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Breanna Olson Rosales, PhD

Senior Jury Consultant Affiliate

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brosales@imslegal.com

+1 952 454 8355
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Expertise

Breanna Olson Rosales, PhD, is a senior jury consultant with IMS Legal Strategies who helps trial teams develop data-driven litigation strategies through jury research, jury selection, and witness preparation. Drawing upon more than a decade of experience in legal psychology and trial consulting, she partners with attorneys in complex civil and criminal matters, including commercial disputes, intellectual property, employment, civil rights, and catastrophic injury litigation, to translate behavioral science research into practical courtroom strategies. Her expertise includes mock trials, focus groups, juror attitude surveys, voir dire strategy, juror profiling, and witness preparation.

At IMS, Breanna leads and supports jury research programs designed to identify compelling case themes, assess case strengths and vulnerabilities, and inform litigation and trial strategy. She designs case-specific research methodologies and synthesizes qualitative and quantitative findings to identify juror attitudes, test competing case narratives, and develop actionable recommendations for trial teams throughout the litigation lifecycle. She also advises counsel on case themes and courtroom messaging, supports jury selection, and prepares fact and expert witnesses for deposition and trial.

Before joining IMS, Breanna served as a senior trial consultant with JuryScope, where she designed and led mock trials, focus groups, and large-scale survey research for high-stakes litigation. Earlier in her career, she worked as a change-of-venue analyst with Hamilton Zephyrhawke Trial Consulting and as a consultant to the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy on death penalty litigation strategy and voir dire approaches.

In addition to her trial consulting, Breanna serves as an instructor in the School of Interdisciplinary Forensics at Arizona State University, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in forensic and legal psychology. Her academic research focuses on juror decision-making, attorney impressions, deliberation dynamics, and bias in legal proceedings and has been presented at numerous national and international conferences in law and psychology. She is an active member of the American Society of Trial Consultants and the American Psychology-Law Society.

Breanna earned a PhD in law and psychology from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science in psychology and behavioral neuroscience from Centre College.

When she is not spending time with real, prospective, or mock jurors, Breanna can be found enjoying life in Minneapolis with her family—spending time on the lakes, with a book, or both; cheering on Minnesota sports teams; or staying on the move on rollerblades or a snowboard. She is an avid road-tripper and national park enthusiast, always looking for an excuse to explore a new corner of the country.

  • Senior Jury Consultant Affiliate, IMS Legal Strategies (2026-Present)
  • Senior Trial Consultant, JuryScope (2025-Present)
  • Trial Consultant, JuryScope (2021-2024)
  • Trial Consultant and Change of Venue Analyst, Hamilton Zephyrhawke Trial Consulting (2016-2019)
  • Capital Crisis Counsel Consultant, Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (2018-2019)
  • Instructor, School of Interdisciplinary Forensics, Arizona State University (2025-Present)

Select Presentations and Co-Authored Research

  • “Punishing Goliath: Biased Mock Juror Decision-Making Against Wealthy Defendants and Corporations,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2025)
  • “Examining the Impact of Different Types of Emotion and Expressor Race on Influence: Which Measure of Emotion Is Best?” Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, San Diego, CA (2024)
  • “Seen but Not Heard: The Effects of Race and Emotional Expression on Jurors’ Influence in Deliberation,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA (2024)
  • “A Systematic Review of the Moderating Effects of Deliberation,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA (2023)
  • “The Impact of Gruesome Photographs and Jury Instructions on Jury Deliberation,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA (2023)
  • “What Makes People Suspicious? Identifying Behavioral Predictors of Suspicion Toward 911 Callers,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, Denver, CO (2022)
  • “The Impact of Gruesome Photographs, Emotion-Awareness Jury Instructions, and Deliberation on Mock Juror Verdicts,” Law and Society Association Global Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal (2022)
  • “Jury Size and Verdict Decisions: How Many Mock Jurors Make a Mock Jury?” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA (2020)
  • “The Effects of Jury Size and Deliberation on Individual Perceptions of Trial Evidence,” American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA (2020)
  • “The Role of Prehabilitative vs. Disclosure-Promoting vs. Free Speech Language on Prospective Juror Honesty in High Pretrial Publicity Cases,” American Society of Trial Consultants Annual Conference, Fort Worth, TX (2018)
  • “Legal Authoritarianism and Need for Cognition Questions as Predictors of Guilty and Death Penalty Biases in Jurors: Sneaky Ways to Detect Bias in Voir Dire and Jury Surveys,” American Society of Trial Consultants Annual Conference, Chicago, IL (2017)

Graduate Scholarship

  • Rosales, B. O. (2025). The 30-Second Verdict: Evidence of the Predictive Validity of Jurors’ First Impressions of Attorneys (Doctoral dissertation). Arizona State University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
  • Rosales, B. O. (2024). Punishing Goliath: Biased Juror Decision-Making Against Wealthy Defendants and Corporations (Master’s thesis). Arizona State University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
  • PhD, Law and Psychology, Arizona State University
  • BS, Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Centre College
  • American Society of Trial Consultants (ASTC), Member
  • American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS), Member
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