SEC Enforcement Activity: Public Companies and Subsidiaries

Featured Experts

Featured Experts

Andrea L. Eisfeldt

Laurence D. and Lori W. Fink Endowed Chair in Finance,
Professor of Finance,
UCLA Anderson School of Management,
University of California, Los Angeles

Andrea Eisfeldt is an expert on financial markets. Professor Eisfeldt’s research has focused on macroeconomics and finance, including research on market liquidity, the role of intangibles in asset pricing, bank valuation, and over-the-counter markets.

Professor Eisfeldt has been retained as an expert witness in numerous finance matters, analyzing a range of issues that include portfolio analysis, valuation, economic damages, asset pricing, investment strategies, fixed income and derivatives, mortgage finance and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), hedge funds, and LIBOR. On Section 10b and Section 14a securities class actions, she has addressed issues at the class certification and merits stages, including loss causation and damages.

In her recent academic work, Professor Eisfeldt has researched a range of topics, including the effects of Generative AI on the value of firms, the return on complex trading strategies, over-the-counter derivatives prices and trading, bank valuation, and credit risk. She has published articles in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Monetary EconomicsEconometrica, and the Review of Financial Studies. Her research has twice been awarded the Amundi Smith Breeden Prize by the Journal of Finance. Professor Eisfeldt was a finalist for the Jensen Prize in the Journal of Financial Economics.

Professor Eisfeldt holds editorial roles at leading academic journals. She serves on the board of the American Finance Association, where she is a member of the investments, ethics, and strategic planning committees. At the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), she is a research associate in the programs for asset pricing, corporate finance, and economic fluctuations and growth.

Professor Eisfeldt teaches courses on derivatives, international finance, corporate finance, FinTech and cryptocurrency, and macro finance. Previously, she served for a decade as a tenured professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Featured Experts

Todd T. Milbourn

Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance,
Olin Business School,
Washington University in St. Louis

Todd Milbourn is an expert on valuation, corporate finance, and corporate governance, notably executive compensation and its impact on company stock price, corporate risk-taking, and firm performance. Professor Milbourn has been retained as an expert by private firms, the U.S. Department of Justice, and by individuals in cases related to fair rates of return, breach of contract damages, lost earnings, investment programs, and managerial/executive compensation, including employee stock option programs.

Professor Milbourn has addressed issues related to credit ratings and bank megamergers. He is a coauthor of the executive-level book, The Value Sphere: Secrets of Creating and Retaining Shareholder Wealth, and has published articles in leading scholarly journals, including Journal of FinanceJournal of Financial EconomicsHarvard Business ReviewSloan Management ReviewManagement ScienceJournal of Accounting Research, and RAND Journal of Economics.

At Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Milbourn has taught finance-related courses for nearly two decades. An award-winning educator, he has been recognized numerous times for teaching excellence, and his faculty research has twice been honored with the Olin Award: Research That Transforms Business.

Professor Milbourn has experience as a board member of multiple hedge funds and is the current Audit Committee Chair of a hedge fund. He has experience as a board member on multiple special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), including serving as chair of the Audit Committee. Professor Milbourn also speaks extensively at professional and scholarly conferences in Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and across the United States.

Before joining the faculty of Olin Business School, Professor Milbourn taught at the University of Chicago and London Business School.

Featured Experts

Laura E. Simmons

Senior Advisor

Laura Simmons has more than twenty-five years of experience in economic consulting across a variety of complex litigation matters. Dr. Simmons has focused on damages and liability issues in securities class actions, as well as litigation involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). She has also managed cases involving financial accounting, valuation, and corporate governance issues.

Dr. Simmons assists clients with all phases of litigation and has experience across civil, criminal, and regulatory matters. She has served as a testifying expert in cases involving accounting analyses, securities case damages, ERISA issues, and research on securities lawsuits.

