Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Justin McCrary
Paul J. Evanson Professor of Law,
Columbia Law School;
Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Research
Justin McCrary is an expert on statistical methods and economic modeling at the intersection of law and economics. Professor McCrary has testified on issues related to class certification, antitrust, labor, and statistics. His experience covers a range of industries and markets, including healthcare, life sciences, labor, telecommunications, high tech, and retail.
Class certification
Professor McCrary provided testimony in two seminal no-poach litigation matters involving the McDonald’s and Jimmy John’s franchises. In both matters, he analyzed the potential procompetitive benefits of the challenged clauses and opined on issues of class certification. Class certification was denied in both cases, with both U.S. district court judges relying on Professor McCrary’s analyses in their opinions.
Professor McCrary has testified on class certification issues in a high-profile gender discrimination case focused on pay and promotion outcomes at a large U.S. retailer. He has also filed reports on class certification issues in false advertising, product liability, and breach of contract matters.
Antitrust
Professor McCrary has extensive experience as an expert in antitrust cases. In a significant matter in a high-tech industry, he addressed allegations of conspiracy to fix prices, as well as analyzed and rebutted an opposing expert’s damages model. He has analyzed damages resulting from alleged collusion among pharmacies in South America. In AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile, Professor McCrary served as a consulting expert for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Statistical methods and analysis
An authority on high-performance computing and statistical techniques, Professor McCrary has testified at deposition on sampling, probability theory, and statistical methods. His experience includes multiple mortgage-backed securities and insider trading matters. He has also examined the statistical evidence for alleged overbilling of Medicare by healthcare providers in both government audit and False Claim Act matters.
Research and teaching
Professor McCrary has published research on econometric methods for measuring damages in antitrust litigation. In addition, his scholarship covers a wide range of topics, including employment discrimination, high-frequency trading, financial market structure, and monetary policy. A prolific author and co-author, his work has appeared in leading journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Professor McCrary is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Prior to joining Columbia University, Professor McCrary taught at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the founding director of the UC Berkeley Social Sciences Data Laboratory, or “D-Lab,” which focuses on emerging big data techniques in social science research.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Victor Stango
Professor, Graduate School of Management,
University of California, Davis
Victor Stango has been a leading expert in banking, household finance, and behavioral economics for more than twenty years. Professor Stango has served as an expert witness in numerous matters involving bank fees, credit card pricing and disclosures, insurance, and credit reporting, among other areas.
Much of Professor Stango’s expert work examines consumers’ usage and understanding of financial and nonfinancial products, including how they may interpret disclosures associated with those products. Professor Stango has testified in deposition and at trial.
In his academic research, Professor Stango examines how consumers make short- and long-run financial decisions; learn about and use financial products and services; and interpret financial disclosures and information provided to them by banks and other institutions. He also analyzes issues related to credit reporting, data breach, and data privacy.
Professor Stango was formerly a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and New York. His research and opinions have been featured in major news outlets and leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Review of Financial Studies. He has been recognized for outstanding teaching at UC Davis.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Kimberly Neuendorf
Professor, School of Communication,
Cleveland State University
Kimberly Neuendorf is an authority on content analysis methods. She specializes in how communications, such as social media or advertising, can drive audience and consumer preferences, perceptions, and behavior. Professor Neuendorf is the author of The Content Analysis Guidebook, a reference book currently in its second edition. She has also published wide-ranging academic research, including more than 130 articles, chapters, and research reports.
Professor Neuendorf has been retained in major matters to testify on content analysis methodology and media impact. As an expert witness in one of the largest defamation cases filed in the United States, her analysis of Twitter demonstrated how news coverage influenced social media activity. In a national class action against an automobile manufacturer, she analyzed the volume and content of news stories in order to assess consumers’ potential understanding of the alleged defect.
Professor Neuendorf has consulted to a range of organizations, including the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, the National Cancer Institute, the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Harvard Identity Project at Harvard University.
At Cleveland State University, Professor Neuendorf teaches in the areas of media communication and research methods, including content analysis. Previously, she taught at Michigan State University and was a visiting professor at the University of Maryland.
Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.
Donna L. Hoffman
Professor of Marketing,
Louis Rosenfeld Distinguished Scholar,
GW School of Business,
George Washington University
Donna Hoffman is a world-renowned expert in online consumer experience and behavior, including how consumers react to information and disclosures in digital and online settings. Professor Hoffman is also a leading scholar on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) on consumer perceptions and behavior. She has extensive experience with survey methods and content analysis.
Professor Hoffman has testified in multiple matters, including in two federal trials. Her testimony in these matters included evaluating and opining on issues relating to online consumer behavior, digital marketing, and the role of internet search in the purchase decision process. Professor Hoffman has also applied her expertise to evaluate allegations of dark patterns in online user interfaces and their influence on user perceptions, decisions, and behavior. Some of her work in these contexts has involved data privacy issues.
Professor Hoffman cofounded and codirects the Center for the Connected Consumer, an academic research center dedicated to understanding consumer experiences with AI and smart devices that are connected to the internet.
Professor Hoffman’s research has appeared in top academic and managerial publications, such as Marketing Science, Management Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Consumer Research, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She currently serves on the editorial boards of leading academic publications in the marketing discipline, as well as serving as an associate editor at the Journal of Marketing. She coedited the book Beyond the Basics: Research-Based Rules for Internet Retailing Advantage and has coauthored numerous book chapters focused on consumer behavior in online environments.
One of the most highly cited scholars in the marketing field, Professor Hoffman has received many prestigious research awards. These include the Society for Consumer Psychology Fellow Award; the Robert B. Clarke Educator of the Year Award from Marketing EDGE (formerly the DMEF); the Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for long-term contributions to the marketing discipline; and the William O’Dell/Journal of Marketing Research Award for long-term research impact.
Professor Hoffman has consulted to major corporations on electronic commerce and digital marketing strategy, including FedEx.com, Intel, Lands’ End/Sears, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart.com. She also served as a member of the Procter & Gamble Digital Advisory Board.
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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