Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
David Gal
Professor of Marketing,
College of Business,
University of Illinois at Chicago
David Gal is an expert in consumer behavior, consumer judgment and decision making, and financial decision making. Professor Gal researches a wide range of consumer behavior topics, including loss aversion; how consumers approach and respond to financial and other types of risk and losses; and the role of identity in consumer choices and decisions. Professor Gal has designed and used consumer surveys extensively in his research. He has identified previously unrecognized biases in survey methods. He has also analyzed the foundational assumptions underlying conjoint analysis. Separately, Professor Gal has researched consumer behavior on social media and the business intelligence that can be gathered through social media analytics.
Professor Gal has published numerous articles in leading academic journals in the fields of marketing, statistics, and psychology. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology and serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research. His work has also been featured in mainstream media outlets, such as Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and the Wall Street Journal.
Professor Gal has consulted to Fortune 500 companies on a variety of consumer-focused marketing topics. He has also designed and analyzed consumer surveys in the context of litigation.
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor Gal teaches courses on marketing-led innovation and marketing management. Previously, he served on the faculty at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Pinar Yildirim
Associate Professor of Marketing,
The Wharton School,
Associate Professor of Economics,
University of Pennsylvania;
Senior Fellow, Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition,
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Pinar Yildirim is a quantitative marketing and economics expert specializing in media, technology, and information economics. Combining applied theory and empirical analysis, Professor Yildirim studies online platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), privacy, digitization, and social networks. The American Marketing Association (AMA) honored her in 2020 with the Erin Anderson Award, which recognizes a female marketing scholar likely to become a leading academic in the field.
In her research, Professor Yildirim analyzes such topics as advertising and competitive product positioning, the role of choice in two-sided platforms, and the incentive of platforms to moderate content. Professor Yildirim also studies social network design, the impact of advertising on media content, and the use of social network data in credit scoring. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) noted her work on social media and political contributions in 2021 proposed rulemaking involving political programming.
Professor Yildirim’s research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the American Economic Review, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Management Science. She also serves on the editorial boards of Marketing Science and the Journal of Marketing Research. Numerous mainstream media outlets have covered her work, including CNN, Forbes, the New York Times, NPR, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
At Wharton, Professor Yildirim has received awards for teaching excellence. She teaches undergraduate and M.B.A. courses in marketing research and marketing strategy for technology platforms and executive education modules focused on digital marketing, business in the metaverse economy, and marketing for financial firms.
Professor Yildirim is also a Faculty Research Fellow in the Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Kinshuk Jerath
Arthur F. Burns Chair of Free and Competitive Enterprise,
Professor of Business in the Marketing Division,
Columbia Business School,
Columbia University
Kinshuk Jerath specializes in technology-enabled marketing, primarily in online advertising, retailing, and customer management. Professor Jerath’s research has evaluated a range of strategic online advertising practices in both sponsored search advertising and display advertising, including keyword management, poaching, and exclusive placement. He has also analyzed how privacy regulations in the online advertising ecosystem affect stakeholders, such as advertisers, publishers, and consumers.
Professor Jerath’s research on retailing has contributed to the understanding of agency selling in online retailing marketplaces, as well as the associated behaviors of third-party sellers, advertisers, and platform owners. In his work on customer management, Professor Jerath has developed analytical methods to estimate customer lifetime value for online and traditional retailers.
Professor Jerath has served as an expert on online advertising and retailing, and provided expert testimony in deposition and at trial. Outside of litigation, he has consulted to Fortune 500 companies on online marketing.
Professor Jerath’s work has been published in books, as well as articles in leading journals, including Marketing Science, Management Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of Interactive Marketing. He also serves on several editorial boards. Professor Jerath speaks widely on subjects related to online advertising and retailing marketplaces, and has presented to universities and corporations in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Hong Kong.
At Columbia Business School, Professor Jerath teaches courses on digital marketing and customer valuation and management. Previously, he served on the faculty of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
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.
