Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Paul A. Gompers
Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration,
Harvard Business School,
Harvard University
Paul Gompers provides expert testimony in securities and valuation cases in a variety of industries. He has addressed issues of the valuation of public and private companies, loss causation, factors affecting public company securities prices, market efficiency, the custom and practice of venture capital and private equity organizations, as well as the terms and conditions of employment agreements at entrepreneurial firms.
Professor Gompers has served as an expert witness in high-profile cases. In Hsu et al. v. Puma Biotechnology Inc. et al., a rare securities class action trial, Professor Gompers testified on loss causation and opined that the plaintiff had failed to reliably quantify damages for the allegedly corrective disclosures.
In the first post-merger appraisal litigation of a public company to reach a decision in trial outside Delaware, the judge accepted Professor Gompers’s fair value analysis. Professor Gompers also rebutted the claims made by the dissenters’ experts.
Other high-profile cases include:
- Dahl et al. v. Bain Capital Partners LLC et al.
- IBEW Local 90 Pension Fund et al. v. Deutsche Bank AG et al.
- Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation et al.
- Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC
- Facebook Inc. IPO Securities and Derivative Litigation
Professor Gompers’s research focuses on the structure, governance, and performance of private equity funds; sources of financing, incentive design, and performance of private firms; and long-run performance evaluation for newly public companies. His work on private equity funds has examined the relationship between general partners and their portfolio companies, as well as the relationship between institutional investors and private equity fund managers. Additionally, Professor Gompers has examined the relationship of corporate governance and firm performance as well as the role that institutional investors play in public equity markets.
He was a director of research at the Harvard Business School for nine years, has served as faculty chair of the M.B.A. Elective Curriculum, and as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also has served as a consultant, board member, or advisor to numerous companies, investment banks, private equity funds, and venture capital firms.
Professor Gompers has coauthored several books and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed finance and economics journals. He is an associate editor and referee for a number of leading academic journals.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
René M. Stulz
Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics,
Director, Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics,
Fisher College of Business,
The Ohio State University
René Stulz is a leading finance expert, whose work focuses on corporate finance, risk management, derivatives, securities, financial institutions, and valuation. Professor Stulz has provided expert testimony in U.S. federal and state courts, U.S. and international arbitrations, the London High Court of Justice, and the Federal Court of Australia.
René Stulz’s findings have provided the foundation for favorable rulings in motion practice and on damages. His expert testimony played a key role in class certification and summary judgment in a number of high-profile matters, including In re BP p.l.c. Securities Litigation and In re Moody’s Corporation Securities Litigation.
He has testified in many securities class actions, as well as matters related to mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), bankruptcy, derivatives, cross-border transactions, alleged state discriminatory practices against investors, hedge fund and pension fund management, fixed-income securities, insurance contracts, taxes, and breach of contract allegations.
Professor Stulz was president of the American Finance Association, edited the Journal of Finance, and co-edited the Journal of Financial Economics. He wrote the textbook Risk Management and Derivatives, has edited several books, and has published more than one hundred papers in finance and economics journals. The Journal of Applied Corporate Finance dedicated its winter 2022 issue to Professor Stulz’s research, republishing his notable articles on globalization, corporate finance, and risk management.
Thomson Reuters includes Professor Stulz in its list of the world’s most influential scientific minds. He is one of the most highly cited scholars in financial economics. Who’s Who Legal has recognized Professor Stulz as a leading expert witness in legal arbitration and a Global Leader in assessing the quantum of damages in the financial advisory and valuation field.
Professor Stulz is a bank director and a trustee of the Global Association of Risk Professionals. He has consulted for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and various corporations and law firms. Professor Stulz is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. At the NBER, he directs the research group on the risks of financial institutions.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Amy P. Hutton
Professor of Business Administration,
Carroll School of Management,
Boston College
Amy Hutton is an expert in securities, financial statement analysis, corporate governance, and business valuation. Her research focuses on corporate disclosure, capital market accounting, and the role of financial intermediaries in capital markets.
Professor Hutton testifies and consults on class certification, price impact, damages, and financial accounting issues in a variety of litigation and regulatory investigation matters. She has assessed questions of solvency and factors contributing to financial distress in the context of corporate bankruptcy.
As a result of her research, Professor Hutton was named to the Congressional Review Board, opining on the Security Industry Association’s “best practices for equity research.” She won the American Accounting Association’s inaugural Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award for her co-authored article “Causes and Consequences of Earnings Management: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC.”
Professor Hutton was an editor for the Accounting Review and continues to serve as a referee for several leading peer-reviewed accounting and finance journals. She has held faculty appointments at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and Harvard Business School.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Mark J. Garmaise
Professor of Finance,
UCLA Anderson School of Management,
University of California, Los Angeles
Mark Garmaise is a corporate finance expert who specializes in topics related to banking, entrepreneurship, financial contracting, real estate, and securities. Professor Garmaise has testified in high-profile cases involving breach of contract, valuation, and damages. In Rule 10b-5 securities class actions and related opt-out matters, he has provided expert testimony on class certification and merits issues, including market efficiency, price impact, loss causation, and damages.
His industry experience includes FinTech, cryptocurrency, entertainment, financial services, investment banking, automotive, and microfinance. Professor Garmaise has also consulted with a U.S. bank on refining its residential mortgage delinquency model.
Professor Garmaise analyzes a range of complex issues affecting real estate markets, entrepreneurial firms, venture capital, and private equity. He has published papers on mortgage terms, the performance of small business lenders, and the effects of financial constraints on entrepreneurs. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
An award-winning instructor with more than two decades of experience, Professor Garmaise teaches MBA and executive courses on corporate finance, venture capital, and private equity (including investment strategies such as the use of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs). He is a former senior associate dean of the MBA program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Previously, Professor Garmaise served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Securities Capabilities
Cornerstone Research provides rigorous financial and statistical analysis and expert testimony in all phases of Rule 10b-5 and Section 11 matters. Drawing on decades of academic research and practical experience on security price formation, we have developed innovative approaches to evaluating alternative damages scenarios.
We analyze market efficiency, price impact, potential damages methodologies, trading behavior, and reliance by class members. Cornerstone Research staff and affiliated experts consistently have defined leading analytical methods relating to class certification in cases across a wide range of industries and securities.
We work with clients in litigation and regulatory matters spanning the full spectrum of fixed income securities, and interest rate and credit derivatives. With expertise in all major transaction types and markets, our staff and experts address a broad range of issues related to:
- Pricing and valuation
- Investment and risk management
- Bond event studies and market efficiency
- Suitability and disclosure adequacy
- Credit ratings and default
- Alleged market manipulation and collusive trading practices
We provide consulting and expert testimony in securities fraud trials, supporting attorneys to develop effective litigation strategies. Our analyses have been cited in trial verdicts, summary judgment decisions, and Daubert challenges.
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Selected Professionals
Our staff consultants contribute expertise in economics, finance, accounting, and marketing, as well as business acumen, familiarity with the litigation process, and a commitment to provide outstanding support.
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