| Our staff and experts have worked on class certification, liability, and damages issues in antitrust and competition matters in a range of industries, including technology, financial institutions, agriculture, telecommunications, transportation, and pharmaceuticals. | We have also consulted to the parties and agencies in merger matters involving horizontal and vertical issues.
We also have experience with cases at the intersection of antitrust with intellectual property and matters involving labor and financial markets. |
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Lesley Chiou
Laurence de Rycke Professor of Economics,
Occidental College
Lesley Chiou addresses the antitrust, privacy, and copyright implications of search engine and social media business practices. An expert in the economics of the internet, Professor Chiou focuses on consumer behavior, firm competition, and implications for government regulation of online markets. In these contexts, she has addressed vertical integration in search markets, content aggregation by platforms, the use of trademarks in online search, and the effects of digital advertising on consumer behavior.
Professor Chiou applies her econometric expertise to address various issues related to frictionless commerce, such as bidding behavior in internet auctions, the impact of paywalls on demand for online news, and consumer responses to pricing changes. In addition, Professor Chiou has analyzed competition between online and offline firms. Her industry expertise includes arts and media, consumer goods, and retail.
Professor Chiou presents her research in governmental and academic settings. She has spoken at the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission on topics related to competition in digital and print advertising markets. She has also participated in panels and presented her work at leading universities and conferences in the United States and Europe.
Professor Chiou’s papers have been published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy; the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; Marketing Science; and the Journal of Econometrics. She has coauthored working papers on search engines and data retention; how advertising on social networks can disseminate fake news; and internet access and inequality, among other topics.
At Occidental College, Professor Chiou teaches courses in econometrics and industrial organization. She has held visiting academic positions at UCLA and Boston University.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Celeste C. Saravia
Vice President
Celeste Saravia provides economic and statistical consulting, analysis, and expert testimony in complex business litigation. Dr. Saravia specializes in class certification, liability, and damages issues arising in antitrust and regulatory matters. She has particular expertise in the economics of distribution and franchising, vertical restraints, and other exclusionary conduct. She has worked on matters across a range of industries, including information technology, medical devices, aviation, energy, telecommunications, and media. Who’s Who Legal has recognized her as a leading competition economist.
Antitrust and competition
As an expert witness, Dr. Saravia has provided testimony on damages and liability issues in multiple antitrust cases. She testified at trial on liability issues in an alleged monopolization case, J&M Distributing Inc. v. Hearth and Home Technologies Inc. and Magnotti & Sons Inc. In addition, Dr. Saravia has submitted reports and provided deposition testimony in cases involving allegations of price fixing and exclusionary conduct, including an anticompetitive bundling case, Inline Packaging LLC v. Graphic Packaging International Inc.
As a consultant, Dr. Saravia has addressed class certification issues in numerous high-profile antitrust cases, including In re Flash Memory Antitrust Litigation, and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System v. Hillenbrand Industries. She has also analyzed competitive effects issues in cases such as American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. v. Visa USA Inc. et al. and Thales Avionics Inc. v. Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation.
Dr. Saravia has significant experience conducting damages analyses in antitrust and competition cases, notably in a matter involving alleged anticompetitive bundling and exclusive contracts by a security technology vendor.
Dr. Saravia is experienced at consulting for the parties and agencies in mergers, as well as other antitrust regulatory investigations in the U.S. and abroad. She has analyzed competitive effects in a number of prominent proposed mergers, such as Sysco–US Foods and Thoratec–Heartware.
Energy and commodities
Dr. Saravia has developed analytical and statistical models to examine the competitiveness of deregulated electricity markets and modeled the competitive effects of a proposed merger of two electricity firms. In a matter related to an alleged monopsony by the largest purchaser of a natural resource, she provided a preliminary injunction analysis and addressed class certification, liability, and damages issues.
Intellectual property
Dr. Saravia has addressed general damages and intellectual property issues in a variety of matters. These cases include Verizon Services Corp. et al. v. Cox Fibernet Virginia Inc. et al., where she analyzed reasonable royalty rates, lost profits, and price erosion due to patent infringement. She also addressed reasonable royalty rates due to patent infringement in Brandeis University and GFA Brands, Inc. v. Keebler Co. et al. Dr. Saravia analyzed class certification, liability, and damages related to a breach of contract dispute in the hospitality industry.
