We examine every case to identify the most effective expert witnesses.
We examine every case to identify the most effective expert witnesses.
Christine A. Parlour
Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting,
Haas School of Business,
University of California, Berkeley
Christine A. Parlour is a finance expert who focuses on market microstructure, limit order markets, cryptocurrencies, FinTech, and payment systems. Professor Parlour provides expert testimony on a range of institutionally complex topics involving financial markets, institutions, market manipulation, cryptocurrency, and regulation. She is the former president of the Western Finance Association and a former member of the Nasdaq Economic Advisory Board. She has also served as visiting economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
For more than twenty years, Professor Parlour has researched issues related to the economics of financial exchanges. She specializes in financial markets, including equity markets, debt markets, and cryptocurrencies. In equity markets, she has examined price dynamics, competition for order flow, payment for order flow, and informed trading. Her research on cryptocurrencies addresses the effect of Central Bank Digital Currency on banking system stability, the costs of settlement on the Bitcoin Ledger, and how initial coin offerings (ICOs) differ from traditional funding.
Widely published, Professor Parlour’s award-winning research has appeared in leading finance and economics journals, including the American Economic Review, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics. She is an editor at the Review of Finance; associate editor of the Journal of Financial Markets, the Journal of Financial Intermediation, and the Journal of Financial Services Research; and a former associate editor of Management Science and the Journal of Finance.
Professor Parlour has taught courses in investment analysis, FinTech, auctions and microstructure, and capital markets. She is a winner of the Haas School’s Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching.
She has held visiting academic appointments at INSEAD, the London School of Economics and Politics, and Paris Dauphine University. Professor Parlour is a past president of the Finance Theory Group.
We examine every case to identify the most effective expert witnesses.
Greg Leonard
Senior Vice President
Greg Leonard coheads Cornerstone Research’s finance practices. He also heads the firm’s London office. Dr. Leonard has nearly two decades of experience consulting for clients in complex litigation and regulatory proceedings. On behalf of clients, he has led regulatory investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, managing teams and simultaneously supporting experts across multiple related matters. Dr. Leonard has substantial experience directing analyses of large and complex high-frequency financial data sets, from both private entities and trading exchanges.
Dr. Leonard’s expertise includes high-profile matters at the intersection of finance and competition. He has evaluated a range of alleged anticompetitive activities in financial and commodities markets, including collusive conduct by various market participants, at both the class certification and merits stages.
Market manipulation
An expert on market manipulation, Dr. Leonard addresses issues that include allegations of benchmark manipulation, banging the close and other manipulation of settlement indices, misreporting of trade information, front-running client orders, trading to trigger stop-loss orders, spoofing and disruptive trading, wash trading, and inappropriate sharing of proprietary information.
In financial markets, Dr. Leonard has led engagements to evaluate risk management practices and the valuation of complex portfolios of trade positions. He has assessed Last Look features of FX client trading platforms, as well as FX algorithmic trading. In addition, Dr. Leonard has substantial experience in analyzing the execution, fulfilment, and hedging of client orders, from complex, market-moving transactions to smaller, routine orders.
Dr. Leonard’s expertise spans a broad range of financial instruments and physical commodities, both on futures exchanges and in over-the-counter markets. In finance, these include fixed income instruments and interest rate products such as LIBOR and other IBOR-linked instruments, FX, and swaps and swaptions. In commodities, he has led matters involving crude oil, natural gas, natural gas transportation contracts, liquefied natural gas, refined petroleum products, electric power, metals, and agricultural products, among others.
Financial investments and valuation
Dr. Leonard has consulted on issues involving investment activities across various financial instruments, notably auction rate securities, mutual funds, convertible stock, high-yield bonds, and private equity. He has applied real options valuation techniques to assess long-term structured power contracts, and employed other valuation methods to assess aspects of multiyear liquefied natural gas contracts. In addition, Dr. Leonard has conducted valuation analyses of alleged breaches of contract in a variety of contexts.
