| 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 enforcement agencies at all stages of merger investigations in the US, UK, EU, and other jurisdictions.
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.
Celeste C. Saravia
Vice President,
Cornerstone Research;
Lecturer,
University of California, Berkeley
Celeste Saravia coheads Cornerstone Research’s antitrust and competition practice. Dr. Saravia provides economic and statistical consulting, analysis, and expert testimony in complex business litigation. She addresses class certification, liability, and damages issues in antitrust litigation matters alleging collusion, vertical restraints, and other allegedly anticompetitive behavior, as well as assessing the competitive effects of mergers.
Dr. Saravia works on matters in many industries, including life sciences (pharmaceuticals and medical devices), finance, information technology, energy, telecommunications, and media. Lexology Direct (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized her multiple times as a leader among competition economists, and has recommended her among commercial litigation practitioners. Dr. Saravia teaches economics courses at the University of California, Berkeley.
Antitrust and competition
Dr. Saravia has served as an expert in more than a dozen cases dealing with antitrust issues, including no-poach agreements, non-compete agreements, price fixing, monopolization, bundling, exclusive dealing, predatory pricing, price discrimination, and product hopping.
She testified at trial in Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer Healthcare LLC on issues related to antitrust market definition, market power, foreclosure, and competitive effects. Other trials in which Dr. Saravia has provided testimony include In re HIV Antitrust Litigation, which focused on an allegedly anticompetitive reverse payment in a pharmaceutical patent settlement; and J & M Distributing Inc. v. Hearth & Home Technologies Inc. et al., an alleged monopolization case. In all these trials, the jury’s opinion was consistent with Dr. Saravia’s testimony.
Global Competition Review named Dr. Saravia a finalist for Economist of the Year for her work on In re HIV Antitrust Litigation, which was also shortlisted for Litigation of the Year – Non-Cartel Defence.
Dr. Saravia’s other representative expert work includes Inline Packaging LLC v. Graphic Packaging International Inc. and Fresenius Kabi USA LLC v. Par Sterile Products LLC et al.
Dr. Saravia has supported government agencies and parties in all phases of merger review. She has analyzed competitive effects in prominent proposed mergers, such as Sysco/US Foods and Thoratec/Heartware. The Department of Justice (DOJ) retained Dr. Saravia to assess the competitive effects of the proposed merger between China International Marine Containers Group and Maersk Container Industry.
As a consultant, Dr. Saravia leads teams working on high-profile matters, including FTC v. Qualcomm, In re Flash Memory Antitrust Litigation, American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. v. Visa USA Inc. et al., and Thales Avionics Inc. v. Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation.
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. In Verizon Services Corp. et al. v. Cox Fibernet Virginia Inc. et al., 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.
Thought leadership
Dr. Saravia speaks and publishes frequently on competition issues. She won a Concurrences Antitrust Writing Award 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 “Standards for Assessing Bundled Discounts.”
Before 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 a leading expert on statistical methods and economic modeling, with a focus on antitrust and competition, labor, and consumer product matters. Professor McCrary has testified on class certification, antitrust, labor, and statistics issues. His wide-ranging experience covers numerous industries and markets, such as automotive, commodities, technology, healthcare, life sciences, finance, telecommunications, and retail.
Antitrust and competition
Professor McCrary testifies in complex antitrust and competition matters in various industries. His experience includes:
- In a significant matter in a high-tech industry, he addressed allegations of a conspiracy to fix prices and also analyzed and rebutted an opposing expert’s damages model. In another matter, he analyzed damages resulting from alleged collusion among pharmacies.
- On behalf of a global food and agriculture corporation, Professor McCrary evaluated an alleged conspiracy to manipulate wheat futures and options contracts.
- Professor McCrary has experience in multiple large and complex antitrust class actions involving financial markets. For example, he addressed statistical sampling of alleged cartel communications in In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation.
- Professor McCrary rebutted damages in a case alleging that a large software provider maintained its monopoly position through anticompetitive practices, including exclusionary contracting. The client prevailed in a confidential arbitration proceeding.
- Professor McCrary has provided testimony in antitrust matters involving intellectual property. For example, in Palm Beach Tanning Inc. et al. v. Sunless Inc., an antitrust counterclaim filed in response to a trademark case, he analyzed Section 1 and 2 tying allegations and issues related to the Robinson-Patman Act.
- In the telecommunications industry, Professor McCrary served as a consulting expert for the U.S. Department of Justice in its review of AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile.
Labor
Professor McCrary has wide-ranging labor markets expertise. His representative experience includes:
- 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 class certification issues. 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 testified on class certification issues in a high-profile gender discrimination case focused on pay and promotion outcomes at a large U.S. retailer. The judge subsequently denied certification of the plaintiffs’ proposed class.
- Defense counsel retained Professor McCrary to analyze merits and damages issues in Morgan et al. v. U.S. Soccer Federation Inc., a gender pay discrimination class action. Citing Professor McCrary’s expert report in his order, the judge ruled in favor of the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
- Defense counsel in Robinson et al. v. Jackson Hewitt Inc. and Tax Services of America retained Professor McCrary to analyze allegations that franchise no-poaching agreements restricted mobility and suppressed compensation.
Consumer fraud and product liability
Professor McCrary has testified in multiple matters alleging product liability, false advertising, and breach of contract. For example, in Beaty v. Ford Motor Company, a product liability matter involving alleged automotive defects, he provided class certification and damages rebuttal testimony.
