The witness prep survival guide for CFEs

Congratulations, Ms. or Mr. CFE! You conducted an exhaustive examination of a defrauded business and identified a perpetrator who was later criminally charged with various felony-level financial crimes about 11 months after you submitted your examination. The criminal case has moseyed through the court system for another 22 months after charging, and settlement negotiations between the prosecution and the defense have come to naught. About three weeks before the trial, you receive a bouncing baby subpoena for a criminal trial appearance and three voicemails from a harried legal secretary asking to schedule a meeting between you and the prosecutor for — wait for it — WITNESS PREP.

No good deed goes unpunished.

For the uninitiated, witness prep (shorthand, of course, for witness preparation) is a standard practice in which civil and criminal trial attorneys meet with all the witnesses they've subpoenaed to testify in their cases. They review the cases and the witnesses' anticipated testimony, and ... do that, over and over and over again.