Dr. Simmons developed Cornerstone Research’s initiatives on securities case settlements and related settlements benchmarking models. Her research on pre– and post–Reform Act securities litigation settlements has been published in a number of reports and is frequently cited in the public press and legal journals. She has also published in academic journals, with recent research focusing on the intersection of accounting and litigation. Dr. Simmons speaks at professional and specialist conferences and has appeared on CNBC to discuss the topic of securities case settlements.

Dr. Simmons was an accounting faculty member at the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary from 2008 through 2011. A certified public accountant (CPA), she began her career at Price Waterhouse.

Featured Experts

Kathryn L. Shaw

Ernest C. Arbuckle Professor of Economics,
Stanford Graduate School of Business;
Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR),
Stanford University

Kathryn Shaw is a nationally recognized expert on labor economics who addresses human resource management, wages, and discrimination issues. She has been retained in high-profile labor matters and has expertise in class certification issues.

Professor Shaw is the incoming president of the Society of Labor Economists, to serve from 2022 through 2025 (first as the President-elect). She is known for having co-developed the research field of “insider econometrics,” which uses internal (or “inside”) company data to analyze how practices such as teamwork and incentive pay affect performance.

In her recent research, Professor Shaw has worked on artificial intelligence (AI) topics, including how the performance of firms improves with uses of AI. She has also analyzed talent management in the software and other knowledge-intensive industries. Her new research papers are focused on different aspects of successful entrepreneurship.

Professor Shaw’s research has been published in the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Labor Economics, and the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. She was associate editor of the Journal of Labor Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics, and editor of IZA World of Labor. Professor Shaw is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), where she coheads the Personnel Economics working group.

Professor Shaw has been honored with multiple awards for excellence in teaching. She teaches courses on personnel economics, people management and organizational strategy, and the impact of AI on productivity.

Before joining the faculty at Stanford, Professor Shaw was the Ford Distinguished Research Chair and Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. She has also held visiting academic appointments at University College London, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the University of Paris.

Earlier in her career, Professor Shaw served as a Senate-confirmed member of the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration, and as visiting economist to the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve.

 

About Us

For thirty-five years, Cornerstone Research staff have provided economic and financial analysis in all phases of commercial litigation and regulatory proceedings.

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Insights

3 December 2024

Corporate Disputes 2024 – 4th Annual Forum

Ronnie Barnes of Cornerstone Research will join a panel to discuss the role of experts in corporate disputes at this conference in London.

25 November 2024

Informa Advanced EU Competition Law 2024

Cornerstone Research professionals will discuss merger control issues in Europe at this annual conference in Brussels.

22 November 2024

Dublin International Arbitration Day 2024

Ronnie Barnes of Cornerstone Research will join a rapid-fire question-and-answer session at this annual conference in Ireland.

21 November 2024

SEC Enforcement Actions Against Public Companies and Subsidiaries Drop by 12% in FY 2024; Actions Still Up Nearly 5% Compared to Historical Average

Off-channel communications continues as an enforcement priority, driving Broker Dealer allegations to 29% of FY 2024 actions.

20 November 2024

Assessing Settlement Outcomes and Damages in Securities Class Actions

Filipe Lacerda of Cornerstone Research will discuss trends in securities litigation in the U.S. at a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan event.

20 November 2024

Expert Forum: Frontline Perspectives on Recent Developments in Competition Litigation, AI and Mergers

This Cornerstone Research conference in London addresses issues related to competition class actions, AI regulation, and remedies in mergers.

19 November 2024

In the Matter of WillScot and McGrath

The parties abandoned the merger.

18 November 2024

First Advantage/Sterling Check

The parties successfully completed this $2.2 billion merger.

14 November 2024

2024 Antitrust Fall Forum

Joanna Tsai of Cornerstone Research will moderate a panel discussion of merger efficiencies at this American Bar Association event in Washington, DC.

14 November 2024

Seventeenth Annual Federal Trade Commission Microeconomics Conference

Pinar Yildirim of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, will give the keynote address and chair a panel at this annual event.

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