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Experience
Real Estate Securities
Cornerstone Research has consulted on numerous matters involving real estate securities. We have addressed disclosure, equity and debt financing, investment decisions, securitization, and derivatives issues. We have worked on matters involving general and limited partners of real estate partnerships, home builders and other development companies, publicly held companies, hedge funds, auditors, and underwriters. In recent and ongoing credit-crisis litigation, we have analyzed complex securitized real estate instruments such as MBSs and CDOs. For example, in a dispute between a REIT and an investment bank, we worked with a professor of real estate finance to examine the default rates of the securities in the collateral portfolio and determine the reasonableness of the initial pricing of securitization tranches. In a bankruptcy matter that involved the valuation of residual MBS interests, Cornerstone Research and a finance professor examined the appropriate discount rate to apply to the expected cash flows of the residual tranche.
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Real Estate Valuation
The real estate crisis has led to substantial declines in the value of single- and multifamily residential, office, retail, industrial, and hospitality properties. Litigation involving these assets requires the expertise to identify relevant macroeconomic factors, local market factors, and intrasector effects. Cornerstone Research has analyzed these factors to examine issues arising from failed real estate joint ventures, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty claims.
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Financial Institutions and Subprime Lending
Assessing the financial and economic effects of changes in real estate markets is often a critical component of litigation faced by financial institutions, such as mortgage lenders, banks, and insurance companies. Cornerstone Research has analyzed risk management, loss reserves, forecasting, disclosure, and accounting issues related to real estate assets. We have addressed issues in real estate matters involving lending and workout procedures, housing policy, and regulatory practices.
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Real Estate Antitrust and Competition Litigation
Contracts among participants in real estate markets and the structure of these markets have led to antitrust and competition allegations. Cornerstone Research has worked on a variety of competition cases related to real estate, including those involving allegations of exclusionary practices, monopolization, and price fixing.
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