| We have addressed a range of white collar issues, including securities, financial statement, and broker-dealer fraud; FCPA violations; and mismanagement. | Our work has helped identify, clarify, and explain the transactions, data, and accounting information that are typically the object of inquiry in these matters. |
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Steven Davidoff Solomon
Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law,
Faculty Codirector, Berkeley Center for Law and Business,
UC Berkeley School of Law, University of California
Steven Davidoff Solomon is one of the nation’s best-known authorities on corporate law and governance. Professor Solomon specializes in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), disclosure processes and procedures, corporate governance (including issues of corporate separateness), and capital markets regulation. His interdisciplinary research focuses on topics involving law, finance, and accounting. Professor Solomon studies and has been frequently retained by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in litigation related to disclosure processes and procedures, and by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to advise on principles of corporate separateness.
Professor Solomon has often been called to testify before the U.S. Senate, in state and federal courts, and in domestic and international arbitration tribunals. He provides testimony at trial and in deposition in complex litigation involving antitrust and competition, M&A, and disclosure. His corporate governance includes matters related to nonprofits, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), as well as such issues as piercing the corporate veil, evaluating contracts, and analyzing damages. The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) has honored him multiple times as one of the 100 most influential governance professionals in the United States.
For almost a decade, Professor Solomon wrote a weekly column on corporate issues for the New York Times as the Deal Professor. He coauthored Mergers and Acquisitions: Law, Theory, and Practice, a leading casebook in the field, as well as several other volumes focused on M&A and corporate law. Professor Solomon publishes his research in top-tier academic journals in law, finance, and accounting.
At UC Berkeley School of Law, Professor Solomon teaches courses on law, economics and accounting, M&A, and business associations.
Prior to entering academia, Professor Solomon practiced as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York and London, and with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London. He represented U.S. and European clients in securities law matters, acquisitions and sales of public and private companies, joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital investments.
Professor Solomon sits on the board of directors of a SPAC, where he chairs the audit, nominating, and compensation committees.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Andrew D. Richmond
Senior Vice President
Andy Richmond has over thirty years of litigation consulting and expert witness experience. He has testified on the topics of forensic accounting, fraud and concealment schemes, valuation, loss causation, and economic damages in a wide variety of commercial disputes. Mr. Richmond has also led independent forensic accounting investigations for boards, special committees, company management, and Monitoring Trustees of the U.S. Department of Justice. Lexology Direct (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized him as a leader among commercial litigation practitioners.
In dispute-related matters, Mr. Richmond’s clients have included both public and private companies in professional services, manufacturing, banking, real estate, healthcare, energy, insurance, entertainment, and technology. In investigation-related matters, he has examined financial reporting fraud, Ponzi schemes, asset misappropriation, and other forms of corporate misconduct.
Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Mr. Richmond was a managing director at Navigant Consulting, and previously was with Arthur Andersen and KPMG. He has been a recurring guest lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Notre Dame.
Mr. Richmond is a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified fraud examiner (CFE). He is accredited in business valuation (ABV) and also certified in financial forensics (CFF) by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Mr. Richmond is a member of Cornerstone Research’s board of directors and serves on multiple management committees at the firm. He also chairs the finance and investment committees for Little City, a nonprofit that serves adults and children with developmental disabilities.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Craig M. Lewis
Madison S. Wigginton Professor of Finance,
Owen Graduate School of Management,
Vanderbilt University;
Professor of Law,
Vanderbilt Law School
Craig Lewis is an authority on corporate financial policy, asset pricing, and financial market regulation. Professor Lewis is the former chief economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he also served concurrently as director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis. At the agency, he focused on economic analysis in the financial regulatory process, and oversaw a wide range of activities related to agency policy, rulemaking, enforcement and examinations, and risk analysis.
Professor Lewis’s expertise includes convertible debt financing, corporate capital formation, equity analyst behavior, money market and exchange-traded funds, and textual analysis of corporate disclosures. He has testified before Congressional committees. In addition, he has consulted to corporations, public institutions, and government agencies on financial issues, including Dollar General, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, State Street Global Advisors, Union Pacific Railroad, the Federal Trade Commission, and the SEC. He has experience consulting on cryptocurrency features and FinTech markets. Professor Lewis has filed expert reports, and provided expert testimony in deposition and at trial.
Professor Lewis publishes extensively on topics related to financial institutions and markets, and serves as an editor for leading academic journals in finance. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Corporate Finance, and Financial Management, among others.
