Laurent Samuel

Laurent Samuel consults to clients and supports experts in regulatory enforcement actions and white-collar litigation involving market manipulation claims and trading conduct, futures and options markets, and commodities markets issues. Across a range of financial markets, Mr. Samuel evaluates alleged market manipulation and trading conduct claims, payment for order-flow arrangements, price impact, and trading and hedging strategies. He also addresses valuation matters, including those arising in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, bankruptcy proceedings, breaches of contract, and venture capital (VC) investments.

Mr. Samuel leads teams to analyze large, complex, high-frequency financial datasets, from both private entities and trading exchanges. A former commodities trader, he has extensive experience with trading strategies and market behavior.

Mr. Samuel’s representative experience includes:

Market manipulation claims, trading conduct, and market microstructure

• Investigating allegations of market manipulation, false reporting, and price manipulation in commodities with related physically settled futures markets
• Analyzing alleged spoofing activities in commodity and financial futures markets
• Examining front-running allegations and pre-hedging practices in interest rate swaps and foreign exchange (FX) markets
• Evaluating alleged benchmark manipulations in energy products
• Evaluating alleged deficiencies in best execution practices in the context of high-frequency trading and payment for order flow in equity markets
• Analyzing claims of antitrust behavior in futures exchange markets
• Working on antitrust investigations and litigation related to U.S. Treasury futures and several commodities futures
• Assessing price-fixing allegations of variable-rate demand obligation (VRDO) markets on behalf of a joint defense

Valuation

• Analyzing company and transaction valuations using discounted cash flow (DCF) methodologies, evaluating assessed cash flow projections and discount rates, and assessing comparable companies and transactions
• Addressing deal process, corporate governance, and hedge fund activism issues
• Calculating damages related to alleged breach of contract
• Analyzing companies’ solvency, financial position, and access to capital markets

Before joining Cornerstone Research, Mr. Samuel held positions at leading financial institutions, including Louis Dreyfus Commodities, where he worked in agriculture commodities and metals trading, and Société Générale in Paris, where he oversaw high value–added auditing and consulting assignments across various business lines including retail, investment banking, and capital markets.