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
Bryan M. Ricchetti
Chief Executive Officer
Bryan Ricchetti is the CEO of Cornerstone Research and serves on the firm’s board of directors. Dr. Ricchetti formerly coheaded the firm’s economics practices and, previously, served as cohead of the antitrust and competition practice.
Dr. Ricchetti specializes in antitrust and labor matters, with a focus on economic and statistical issues when assessing antitrust impact, market definition, market power, class certification, hiring and compensation decisions, and alleged discrimination. His industry expertise includes technology, online commerce, online search, retail, food and agriculture, education, and sports.
As an expert witness, Dr. Ricchetti has been retained to analyze questions of antitrust impact and damages, and the procompetitive effects of a horizontal agreement. He has been deposed multiple times and has testified at trial in U.S. federal court.
In 2024, Consulting Magazine named Dr. Ricchetti to its list of Top Consultants, recognizing him for “above and beyond” leadership across multiple categories, disciplines, and offices. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized Dr. Ricchetti as a Global Elite Thought Leader and has recommended him as a leading competition economist. In 2025, he was also honored with Lexology’s Client Choice recognition.
Antitrust and competition
Dr. Ricchetti consults on competition matters involving horizontal price fixing, vertical exclusionary practices, and attempted monopolization or monopsony, among other issues. His recent case experience includes engagements in competition in the technology industry, including online search and online commerce. Representative matters include:
- In re Broiler Chicken Grower Antitrust Litigation
- American President Lines v. Matson
- United States v. Brewbaker
- Southeastern Milk Antitrust Litigation
Dr. Ricchetti also works extensively on labor monopsony issues, including multiple class actions alleging violations of no-poach agreements. For example, he supported expert testimony in no-poach matters involving McDonald’s and Jimmy John’s. He consulted on a no-poach matter involving defense contractor firms, and assessed the effects of an alleged recruiting and hiring conspiracy between competing technology companies.
Complex discrimination and labor
Dr. Ricchetti works on high-profile matters involving the application of statistical analysis to claims of discrimination. In the closely followed Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et al., Dr. Ricchetti supported expert testimony related to statistical analyses of alleged discrimination in Harvard’s admissions process.
Dr. Ricchetti has significant experience applying statistical analyses to discrimination claims in various labor markets. He has analyzed pay and promotion outcomes in class action litigation in the financial services, retail, and tech sectors, among other industries. Representative matters include:
- Dukes et al. v Walmart Stores Inc.
- Phipps et al. v Walmart Stores Inc.
- Morgan et al. v. U.S. Soccer Federation Inc.
- Heldt et al. v. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
- Class Certification Analysis in Employment Discrimination Litigation
Dr. Ricchetti supported expert testimony related to the economics of the business format franchise model in Patel v. 7-Eleven, a matter involving worker classification under Massachusetts state law.
Pro bono
On behalf of the ACLU of Mississippi, Dr. Ricchetti provided expert testimony in Brown et al. v. Madison County, Mississippi, analyzing the placement of police roadblocks in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Madison County, Mississippi. Dr. Ricchetti submitted an expert report on behalf of a United States army veteran who sued a college for damages associated with lost wages, after the institution failed to properly file Veterans Affairs financial aid paperwork.
Research and publications
Dr. Ricchetti presents and publishes research on economic and statistical issues that arise in litigation. Together with Justin McCrary of Columbia Law School, Dr. Ricchetti coauthored “Accounting for the Employee-Employer Relationship in Antitrust Analysis,” published in ABA Antitrust Magazine.
He coauthored “Applying Econometrics to Assess Market Definition and Market Power,” a chapter in the ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s handbook on Econometrics: Legal, Practical, and Technical Issues (Second Edition).
Before joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Ricchetti was an economist at the U.S. Census Bureau and an analyst at MDRC, a public policy think tank.
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 oversees the firm’s data and innovation hubs, the Applied Research Center, and the Data Science Center. He also serves on the firm’s executive committee.
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 (ARC). Harnessing specialized expertise in technical areas of economics, finance, and technology, ARC enhances the firm’s effectiveness and efficiency in supporting clients and experts.
Consulting Magazine named Mr. Muhamedrahimov to its 2026 list of Rising Stars of the Profession, recognizing him for excellence in Strategy and Transformation.
Applying leading-edge methodologies in statistical analysis, economic theory modeling, AI, natural language processing, and machine learning, Mr. Muhamedrahimov and the ARC 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 ARC 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.