Serving as an expert in high-profile consumer class actions, Professor McCrary has conducted empirical analyses and provided testimony on issues related to causation, liability, and damages. He has also rebutted damages models using a variety of empirical techniques, including conjoint analysis and hedonic regressions.
Statistical methods and analysis
The founding director of the Social Sciences Data Laboratory (D-Lab) at the University of California, Berkeley, Professor McCrary is an authority on high-performance computing and statistical techniques.
He has testified on sampling, probability theory, and statistical methods. In the closely watched matter, In Re Twitter Inc. v. Elon Musk et al., he was retained to address allegations regarding the statistical sampling methods employed by Twitter in analyzing spam and fake accounts.
Professor McCrary has examined the statistical evidence for healthcare providers’ alleged overbilling of Medicare in both government audit and False Claims Act (FCA) matters. He also has substantial experience with mortgage-backed securities matters, including rebuttals to analyses invoking matching estimators.
Research and teaching
Professor McCrary publishes research on econometric methods, including on 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 coauthor, 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 (NBER).
Before joining Columbia University, Professor McCrary taught at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
W. Robert Majure
Vice President
Bob Majure coheads Cornerstone Research’s merger investigations practice in Washington, DC. Dr. Majure has wide-ranging expertise with merger and joint venture analysis, antitrust proceedings, regulatory actions, and appellate filings. He has experience across many industries, including agriculture, energy, health insurance, high tech, industrial equipment, media, professional services, telecommunications, and transportation. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recommended Dr. Majure as a leading competition economist and consulting expert in the competition field.
Dr. Majure is the former Director of Economics for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, he worked closely with the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis and other members of the Antitrust Division front office, monitoring merger enforcement and litigation matters, allegations of anticompetitive horizontal conduct, and monopolization. Dr. Majure has received awards for senior executive civil service, culminating in Presidential recognition.
An expert in industrial organization economics, Dr. Majure worked on every merger challenge brought by the Antitrust Division during his nine years as director, including Aetna/Humana, Anthem/Cigna, AT&T/T-Mobile, AT&T/Time Warner, GE/Electrolux, and USAir/American.
He was also instrumental in major merger settlements, notably Anheuser-Busch InBev/SABMiller, Bayer/Monsanto, Comcast/NBCU, CVS/Aetna, and Dow/DuPont.
As part of the DOJ’s non-merger enforcement, Dr. Majure supervised numerous investigations of business practices, as well as several challenges, such as American Express, Apple, and Carolinas Healthcare System.
Dr. Majure’s career at the DOJ spanned nearly twenty-five years and several key roles. In addition to supporting the Antitrust Division’s enforcement and policy activities across all of its areas of interest, he frequently coordinated practices and policies with senior representatives of other domestic and international enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP). He was also actively involved in multinational competition policy efforts through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Competition Network (ICN).
Previously, Dr. Majure served as a section chief and as an assistant section chief in the Antitrust Division’s Economic Analysis Group (EAG). In these capacities, he led the economic team supporting the Division’s enforcement and policy activities. He submitted testimony on competitive effects in Union Pacific/Southern Pacific Railroad and on the suitability of remedy in U.S. v. SBC Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp. and U.S. v. Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc. He also served on the committee that drafted the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Ashley Langer
Associate Professor of Economics,
Eller College of Management,
University of Arizona
Ashley Langer is an econometrics, energy, and industrial organization expert. Professor Langer applies sophisticated empirical methods to study regulation, competition, and firm and consumer behavior. She analyzes a range of economic issues, including those involving energy markets, transportation, and the environment. Professor Langer has testified on issues related to class certification and economic damages, including in such high-profile class actions as Guzman et al. v. Polaris Inc. et al. and Garcia et al. v. Volkswagen Group of America Inc. et al.
Professor Langer has analyzed consumer decisions, including those related to the automotive and oil industries. She has evaluated decisions on which vehicles to drive, how preferences form, when and where to purchase fuel, and whether to adopt electric vehicles. She has also investigated the impact of consumer demographic group preferences on vehicle pricing.
In her recent research, Professor Langer has assessed energy and environmental policy design issues. For example, she has analyzed international oil markets and the factors that influence pricing, as well as how Clean Air Act regulatory enforcement affects pollution levels and firms’ investment decisions. Further, she has studied the impact of energy policy on durable goods such as automobiles and residential solar. In particular, Professor Langer has examined how households respond to solar subsidies that change over time, how uncertainty surrounding policy enforcement affects coal power plant retirement and upgrade decisions, and how taxing vehicle mileage (rather than fuel consumption) changes Highway Trust Fund revenues. Her earlier work includes assessing the effect of congestion tolling on urban land use.
Professor Langer’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has named Professor Langer a Future Leader among global competition experts and has also recommended her as a leading competition economist and consulting expert.
At the University of Arizona, Professor Langer teaches courses in business strategy, empirical research methods, environmental economics, energy and environmental policy, and government regulation. She has been honored with several teaching and advising awards. In addition, Professor Langer presents on industrial organization and empirical research methods, as well as transportation, energy, and environmental topics, at professional conferences and universities in the United States and internationally.
Professor Langer previously taught at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia Business School and the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago.
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 the early stages of potential deals, enforcement agency reviews, government litigation and private litigation, in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. We have applied 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.
We are also experienced at assisting clients with complying with Second Requests, in a manner that is both efficient and fully responsive to the agency’s request.
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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