Alan W. Newman, MD, LFAPA
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Alan W. Newman, MD, LFAPA is one of the leading forensic psychiatrists in the United States. He has served as an expert witness in various suicide-related cases, including emergency suicide assessments, inpatient management (such as ligature risks and safety precautions), inpatient suicides, suicide risk management in dual diagnosis settings, and post-discharge suicides. His expertise extends to other psychiatric hospitalization issues, including diagnosis, treatment, seclusion, restraint, and elopement concerns. Dr. Newman’s forensic experience includes psychopharmacology, violence risk assessment, malingering, criminal and civil competencies, criminal responsibility, involuntary medication administration (including Sell hearings), and conditional release assessments.
With extensive leadership experience in academic medical centers, Dr. Newman has a deep understanding of hospital policies and processes for managing patient safety in inpatient and emergency settings. He has participated in numerous root cause analyses of adverse hospital events and has expertise in institutional processes for addressing hospital safety concerns.
Dr. Newman previously chaired the Psychiatry Department at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco, where he also served as Residency Training Director and provided direct patient care. He formerly served on the board of San Francisco Suicide Prevention, the nation’s oldest suicide prevention agency.
Passionate about medical education, Dr. Newman has been educating forensic psychiatrists for over 20 years. He is a Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, focusing on the legal regulation of psychiatry. He formerly directed forensic psychiatry fellowships at Tulane University and Georgetown University and was honored as the “Best Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program” by the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in 2004. Many of his former trainees now hold leadership roles in mental health systems nationwide.
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Dr. Newman earned his medical degree and completed his residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In 1998, he completed a forensic neuropsychiatry fellowship at Tulane University. His training honors include the Sol Ginsburg Fellowship from the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry and the Jonas Rappeport Fellowship from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He also received the 2007 Daniel X. Freedman Fellowship from the American Psychiatric Foundation, serving on the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, contributing to legislation on patient privacy, opioid dependence treatment, and mental health insurance parity.
Dr. Newman began his career at the Arkansas State Hospital, where he restructured statewide evaluations of criminal responsibility and competency. He led a task force that successfully overhauled the statutory framework for psychiatric evaluations in Arkansas. He later returned to Tulane, where he spent six years as medical director of three locked forensic inpatient units, dealing with criminal competencies, insanity defense evaluations, sex-offender assessments, involuntary medication administration, and patient risk assessments for less restrictive environments. In 2005, Dr. Newman transitioned to non-forensic clinical work as Medical Director of Inpatient Psychiatry at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital, where he also served as Director of Residency Training. During his nine years at Georgetown, he honed his expertise in suicide assessment in emergency room settings, as well as the management and discharge of patients from hospital units.
Dr. Newman has been providing expert consulting, reports, and testimony for Park Dietz & Associates clients since 2014. He has performed expert work in over 15 states, federal and military courts, and the District of Columbia. He specializes in Suicide Risk Assessment, Hospital Safety, and Psychiatric Issues in Criminal Cases. A fellowship-trained forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Newman holds Board Certifications in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, with initial certification in 1999 and recertifications in 2009 and 2019.
- Forensic Psychiatry
- Jail Suicide
- Malingering
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Psychiatry
- Psychopharmacology
- Sanity/Competency to Stand Trial
- Suicide
- Wrongful Death
- Q: Please list your professional accreditations, degrees, licenses, and certificates granted:
- A:
• Board Certified in Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
• Board Certified in Forensic Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
• Medical License: California
- Q: Please list your affiliations or memberships in any professional and/or industry organizations:
- A:
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
• American Association of Suicidology
• Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry
- Q: Please list any teaching or speaking experience you have had, including subject matter:
- A:
Dr. Newman has over 25 years of experience teaching at medical schools, academic medical centers, and professional organizations. This includes participation in over 25 formal academic courses, 47 presentations at national or international meetings, 40 presentations at local or regional meetings, and 40 additional invited presentations. Dr. Newman has directed numerous professional training meetings or programs for legal medicine and psychology professionals. Currently, Dr. Newman co-directs a year-long course on the legal regulation of psychiatry for forensic psychiatry fellows from the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Newman lectures extensively on forensic issues, with a focus on topics related to political violence, coercive persuasion, collective panics, and fringe groups, including the sovereign citizen movement, incels, and QAnon. Dr. Newman has published articles and book chapters on a variety of forensic psychiatric topics, including the insanity defense, cyberstalking, the use of hypnosis by police, the admissibility of hypnotically refreshed testimony, and the treatment of stalking victims.
Academic Appointments
• Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco (2018–present)
• California Pacific Medical Center, Director of Residency Training (2014–2021)
• Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth (2017–2021)
• Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Georgetown University School of Medicine (2007–2014)
Residency Training Director; Forensic Fellowship Program Director
• Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Tulane University School of Medicine (1999–2005)
Forensic Fellowship Program Director; Director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry
• Instructor of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (1998–1999)
• Adjunct Faculty, University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law (1996–1999)
- Q: Have any of your accreditations ever been investigated, suspended or removed? (if yes, explain)
- A: No
- Q: On how many occasions have you been retained as an expert?
- A: Over 175
- Q: For what area(s) of expertise have you been retained as an expert?
- A: Insanity defense, involuntary medication issues (including medications for competency to stand trial restoration / Sell issues), competency to stand trial, dangerousness risk assessment, medication management, psychiatric diagnosis, medical malpractice, hospital safety issues, health system policies, public hospital policies, psychological autopsy / equivocal death analysis, training of resident physicians, electronic medical records / health information technology, training of medical students, sex offender assessment and management, malingering assessment, PTSD and trauma-related disorders, suicide methods, suicide risk assessment standards, emergency evaluation of psychiatric patients, medication side effects.
- Q: In what percentage of your cases were you retained by the plaintiff?
- A: 54%
- Q: In what percentage of your cases were you retained by the defendant?
- A: 46%
- Q: On how many occasions have you had your deposition taken?
- A: 15
- Q: When was the last time you had your deposition taken?
- A: 2024
- Q: On how many occasions have you been qualified by a court to give expert testimony?
- A: Over 100
- Q: On how many occasions have you testified as an expert in court or before an arbitrator?
- A: Over 100
- Q: For how many years have you worked with the legal industry as an expert?
- A: 26 years
- Q: What services do you offer? (E.g.: consulting, testing, reports, site inspections etc.)
- A: Consultations, Evaluations, Reports, Testimony, Second Opinions, Policy Review, Inpatient Psychiatric Unit Site Inspections
- Q: What is your hourly rate to consult with an attorney?
- A: Hourly rates are the same for all activities and are available on request.
- Q: What is your hourly rate to review documents?
- A: Hourly rates are the same for all activities and are available on request.
- Q: What is your hourly rate to provide deposition testimony?
- A: Hourly rates are the same for all activities and are available on request.
- Q: What is your hourly rate to provide testimony at trial?
- A: Hourly rates are the same for all activities and are available on request.
- Q: Please list any fees other than those stated above (E.g.: travel expenses, copy fees, etc.)
- A: Travel expenses and other expenses specified in the engagement letter or contract.
Mr. Searcy L. “Skip” Simpson Jr.
Law Offices of Skip Simpson
2591 Dallas Pkwy Ste 300
Frisco, TX 75034-8563
(214) 618-8222
ssimpson@skipsimpson.com
Daniel M. Guzynski
State of Montana, Office of the Attorney General
215 North Sanders
PO Box 201401
Helena, MT 59620-1401
(406) 444-2026
DGuzynski@mt.gov
Lara Roetzel
Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office
300 Kansas City St
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 394-2191
larar@pennco.org
Additional references available upon request