Clients draw on the expertise of our internal staff and academic experts specializing in statistics, econometrics, and biostatistics to conduct analyses related to statistical sampling, statistical design and analysis, and biostatistics and epidemiology.
Statistics and Sampling Capabilities
Our statistics and econometrics experts are skilled in developing, implementing, and analyzing a variety of statistical sampling designs, as well as testing the scientific validity of statistical samples. We also have expertise in using statistical samples to assess liability and extrapolate damages for the larger population based on various sampling designs. Cornerstone Research staff and affiliated experts have provided statistical sampling consulting and expert witness testimony in:
- False Claims Act litigation and other government investigations in a variety of industries
- Reimbursement disputes between healthcare providers and health insurance companies
- Mortgage loan and automotive product liability cases in which defect rates were at issue
- Employment discrimination and affirmative action university admissions cases
Cornerstone Research regularly performs complex statistical analysis in a wide range of litigation. We have expertise in a variety of statistical methods, including:
- causal inference methods
- statistical significance tests
- parametric and non-parametric modeling
- bootstrapping techniques
- Monte Carlo simulation
- survival analysis
We have employed advanced statistical techniques at the class certification and merits stages of large class actions and in government investigations, including work on mergers, competition matters, product liability litigation, and employment and admissions discrimination cases. In addition, we support statistics and econometrics experts in a range of industries, including automotive, securities and loans, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and high tech.
Biostatistical and epidemiological issues are found in a wide range of litigation, including product liability, securities, and labor class actions. Our affiliated experts bring deep expertise in:
- Assessing clinical trial design and conducting safety and efficacy analyses for drug candidates
- Analyzing data from sources such as observational studies and post-marketing surveillance databases
- Analyzing medical and prescription drug claims data
- Conducting epidemiological analyses, including assessment of studies and data related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
See also Healthcare
Our expertise in statistics and sampling is supplemented by expertise in the science of big data. Our in-house team of programming specialists, along with our secure analytics and computational infrastructure, allows us to efficiently analyze large-scale data and develop sophisticated data approaches using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
See also Data Science Center: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Our statistics and econometrics expertise is often applied in litigation related to companies’ use of algorithmic processes to make business decisions in areas such as employment, advertising, consumer finance, and healthcare. Automated decision-making processes may generate disparate impact across groups and lead to allegations of algorithmic discrimination and bias. Our experts’ cutting-edge data analytics techniques and deep statistics expertise enable us to provide insightful analyses in addressing such claims.
See also Digital Economy: Labor, Employment, and Algorithmic Bias
ProfessionalsOur 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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Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Robert D. Gibbons
Blum-Riese Professor of Biostatistics,
Professor, Departments of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Public Health Sciences (Biostatistics);
Director, Center for Health Statistics;
University of Chicago
Robert Gibbons is a nationally recognized authority in the field of statistics, with major interest areas including biostatistics, environmental statistics, and psychometrics. He has testified on product liability and drug safety matters and addressed topics related to clinical trial design and results, observational study design and results, meta-analysis, statistical power, and damages.
Professor Gibbons is a Pritzker Scholar at the University of Chicago. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, where he also cofounded the Mental Health Statistics section. An elected member of the International Statistical Institute, the Royal Statistical Society, and the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, he has received lifetime achievement awards from the American Public Health Association and Harvard University. Professor Gibbons is a founding director of the Center for Health Statistics at the University of Chicago, which applies advanced statistical theory to a variety of health sciences challenges.
Professor Gibbons has cowritten seven books and more than a dozen book chapters. He publishes widely on statistics and biostatistics, particularly on topics related to drug safety, mental health, and environmental statistics. He has authored or coauthored more than 300 research articles and collaborative scientific studies, and his work has appeared in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Biometrics, Statistics in Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, and Environmental Science and Technology, among many other publications.
Professor Gibbons has served on the editorial boards of Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology and JAMA Psychiatry and is an associate editor of the Harvard Data Science Review. His research on drug safety and other subjects has appeared in an array of media outlets, such as Forbes, the Lancet, the New York Times, Scientific American, and the Washington Post.
An award-winning educator, Professor Gibbons has been recognized multiple times for excellence in teaching and research.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Darius Lakdawalla
Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation, School of Pharmacy,
Professor, Sol Price School of Public Policy,
Director of Research, Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics,
University of Southern California
Darius Lakdawalla is a leading authority on health economics and health policy. He has particular expertise in pharmaceutical industry policy, medical innovation, prescription drug pricing, health insurance coverage, and reimbursement, including for private payors and Medicare Part D. Professor Lakdawalla also analyzes the industrial organization of healthcare markets.
Professor Lakdawalla has been retained as an expert witness in multiple life sciences and healthcare matters and has both deposition and trial testimony experience. He has provided economic testimony related to allegations of product liability, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, and generic drug price fixing. His expert work has addressed both liability and damages issues. Professor Lakdawalla also has extensive experience providing business consulting services to major pharmaceutical companies, as well as experience analyzing drug clinical trial data.
An award-winning researcher, Professor Lakdawalla has published articles in leading economics, medical, and health policy journals, including the American Economic Review, Health Affairs, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. His article “Economics of the Pharmaceutical Industry” was published in the Journal of Economic Literature. He has also coauthored chapters in the Handbook of Health Economics, The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of the Biopharmaceutical Industry, and The Elgar Companion to Health Economics (2nd edition), among others.
Professor Lakdawalla currently serves as an associate editor for Journal of Health Economics. He previously served as associate editor for the Review of Economics and Statistics and the American Journal of Health Economics. He has also served as as an expert panelist for the National Academy of Medicine. Professor Lakdawalla is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
For more than a decade, Professor Lakdawalla has taught courses on health economics and policy, risk analysis, and health management. Prior to joining USC, he served as senior economist and director of research at the RAND Corporation’s Bing Center for Health Economics.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Alice Chen
Associate Professor,
Sol Price School of Public Policy;
Senior Fellow,
Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics,
University of Southern California
Alice Chen specializes in health economics and labor economics. Professor Chen has expertise in a range of issues involving healthcare and pharmaceutical firms, including pharmaceutical competition and innovation, healthcare labor markets, and provider payment models. She has served as a consulting expert on damages issues in a life sciences matter, and has offered written and deposition testimony in healthcare matters related to health insurance plan design. She has also provided healthcare consulting services to pharmaceutical companies, and has experience analyzing drug clinical trial data.
Professor Chen’s research has focused on improving the efficiency of healthcare markets, biologics and biosimilars innovation and competition, and the drivers and impacts of healthcare provider behavior. Her recent research analyzes the impact of Medicare policies on provider treatment decisions and healthcare outcomes. Professor Chen has presented her work before regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Congressional Budget Office.
Professor Chen has published articles in leading economics, health policy, and medical journals, including the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Health Affairs, JAMA Internal Medicine, and the Journal of Health Economics. Her research has also been cited in major media outlets, including Bloomberg, CBS News, Forbes, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
At USC Price, Professor Chen teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in health economics and health finance. The USC Health Administration Graduate Program has recognized her as Outstanding Faculty of the Year.
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.