U.S. natural gas trading research
Dr. Leonard is the former head of Cornerstone Research’s energy and commodities practice. In that capacity, he managed the firm’s research on trading activity and pricing methods in the U.S. natural gas trading markets, based on Form 552 submissions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
We examine every case to identify the most effective expert witnesses.
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.
Professor 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. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized Professor Stulz as a leading expert witness in legal arbitration and a recommended consulting expert 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.
We examine every case to identify the most effective expert witnesses.
Pierre Collin-Dufresne
Professor of Finance,
Swiss Finance Institute,
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Pierre Collin-Dufresne is an expert in international financial markets, with an emphasis on asset allocation and pricing, risk management, and market microstructure. Professor Collin-Dufresne consults to the European Central Bank, as part of the Bank’s Directorate of General Research, and formerly held a visiting appointment at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He has served on the advisory research boards of Moody’s, INQUIRE Europe, Kepos Capital, and Lombard Odier Asset Management. As an expert witness, Professor Collin-Dufresne has provided expert testimony in matters involving investment banking, valuation, and fixed-income securities and derivatives.
In his research, Professor Collin-Dufresne studies topics related to credit risk, fixed-income securities, credit and equity markets, asset allocation, securitization, emerging markets, and international finance. He has analyzed trading behaviors and assessed their impact on market liquidity, price volatility, and firm value. Professor Collin-Dufresne has twice been awarded the Journal of Finance’s Amundi Smith Breeden Distinguished Paper Prize for his work on the connections between market dynamics, trading activity, and stock prices, as well as for research on securitization.
Professor Collin-Dufresne’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including Econometrica, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Review of Financial Studies. A coeditor of Finance and Stochastics, he also serves as associate editor of the International Journal of Central Banking, European Financial Management, and Mathematical Finance. Professor Collin-Dufresne was a director of the American Finance Association and the Western Finance Association. He is a research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and a former research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
At the Swiss Finance Institute, Professor Collin-Dufresne has taught courses in asset pricing, investments, and credit derivatives. Previously, he was the Carson Family Chair Professor at Columbia Business School, and held professorships at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining the faculty at Columbia, Professor Collin-Dufresne was a senior portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, responsible for fixed-income and credit strategies in the Quantitative Strategies Group.
Ronne Barnes discusses his recent coauthored article on shareholder actions in the UK
Finance Capabilities
Expert Assessments of Complex Financial Issues
Cornerstone Research consultants apply their analytical expertise and deep industry knowledge in a range of commercial disputes and regulatory investigations.
- Banks and securities firms
- Investment advisers
- Hedge funds
- Insurance companies
- Consumer finance
- Market manipulation and collusive trading
- High-frequency trading
- Foreign exchange
- Private equity and venture capital
Although they are a relatively recent addition to the European legal landscape, shareholder litigations (or “securities class actions”) have proliferated in the US over several decades. Our more than thirty years of experience positions us to address the economic and financial issues that are likely to arise in UK and European matters.
We provide support in all phases of litigation, including:
- Initial case evaluation
- Discovery
- Class certification
- Merits, damages and summary judgment
- Mediation and settlement
- Trial or arbitration
Cornerstone Research approaches valuation matters using sound finance and economics principles as well as local knowledge applied to the circumstances of each case.
- Corporate transactions
- Corporate restructurings
- Agreements and contracts
- Specific business assets
- Specific securities and stakes
Cornerstone Research conducts detailed analyses in a range of trading practices and market manipulation matters. Our staff and experts bring expertise in order handling; rules involving price quoting, clearing and settlement; as well as valuation of complex portfolios of trade positions. In addition, we have worked on matters involving allegations of:
- Benchmark manipulation
- Manipulation of settlement indices
- Misreporting of trade information
- Spoofing and disruptive trading
- Inappropriate sharing of propriety information
Cornerstone Research provides clients with practical, insightful solutions to accounting issues that arise in investigations, litigation and regulatory matters. We draw from our extensive network of experts—including experienced audit partners, standard setters and academics.
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 produce outstanding support.
Featured Cases and Publications
How can we help you?
For more information or assistance with a specific matter, please contact us.