The winner of multiple awards for teaching excellence, Professor Lewis has taught undergraduate, M.B.A., and Ph.D. courses on corporate and managerial finance and derivatives. He served as a visiting professor at Donau-Universität Krems in Austria, Goethe-Universität in Germany, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Early in his career, Professor Lewis worked as a CPA at a major accounting firm.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Erik R. Sirri
Professor of Finance (Emeritus),
Babson College;
Former Director, SEC Division of Trading and Markets;
Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Research
Erik Sirri consults with clients on matters related to asset management, including robo-advising, mutual funds, and exchange-traded products; securities trading, including high-frequency trading; and financial institutions, with a special emphasis on broker-dealer issues. Professor Sirri has extensive experience with regulatory enforcement matters.
Professor Sirri’s research focuses on the interaction of securities law and finance, investment management, securities market structure, and capital markets. From 2006 through 2009, Professor Sirri was director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he was responsible for matters related to the regulation of stock and options exchanges, national securities associations, brokers, dealers, clearing agencies, and credit ratings agencies. He served as chief economist of the SEC from 1996 through 1999, and was an assistant professor of finance at Harvard Business School from 1989 to 1995.
Professor Sirri’s writings have been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Markets, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and other journals and books. He has served on the boards of securities exchanges, mutual funds, industry associations, and foundations. Professor Sirri has consulted for securities firms, stock exchanges, mutual fund companies, issuers, and information vendors on a variety of regulatory and business matters.
Corporate and Government Investigations Capabilities
In the wake of the recent turmoil in financial and credit markets, regulators have increased their enforcement activities. They often focus on corporate disclosures, including audited financial statements, earnings, and performance expectations, along with management’s discussion of risks and trends.
Cornerstone Research has worked on investigations and litigation brought by government enforcement agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Cornerstone Research has analyzed complex accounting, auditing, and disclosure issues in civil and criminal actions brought by regulators. We have helped clients achieve favorable outcomes, sometimes before any public announcement of allegations or investigations.
Cornerstone Research has determined whether companies needed to issue financial restatements. For example, we evaluated whether a company’s transaction records complied with accounting standards and worked with attorneys to respond to an independent examiner’s conclusions.
Cornerstone Research investigates complex fraud and concealment schemes on behalf of corporate clients and/or their counsel as well as provides consulting and expert testimony in resulting litigation.
Many large U.S. energy firms and financial institutions face allegations of market manipulation, conspiracy, and wire fraud in their trading activities, operation of physical assets, and price reporting. Cornerstone Research has worked on many of the highest-profile energy and commodities cases, using a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate claims resulting from FERC and CFTC investigations.
Cornerstone Research has investigated the activities of investment firms and financial institutions. We have addressed a range of issues, including securities, financial statement, and broker-dealer fraud; FCPA violations; and mismanagement. We have analyzed corporate processes for determining appropriate disclosures and the role of executives, board members, auditors, and other outside advisors in the decision-making process.
The need for internal investigations may arise from whistleblower allegations, contractual disputes, employee malfeasance, corporate monitoring, anticipated litigation, consumer complaints, merger and acquisition activity, and general management or board inquiries. Cornerstone Research has experience investigating a wide variety of alleged corporate misconduct.
Cornerstone Research has conducted investigations into alleged accounting irregularities, employee mismanagement, and disputed business transactions. We have analyzed complex fraud schemes, traced cash and transactions through corporate accounts, reconciled disparate accounting systems, reconstructed client data, and determined solvency and liquidity positions. For many of these matters, Cornerstone Research has utilized sophisticated data analytics to evaluate large volumes of information to help identify trends, perform advanced search queries, and identify relevant records.
Our staff have consulted on a variety of cases involving scrutiny of compensation and taxation, including stock options, compensation adjustments due to mergers or special dividends, performance-based pay, trading by corporate executives using Rule 10b5-1 plans, and tax shelters.
Our staff have consulted on a variety of cases involving allegations of off-label marketing under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. We have also worked on life sciences and healthcare False Claims Act cases involving out-of-network reimbursement, prescription drug payments based on average wholesale prices, healthcare provider-payer disputes, and healthcare providers cross-billing multiple insurers.
By leveraging experience in finance, accounting, and corporate governance process evaluation, Cornerstone Research has helped corporations determine the amount of profits attributable to alleged violations of the FCPA and defend the processes designed to prevent abuses.
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