Dr. Saravia currently serves as a vice chair of the Pricing Conduct Committee of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section. She is a frequent speaker on competition issues, and also publishes on related topics. In 2016, Dr. Saravia won an Antitrust Writing Award from Concurrences for her coauthored article, “Analyzing Incentives and Liability in ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Conspiracies.” She has published research in Global Competition Review, including “Horizontal Merger Guidelines and Market Definition in Monopolization Cases” and “Economics of Antitrust: The Current State of Law and Economics on Bundled Discounts.”
Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Saravia worked at the University of California Energy Institute.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Justin McCrary
Paul J. Evanson Professor of Law,
Columbia Law School;
Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Research
Justin McCrary is an expert on statistical methods and economic modeling at the intersection of law and economics. Professor McCrary has testified on issues related to class certification, antitrust, labor, and statistics. His experience covers a range of industries and markets, including healthcare, life sciences, labor, telecommunications, high tech, and retail.
Class certification
Professor McCrary provided testimony in two seminal no-poach litigation matters involving the McDonald’s and Jimmy John’s franchises. In both matters, he analyzed the potential procompetitive benefits of the challenged clauses and opined on issues of class certification. Class certification was denied in both cases, with both U.S. district court judges relying on Professor McCrary’s analyses in their opinions.
Professor McCrary has testified on class certification issues in a high-profile gender discrimination case focused on pay and promotion outcomes at a large U.S. retailer. He has also filed reports on class certification issues in false advertising, product liability, and breach of contract matters.
Antitrust
Professor McCrary has extensive experience as an expert in antitrust cases. In a significant matter in a high-tech industry, he addressed allegations of conspiracy to fix prices, as well as analyzed and rebutted an opposing expert’s damages model. He has analyzed damages resulting from alleged collusion among pharmacies in South America. In AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile, Professor McCrary served as a consulting expert for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Statistical methods and analysis
An authority on high-performance computing and statistical techniques, Professor McCrary has testified at deposition on sampling, probability theory, and statistical methods. His experience includes multiple mortgage-backed securities and insider trading matters. He has also examined the statistical evidence for alleged overbilling of Medicare by healthcare providers in both government audit and False Claim Act matters.
Research and teaching
Professor McCrary has published research on econometric methods for measuring damages in antitrust litigation. In addition, his scholarship covers a wide range of topics, including employment discrimination, high-frequency trading, financial market structure, and monetary policy. A prolific author and co-author, his work has appeared in leading journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Professor McCrary is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Prior to joining Columbia University, Professor McCrary taught at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the founding director of the UC Berkeley Social Sciences Data Laboratory, or “D-Lab,” which focuses on emerging big data techniques in social science research.
Antitrust and Competition Capabilities
Our experience in matters involving allegations of anticompetitive horizontal conduct includes cases in which plaintiffs alleged price fixing, agreements to allocate territories or customers, or group boycotts. We have worked on major cases for the joint defense and for individual clients including recent cases involving labor markets, payment cards, energy, pharmaceuticals, financial instruments, and auto parts. In these and other assignments, we have assessed the economic incentives of the alleged participants, tested hypotheses that distinguish competitive from collusive behavior, and assessed the likelihood and quantum of damages.
We have analyzed claims of monopolization, tying, exclusive dealing, and anticompetitive pricing practices, such as loyalty or volume discounts and bundled rebates. We have assessed whether these practices can be attributed to competition among firms, are the result of hard bargaining between buyers and sellers, and have efficiencies that outweigh any potential harm to competition. Our recent experience includes cases involving high-technology products and services, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance.
Cornerstone Research has worked on many direct and indirect purchaser class certification matters. Our case experience and analytical breadth enables us to meet the changing demand for rigorous empirical and conceptual assessment of both the questions of common impact and common proof and of the merits issues that bear on those questions. Recently, we have assisted counsel in antitrust matters involving mobile devices, pharmaceuticals, and employment practices.
We have analyzed the potential competitive effects of horizontal and vertical mergers in the context of government investigations and private litigation in the United States and Europe. We apply economic theory and quantitative economic methods to define relevant markets, identify close competitors, determine competitive interactions, analyze potential price impacts and potential for foreclosure, and assess whether there are efficiencies associated with the proposed collaboration.
Cornerstone Research experts have testified on matters involving failing firm defenses and exiting assets arguments in a number of industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology. Our experts have assisted antitrust authorities in evaluating the merits of failing firm claims and consulted to merging parties arguing the failing firm defense affirmatively. Assessing failing firm arguments from both the enforcement agencies’ and merging parties’ perspectives gives us distinct insight into the rigorous demands of this defense.
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