In an era of unprecedented technological disruption, where the pace of change is accelerating exponentially, businesses must adapt, often quickly, to remain competitive. As markets, businesses, and technology become increasingly complex, so too do the questions that arise in litigation and regulatory proceedings. Providing rigorous, cutting-edge analysis in this environment requires sophisticated technical expertise and computing infrastructure, along with an innovative, multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving.
The Applied Research Center and Data Science Center keep Cornerstone Research at the forefront of litigation consulting, helping our clients address complex challenges and stay ahead of the curve. Together, these hubs form a powerhouse of capabilities, real-world experience, and infrastructure that sets the industry standard for excellence.
Our specialist centers enable us to tackle complex data-intensive challenges from multiple angles, delivering innovative solutions that meet the unique needs of our clients. Our team provides depth of knowledge and litigation-specific expertise across a wide variety of case types, allowing for the robust implementation of innovative analyses and more efficient project delivery.
Applied Research CenterOur Applied Research Center provides specialization in highly technical areas of economics, finance, behavioral science, and technology. The team deploys multidisciplinary solutions to address questions that arise on cases, leveraging specialist expertise in consulting, academia, and industry, combined with state-of-the-art research and methods. |
Data Science CenterOur Data Science Center provides specialization in big data processing and analysis, AI, and machine learning approaches. The Data Science Center has developed industry-leading capabilities and expertise, continuously investing in advanced technology, professionals, and methodologies. Our state-of-the-art infrastructure enables us to securely receive, process, and analyze vast datasets, quickly and at scale. From sophisticated text analytics and sentiment analysis to robust statistical modeling and geospatial analytics, we employ a comprehensive suite of tools, including large-language models, to unlock sophisticated analysis and insights. |
Leadership Team
Leadership Team
Rahul Guha
Chief Executive Officer
Rahul Guha serves as the CEO of Cornerstone Research. In that role, he leads an international team of professionals dedicated to supporting clients and experts in a range of complex litigation challenges. The firm has earned a reputation for consistent high quality and effectiveness by delivering rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis for over thirty-five years. Dr. Guha is the former cohead of the firm’s antitrust and competition practice, and founder of the life sciences practice.
Dr. Guha has over twenty-five years of experience applying economic analysis to a wide range of high-profile antitrust, intellectual property, and alleged product misrepresentation cases. He consults on regulatory inquiries, motion practice, and all phases of litigation and arbitral proceedings in the United States and international venues. Working with counsel, he helps to develop economic and financial testimony for leading academic and industry experts. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized Dr. Guha as a leading competition economist and has recommended him among leading commercial litigation practitioners.
Antitrust and competition
Dr. Guha has analyzed class certification, liability, and damages in multiple antitrust matters in the pharmaceutical industry. Representative matters include:
- In re Niaspan Antitrust Litigation
- In re Intuniv Antitrust Litigation
- In re Ovcon Antitrust Litigation
- In re Skelaxin (Metaxalone) Antitrust Litigation
Dr. Guha has worked on significant merger investigations and antitrust matters, both in the United States and Europe. Such matters include:
- Federal Trade Commission v. 1-800 Contacts
- United States v. AT&T Inc. et al.
- EC’s Phase II Investigation of the Essilor/Luxottica Merger
Intellectual property
Dr. Guha has worked on numerous Hatch-Waxman Paragraph IV cases. He has evaluated irreparable harm from “at-risk” entry by manufacturers of generic pharmaceuticals; in several of these matters, courts granted motions for preliminary injunctions filed by the branded drug companies. Dr. Guha has also analyzed commercial success issues related to obviousness claims in cases involving antipsychotics, antivirals, depression, ED, epilepsy, migraine, narcolepsy, OAB, oncology, osteoporosis, and statins.
Dr. Guha has estimated damages, critiqued lost profits, and assessed reasonable royalties in multiple patent and trade secrets cases. His expertise includes a wide range of pharmaceuticals and biologic treatments, covering conditions such as asthma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. His casework includes:
- Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets for a Drug in Development
- Section 337 Unfair Import Investigation of Medical Devices
Product misrepresentation
Dr. Guha consults with attorneys on government-initiated criminal and civil claims stemming from the alleged off-label marketing of major drugs, assessing factors that may have led doctors to prescribe for off-label indications, and determining economic causation. In In re Actiq Sales and Marketing Practices Litigation, he analyzed class certification and damages issues related to the alleged off-label marketing of a painkiller approved for cancer pain.
He has addressed state False Claims Act and average wholesale pricing (AWP) in multiple matters related to alleged fraudulent pricing and Medicaid overpayment.
Pro bono
Dr. Guha served as an expert witness in Brown et al. v. Madison County, Mississippi, which resulted in a landmark consent decree that mandated new policies to address racial profiling. He analyzed the frequency of traffic stops across different racial groups, and assessed whether roadblocks in Madison County were implemented more frequently in neighborhoods that are predominantly African-American.
Dr. Guha has published articles on competition, intellectual property issues in pharmaceutical and biologic drug markets, and analytic marketing techniques in litigation. He has given presentations on these topics at numerous conferences and at various law firms in the United States and Europe. In addition, he has taught graduate-level courses at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the Indian School of Business.
