Paula Rutledge

Medical Device Employment & Compensation Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Paula Rutledge is a medical device employment, executive recruiting, compensation, and earning-capacity expert with 40 years of MedTech industry experience. Her career includes 22 years in corporate commercial leadership and more than two decades directing retained executive and professional search engagements exclusively within the medical device industry. Corporate experience encompasses medical device sales, sales leadership, and commercial roles with Johnson & Johnson, Synthes, Zimmer Spine, and GE Healthcare. Since founding Legacy MEDSearch in 2005, Rutledge has directed searches and talent-advisory engagements for emerging, venture-backed, private-equity-backed, growth-stage, and established global medical device companies. Throughout her career, Rutledge has evaluated, recruited, and placed medical device professionals across executive leadership, sales, marketing, business development, clinical affairs, regulatory affairs, quality, engineering, research and development, and operations. This breadth of experience provides practical, market-based insight into compensation plans, incentive structures, candidate qualifications, hiring practices, career progression, executive marketability, workforce availability, and regional and national talent markets. Rutledge has provided expert testimony in two trial matters involving employment, compensation, and economic loss. One wrongful-death matter required an assessment of an early-career professional’s probable career progression, advancement opportunities, compensation growth, and future earning capacity. A separate commercial dispute addressed recruiting, workforce, compensation, and claimed lost-income issues following the termination of a medical device distribution relationship. Areas of expertise include the following: • Medical device recruiting practices, hiring standards, and candidate qualifications • Executive, professional, and medical sales compensation structures • Probable career trajectories, advancement opportunities, and future earning capacity • Employability, candidate marketability, and workforce availability • Sales-force recruitment, employee movement, and workforce transitions • Employment and recruiting issues arising from medical device distribution relationships and distributor disputes • Lost earnings and employment-related economic-loss claims are evaluated within the limits of recruiting, compensation, and medical device industry expertise. Participation in approximately 15 global medical device and MedTech investment conferences each year provides Rutledge with continuing exposure to industry leadership, executive movement, compensation trends, workforce demand, commercial models, emerging technologies, and company growth strategies. Conference organizers regularly invite Rutledge to speak, moderate panels, and contribute to discussions involving MedTech leadership, commercialization, executive recruiting, and talent strategy. Legacy MEDSearch has been named ten times across the Forbes America’s Best Executive and/or Professional Recruiting Firms lists since first appearing in 2019. The distinction is earned rather than purchased: recruiting firms cannot apply or pay for inclusion, and recognition is determined through independent peer survey research conducted by Statista for Forbes. Rutledge accepts assignments from both plaintiff and defense counsel. Available services include preliminary case consultation, document review, employment-market research, compensation analysis, expert reports, deposition testimony, and trial testimony.