Consumer Fraud and Product Liability Capabilities
Cornerstone Research has addressed issues of certification, exposure, reliance, impact, and damages in class actions. Key questions in these cases may include whether common evidence can prove that certain challenged conduct caused each member of the proposed class to make a purchase and whether the challenged conduct injured each member of the proposed class. An additional consideration is whether each proposed class member’s damages, if any, can be determined by common proof. We have worked on class actions involving allegations of:
- The benefit of the bargain harm, where plaintiffs claim that consumers would have allegedly paid less or not purchased the product at issue had they not allegedly been misled or had defendants not acted in in bad faith, because of improper labeling, advertising, or disclosure
- Diminished resale value of a durable good due to the challenged conduct
- Demand and price inflation claims that plaintiffs argue caused class-wide impact, even for consumers who were not influenced by the challenged conduct
Class certification in these cases frequently turns on the particulars of the challenged conduct, the overall structure of the industry and the market, and the characteristics of individual transactions. We evaluate these issues through empirical research within a framework of sound economic concepts.
Individual actions involving allegations of fraud and misrepresentation are often brought by a defendant’s competitors. These cases may require a focus on the relevant market, quantification of the effect of the challenged conduct on demand and prices for competing products, and estimation of damages suffered by competitors due to the defendant’s alleged fraud or misrepresentation.
In addition to lost sales and price erosion, some plaintiffs may also seek reputational damages and punitive damages. We have substantial experience analyzing these specific types of claims, applying our expertise in economics, marketing, finance, econometrics, and accounting.
Our experience in individual actions includes allegations of fraud and misrepresentation in matters involving a broad array of industries and consumer products.
Cornerstone Research staff and experts have significant experience in survey design, including analyzing and implementing reliable sampling techniques. We regularly conduct and critique surveys of market participants to assess consumer behavior, attitudes, and preferences, and to address issues relating to exposure, reliance, and materiality. In some cases, we supplemented these empirical findings with analysis of data originally collected over the course of business as well as from publicly available data sources.
Cornerstone Research regularly formulates and implements empirical analyses to respond to economic and financial issues. We have specialized staff with expertise in advanced modeling and statistical techniques, including difference-in-differences, hedonic regression, and synthetic control methods, among others. We frequently use real-world, large datasets with sophisticated statistical and econometric methods.
We have experience working with experts to develop and implement rigorous, state-of-the-art content analysis techniques—including artificial intelligence and machine learning—to assess marketing messages (such as advertisements), social media and user-generated online content, and other content involving extensive textual data, such as public press spanning many years.
Conjoint analysis is a survey-based marketing research tool developed by academics to understand and estimate consumer preferences. It has been adopted by businesses and industry practitioners to help make decisions on new product development and market segmentation analysis, among other uses. Over the last several years, conjoint analysis has been increasingly proposed as a method to estimate class-wide damages in a variety of consumer class actions including product liability, false advertising, product labeling, and data privacy and data breach matters. However, the technique’s underlying assumptions and limitations render it unsuitable for calculating damages in a class action setting.
Automobile
Cornerstone Research has rich experience in analyzing causation, impact, and damages issues in the automobile industry. We have addressed allegations of benefit of the bargain harm and diminished resale value in these cases.
Consumer Finance
We have worked on consumer finance cases involving credit cards, checking accounts, and pension plan choices. Our experience encompasses fraud and misrepresentation allegations as well as deceptive advertising and inadequate disclosure claims.
Food, Beverage, and Dietary Supplements
In the food, beverage, and dietary supplements industries, Cornerstone Research has applied economic and statistical methods and marketing research techniques such as surveys to cases involving allegations of false advertising, omissions of material information, and product misrepresentation. We have worked on matters involving “All Natural” claims on product labels, health-related claims on product packaging and advertising, the amount of “slack-fill” in product packaging, the amounts of ingredients included in a product, and comparative advertising between competing products, among others.
Life Sciences and Healthcare
We have worked on several cases involving allegations of fraud and misrepresentation in life sciences and healthcare matters.
Technology
In several technology and manufacturing cases, attorneys have retained Cornerstone Research to analyze issues related to alleged false advertising, deception, product liability, and demand and price inflation.
Other Consumer Products
Our staff have assessed allegations of false advertising, deception, and product liability in many consumer products.
Data Privacy and Data Breach
Cornerstone Research has experience in high-profile data privacy and data breach matters, addressing a wide range of damages methodologies and analyses commonly used by plaintiffs in class actions in the United States.
Our experience covers all stages of litigation, including pre-litigation assessment of exposure, support for mediation, and expert testimony support at the class certification and merits phases. We also have substantial experience assisting clients in regulatory proceedings relating to data privacy or data breach issues in the United States and Europe.
Featured Cases
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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Samid Hussain
Samid Hussain
Senior Vice President
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Vildan Altuglu
Vildan Altuglu
Vice President
Featured Publications
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