Leadership Team
Phil Leslie
Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
Phil Leslie leads Cornerstone Research’s initiatives and consulting services related to artificial intelligence (AI) and other leading-edge technologies. Dr. Leslie also oversees the firm’s data and innovation hubs, the Applied Research Center, and the Data Science Center.
Business and academic leadership
Dr. Leslie is a leading industrial organizational economist and leader in data analytics with nearly three decades of experience in the technology industry and academia. He served for ten years as Chief Digital Economist and Vice President at Amazon. Dr. Leslie led a team of one hundred economists, researchers, data scientists, and software engineers to develop strategic insights and new modeling approaches for Amazon’s global advertising, media, and entertainment businesses.
Before joining Amazon, Dr. Leslie was a tenured professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. In addition to teaching the core M.B.A. course in business strategy, he directed executive and custom business education programs. Dr. Leslie was honored with UCLA Anderson’s M.B.A. Teaching Excellence Award.
Previously, Dr. Leslie served for nine years as a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he taught courses in strategic management and empirical microeconomics. He was also a founder of Hazel Analytics, a company specializing in restaurant food safety data analytics, that was acquired by Ecolab.
Thought leadership
Dr. Leslie is a leading expert in the economics of advertising, media, and entertainment, with deep expertise in demand pricing and information disclosure. At Amazon, he played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s advertising and video streaming businesses through strategic science initiatives. He also brings significant strategic management expertise, having taught business strategy at Stanford and UCLA Anderson for over a decade.
Dr. Leslie’s academic research on information disclosure—such as the effects of restaurant hygiene grades and calorie labeling—provides compelling evidence of how transparency can influence consumer behavior, firm conduct, and public health outcomes.
In the area of pricing strategy, his work has yielded actionable insights into bundling and dynamic pricing, particularly under conditions of demand uncertainty, with a focus on event ticketing markets.
His research has been published in top-tier journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies. He formerly served as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Leadership Team
Mike DeCesaris
Vice President, Data Science Center
Mike DeCesaris leads the Data Science Center at Cornerstone Research and coheads the firm’s technology, digital economy, and artificial intelligence practice. Mr. DeCesaris plays a leading role in Cornerstone Research’s initiatives related to artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (GenAI), and Large Language Models (LLMs).
The Data Science Center has grown substantially under Mr. DeCesaris’s leadership. The National Law Journal named the Data Science Center’s interdisciplinary team of data scientists and data engineers a Legal Technology Trailblazer, recognizing their machine learning (ML), text analytics, big data analytics, and cloud computing expertise. In 2024, Consulting Magazine named Mr. DeCesaris to its list of Consulting Leaders in Technology, recognizing him for excellence in client service.
Mr. DeCesaris has more than twenty-five years of experience consulting on all phases of commercial litigation, internal investigations, and regulatory matters. He focuses on complex, data-intensive empirical projects at the intersection of economics, law, technology, and data science.
Mr. DeCesaris works with counsel to efficiently manage the production and analysis of large, proprietary databases. His expertise includes issues related to healthcare, pharmaceuticals, the False Claims Act, antitrust and competition, merger reviews, intellectual property (IP), and allegations of consumer fraud, product misrepresentation, and breach of contracts. Mr. DeCesaris works on matters in numerous industries, notably airlines, consumer products, energy and commodities, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, technology, and telecommunications and media.
Mr. DeCesaris coauthored “How AI and Machine Learning Are Impacting the Litigation Landscape” (Law.com) and “Using Big Data in Gathering Expert Testimony” (Law360). Corporate Counsel Business Journal interviewed him on “Digging for Deep Expertise: Big data and discovery deadlines drive surging need for well-prepared experts.” Mr. DeCesaris also leads the firm’s thought leadership on large language models (LLMs), specialized graphics processing units (GPUs), and unstructured data analysis, among other topics.
Before joining Cornerstone Research, Mr. DeCesaris was a consultant with National Economic Research Associates.
Leadership Team
Rashid Muhamedrahimov
Director, Applied Research Center
Rashid Muhamedrahimov leads Cornerstone Research’s Applied Research Center. Harnessing specialized expertise in technical areas of economics, finance, and technology, the Applied Research Center enhances the firm’s effectiveness and efficiency in supporting clients and experts.
Applying leading-edge methodologies in statistical analysis, economic theory modeling, AI, natural language processing, and machine learning, Mr. Muhamedrahimov and the Applied Research Center team bring extensive knowledge, experience, and state-of-the-art techniques to deliver expert solutions in increasingly complex case challenges. By focusing on particular areas of technical competence and conducting novel research, developing tools to improve efficiency, and providing thought leadership, the Applied Research Center team deepens and advances the quality of Cornerstone Research’s work.
An economist and data scientist with more than ten years of economic, litigation, and regulatory consulting experience, Mr. Muhamedrahimov has worked on nearly one hundred cases in various capacities involving economics and data science analyses. He has developed and applied advanced economic analytics tools and technologies to antitrust issues, including abuse of dominance and anticompetitive agreements, merger control, commercial litigation, and international arbitration matters. Mr. Muhamedrahimov’s industry experience includes agriculture, automobiles, digital platforms, energy, healthcare, intellectual property, online markets, retail, and technology.
Mr. Muhamedrahimov speaks and publishes on the role of advanced methodologies and technologies in commercial litigation, including those at the intersection of data science. Before joining Cornerstone Research, he was head of data science at an international consulting firm.