Nicole Mills has analyzed the decision-making process of jurors, judges, and arbitrators in hundreds of cases nationwide. Her experience over eight years extends to all types of litigation, including product liability, negligence, construction, fraud, insurance, pharmaceuticals, class actions lawsuits, contract disputes, intellectual property cases, criminal litigation, labor and employment matters, asbestos and talc litigation, and personal injury and wrongful death cases. Nicole has experience in both federal and state venues both large and small. She is an expert in conducting mock trials, focus groups, mock arbitrations, and shadow juries (including in-court trial monitoring and interviewing of shadow jurors). Actively involved in cases that make it to trial and to verdict, she has also conducted hundreds of post-trial interviews with jurors across the country.
At Fillichio & Hastings, Nicole engages with surrogate jurors in jury research projects (in person and online) and analyzes both qualitative and quantitative data. She has been involved in every facet of jury selection, from in-court assistance to developing voir dire strategy, drafting, reviewing and assessing juror questionnaires and conducting social media research and analyzing and developing juror profiles. Nicole has been an innovator in conducting all types of mock trials, focus groups, witness testing studies and bench trial and arbitration studies. She is skilled in survey design and has developed, implemented, and analyzed nationwide surveys assessing juror attitudes throughout the COVID-19 epidemic. Nicole is an expert in identifying juror attitudes in an effort to help counsel understand decision-making processes for and during trial and in preparation for future litigation.
Prior to joining Fillichio & Hastings, Nicole was a Senior Research Analyst with DecisionQuest. She received her master’s degree from CSU San Marcos where her research focused on experimental psychology. Specifically, she examined the factors that influenced eyewitness identification, working memory, and judgment and decision-making. Nicole also conducted research with several academic laboratories, including The Center for the Mind and Brain and The Social Neuroscience & Affective Processes Lab where she received training in research management, data collection, statistical analysis, and the creation of research materials.
Education
- California State University San Marcos, M.A., Experimental Psychology, Emphasis in Cognitive Psychology
- University of California Davis, B.S. Psychology, Minor in Anthropology
Article Publications and Contributions
- “Anchoring and the Undeniable Impact on Jurors” by Susan G. Fillichio and Steve Son, February 2024.
- “In Science We Trust? Juror Views in the Wake of the Pandemic” by Susan Fillichio, November 2021
- “Jury Selection a Year After the Pandemic: Thinking Outside the Box” prepared for DRI Talc Litigation Seminar, Susan G. Fillichio, June 2021.
- “Bilingual witnesses are more susceptible to the misinformation effect in their less proficient language” Current Psychology, 39, 673-680, by Dustin Calvillo and Nicole Mills, 2020