaling AI-driven platforms. He is the founder of The Waves, an AI-powered e-commerce platform transforming how consumers discover and purchase organically farmed wines from leading global winemakers.Prior to The Waves, Gaurav spent nearly a decade at Amazon, where he led teams across category management, technology, data science, and product development. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) and held operations leadership roles at Mars Inc. Gaurav holds engineering and business degrees from Penn State and The Wharton School.
Meet Swarup
Co-Founder & Product and Technology Innovator
Swarup Acharya is a product and technology leader with 25 years of experience across e-commerce, travel, and advertising. He began his career at Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent, where his advanced research in telecom and internet systems led to more than 25 U.S. and international patents.
Before co-founding VerdictHub, Swarup served as VP of Product at Nordstrom, leading the digital and in-store customer experience for Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack. He previously held senior leadership roles at Comcast, Altice, and Expedia. Swarup holds degrees from IIT Kharagpur, Brown University, and The Wharton School.
Co-Founder & Jury and Trial Consultation Expert
Robert Hirschhorn is an attorney and nationally recognized expert in jury and trial consultation with more than four decades of courtroom experience. Since 1985, he has helped select juries that have returned tens of billions of dollars in verdicts across the country, including multiple billion-dollar outcomes. His recent work includes a $2.065 billion RoundUp verdict in Georgia (2025), a $109.5 million house explosion verdict (2025), and a $60 million Enfamil baby formula award (2024). Robert is a frequent legal commentator and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, Dateline NBC, 48 Hours, and Nightline. He lectures nationwide on the art and science of jury selection and has authored four books and numerous articles on trial strategy and jury behavior.
Co-Founder & Product and Technology Executive
Gaurav Tiwari is a product and technology executive turned entrepreneur with deep experience building and scaling AI-driven platforms. He is the founder of The Waves, an AI-powered e-commerce platform transforming how consumers discover and purchase organically farmed wines from leading global winemakers.
Prior to The Waves, Gaurav spent nearly a decade at Amazon, where he led teams across category management, technology, data science, and product development. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant at Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) and held operations leadership roles at Mars Inc. Gaurav holds engineering and business degrees from Penn State and The Wharton School.
Co-Founder & Product and Technology Innovator
Swarup Acharya is a product and technology leader with 25 years of experience across e-commerce, travel, and advertising. He began his career at Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent, where his advanced research in telecom and internet systems led to more than 25 U.S. and international patents.
Before co-founding VerdictHub, Swarup served as VP of Product at Nordstrom, leading the digital and in-store customer experience for Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack. He previously held senior leadership roles at Comcast, Altice, and Expedia. Swarup holds degrees from IIT Kharagpur, Brown University, and The Wharton School.
Meet Mike
Head of Business Development
Mike is involved in all aspects of sales and account development for VerdictHub, including speaking, webinar and exhibiting engagements and working closely with legal associations across the country. He worked with Cathy E. Bennett and Associates for over 20 years and merged a lifelong passion for selling media and providing cutting edge legal services into a role at VerdictHub. Mike is a lifelong resident of Connecticut and enjoys the seasonality that the Nutmeg state delivers. If he's not skiing in the winter or boating in the summer, you'll find him spending time with his wife of 35 years, Linda, and their two adult daughters. He is also a proud graduate of Syracuse University (Go Orange!!).
Meet Troy
Senior Technical Account Executive
Troy is a physicist by education and innovator at heart. Whether it’s the gear he plays on stage while on tour or helping lawyers sharpen their edge, Troy has always been searching for the next big thing. Troy is excited to work with his dad, Robert, to make VerdictHub an essential part of every trial lawyer’s workflow.
Meet Emily
Director of Operations
Emily ensures quality, accuracy, and operational excellence across the VerdictHub's products and business functions. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Texas A&M University and a Master's in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas, and she began her career working with Robert Hirschhorn at Cathy Bennett & Associates in 2021. Emily is based in Dallas, Texas and lives with her significant other and beloved cat, Nora.
Meet Bella
Operations Manager
Bella oversees case intake and client management at VerdictHub. Prior to joining VerdictHub, she worked as a Policy Advocate on behalf of Downtown Los Angeles as well as a Paralegal in a boutique trial litigation firm. She is originally from Arlington, Virginia but is currently living in Dallas with her significant other.
Head of Business Development
Mike is involved in all aspects of sales and account development for VerdictHub, including speaking, webinar and exhibiting engagements and working closely with legal associations across the country. He worked with Cathy E. Bennett and Associates for over 20 years and merged a lifelong passion for selling media and providing cutting edge legal services into a role at VerdictHub. Mike is a lifelong resident of Connecticut and enjoys the seasonality that the Nutmeg state delivers. If he's not skiing in the winter or boating in the summer, you'll find him spending time with his wife of 35 years, Linda, and their two adult daughters. He is also a proud graduate of Syracuse University (Go Orange!!).
Senior Technical Account Executive
Troy is a physicist by education and innovator at heart. Whether it’s the gear he plays on stage while on tour or helping lawyers sharpen their edge, Troy has always been searching for the next big thing. Troy is excited to work with his dad, Robert, to make VerdictHub an essential part of every trial lawyer’s workflow.
Director of Operations
Emily ensures quality, accuracy, and operational excellence across the VerdictHub's products and business functions. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Texas A&M University and a Master's in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas, and she began her career working with Robert Hirschhorn at Cathy Bennett & Associates in 2021. Emily is based in Dallas, Texas and lives with her significant other and beloved cat, Nora.
Operations Manager
Bella oversees case intake and client management at VerdictHub. Prior to joining VerdictHub, she worked as a Policy Advocate on behalf of Downtown Los Angeles as well as a Paralegal in a boutique trial litigation firm. She is originally from Arlington, Virginia but is currently living in Dallas with her significant other.
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VerdictHub was built at the intersection of elite courtroom expertise and breakthrough AI. We are not just building software. We are scaling the high-touch intelligence of one of the world’s leading trial consultants into fast, accessible, and repeatable strategic insight for modern trial teams.
Our story begins in 1984, when trial lawyer Robert Hirschhorn hired jury consultant Cathy E. Bennett for what appeared to be an unwinnable case. With her guidance, Robert secured an improbable victory. Afterward, he told her, “You changed my life. I want to do what you do.” That moment launched a partnership that lasted until Cat’s passing in 1992.
At that crossroads, Robert chose not to return to practicing law, but to carry forward Cat’s pioneering work. Over the next four decades, he refined the art of jury selection and trial strategy, blending instinct, behavioral insight, and real-world experience to support trial teams nationwide.
In 2024, Al innovators and Wharton classmates Swarup and Gaurav saw an opportunity to bring this elite consulting model into the modern era. After reading Robert’s interview with Bloomberg Law on the future of AI in jury research, they reached out. Robert was skeptical. To test the technology, he shared anonymized survey data from past cases with known outcomes.
The results were striking. With only the survey inputs and venue data, the system generated insights that closely mirrored real-world verdicts and focus group results.
That breakthrough became VerdictHub — a fusion of four decades of jury consulting expertise with patent-pending AI technology. A new era of trial strategy, built for speed, scale, and higher-value outcomes.
Great Trial Lawyers Don't Guess. They VHS.™
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