Frank Schneider

Vice President

Contact

  • Boston

Education

Frank Schneider specializes in addressing complex financial and economic issues that arise in litigation and regulatory investigations, such as disputes related to M&A transactions, securities, valuation, and financial institutions, as well as white collar issues. He has extensive experience assessing loss causation, damages, and valuation issues across a range of industries and financial instruments, including in the context of Rule 10b-5/Section 11 securities class actions. Many of the financial and statistical evaluations Dr. Schneider provides for internal and regulatory investigations require sophisticated analysis of big data.

Dr. Schneider has experience in all phases of litigation, including mediation, deposition, class certification, arbitration, and trial. He leads large teams, often working with multiple experts. His representative experience includes:

Valuation, M&A, and bankruptcy

Dr. Schneider coheads Cornerstone Research’s valuation, M&A, and bankruptcy practice. He has conducted valuation analyses in a variety of contexts:

  • Performed valuation analyses in connection with fairness opinions for M&A transactions, including in appraisal litigation in Delaware
  • Performed valuation of a major financial institution involved in a merger during the credit crisis
  • Estimated lost profits from alleged breach of contract
  • Supported experts in addressing valuation issues arising from the purchase of a minority stake
  • Assessed the impact of a new drug’s entry into an existing market
Securities

Dr. Schneider has analyzed loss causation, class certification, liability, and damages in numerous Rule 10b-5, Section 11 and Section 16, and ERISA cases alleging accounting misstatements, fraudulent earnings guidance, and other misconduct:

  • Evaluated whether securities traded in an efficient market
  • Used event studies to measure stock price reaction to news releases
  • Examined characteristics of securities traded on multiple exchanges
  • Assessed loss causation and damages in 401(k) company “stock drop” litigations
  • Analyzed stock price response to earnings surprises
  • Researched value of corporate control and voting rights
Financial institutions

Dr. Schneider has addressed issues involving banks, insurance companies, and mortgage originators. In particular, he has analyzed the connections among economic trends, changes in the regulatory environment, and company performance:

  • Addressed issues related to market structure, competition, class certification, and damages in matters involving alleged manipulation of setting of interest rate benchmarks, as well as in a municipal derivatives antitrust investigation and in foreign exchange antitrust matters
  • Assessed quality of execution of FX transactions
  • Analyzed off-balance-sheet conduits, such as structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and the impact of liquidity on their portfolio securities including collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS)
  • Analyzed liquidity, both market-wide and for specific securities
  • Evaluated class certification issues in cases involving institutional investors
  • Addressed allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that a bank made inadequate disclosures and thereby misled investors about certain risks
  • Assessed an independent sales organization’s claims against a merchant bank in the credit card space
Asset management

Dr. Schneider has extensive expertise with mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds:

Credit rating agencies

In a range of matters, Dr. Schneider has analyzed the role of credit ratings in financial markets:

  • Assessed rating agencies’ general methodologies to determine the creditworthiness of corporations or financial instruments
  • Analyzed reasonableness of credit rating models, their inputs, and implementation
White collar litigation

Dr. Schneider has assessed damages in several cases involving alleged Ponzi schemes, and has evaluated materiality and damages in insider trading cases and SEC actions:

Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Schneider worked at Protego Asesores Financieros (now part of Evercore) as a senior investment banking analyst, focusing on private equity transactions, M&A transactions, and valuation matters.

Case

Omni Logistics LLC v. Forward Air Corporation

Case

In re Oracle Corporation Derivative Litigation

Report

Appraisal Litigation in Delaware—Trends in Petitions and Opinions, 2006–2022

Case

In Re Twitter Inc. v. Elon Musk et al.

Case

Energy Industry Arbitration

Press Release

Accounting-Related Securities Class Action Filings Continue to Rise in 2020

Article

The Potential Impact of COVID-19-Induced Volatility on Business Valuation in M&A and Bankruptcy Litigation

Article

Financial Strategies for Oil and Gas Cos. During the Slump