Energy and Commodities

Cornerstone Research has extensive experience in handling Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) disputes, enforcement, and commercial litigation. Our team delivers rigorous economic analysis and expert testimony to support clients in regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation. Through close collaboration with clients, including outside counsel, government agencies, and in-house counsel, we develop targeted economic arguments and strategies that address our clients’ unique needs, whether in regulatory proceedings, civil or criminal litigation, or internal investigations.

Cornerstone Research has a deep understanding of the complex issues surrounding electricity and energy disputes. Our team of experienced professionals and experts leverage advanced analytical techniques to deliver data-driven analyses related to electricity issues that arise in disputes, commercial litigation, and regulatory enforcement matters.

Our industry and academic experts have a proven track record of testifying in court and before regulatory bodies. We deliver insights that help our clients navigate complex disputes and make informed decisions in a wide range of energy and electricity matters, including in renewable generation and transmission project development, co-location of data centers with nuclear plants, and power purchase agreement (PPA) negotiations. This includes experience opining on industry practices and the accepted understanding of industry terms. Our experts also have experience investigating possible market manipulation, modeling wholesale electricity markets, analyzing the impact of solar and wind on electricity markets, and evaluating valuation disputes.

Our professionals have analyzed the effects of mergers, price-fixing allegations, and other potentially anticompetitive behavior in the energy industry. Such analysis typically requires applying the sophisticated techniques common in antitrust cases.

We have worked on litigation involving a variety of agricultural commodities, including grains, ethanol, dairy, tobacco, high-fructose corn syrup, and meatpacking. This includes extensive experience in the delivery procedures on physically delivered futures contracts involving shipping certificates and warehouse receipts. In these agricultural matters, we have analyzed antitrust issues, market manipulation, breach of contract claims, and mergers.

Analysis of economic issues and expert testimony on punitive damages form the basis of our work on environmental impact cases. These include litigation involving groundwater contamination, seafood poaching, and product liability.

Building on extensive experience in financial valuation, Cornerstone Research utilizes the financial asset attributes of commodities to develop valuation techniques for energy commodities, assets, liabilities, and risks, and to determine the implications of energy market dynamics for the valuation of firms participating in the industry.

We have applied industry expertise to numerous contract disputes involving energy and commodities. The issues involved in these matters include contract pricing provisions, regulatory impact, insurance coverage, and valuation of derivative contracts.

Cornerstone Research has also worked on liability and damages issues in high-profile accounting cases in the energy industry. We address cases with a combination of economic analysis, understanding of industry dynamics, and knowledge of accounting principles.

Energy and commodities disputes span a wide range of data, from tick-level trading and order-book records to wholesale power dispatch data, agricultural futures and cash markets, environmental monitoring data, and complex contract terms. In collaboration with our Data Science Center, we use AI to manage and analyze these disparate datasets, building the market models, order books, and valuation analyses that inform our testimony across market manipulation, electricity, antitrust, agricultural commodities, and contract disputes. We also use large language models to facilitate the review and identification of relevant documents, such as communications, regulatory filings, and contract records, within large productions. Our Applied Research Center brings deep technical capabilities to stress-test the economic and statistical models underlying our opinions on causation, damages, and market power. We leverage agentic AI to accelerate this data-intensive work and document every analytical step so it remains auditable and reproducible. This allows our senior professionals to focus on judgment and case strategy rather than manual data processing.