We apply financial and economic analysis to issues that arise in the changing energy and commodities markets, including those related to allegations of market manipulation and price fixing, breach of contract, merger reviews, trading disputes, asset valuation, and environmental impact.

Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.

Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.

Ashley Langer

Associate Professor of Economics,
Eller College of Management,
University of Arizona

Ashley Langer is an econometrics, energy, and industrial organization expert. Professor Langer applies sophisticated empirical methods to study regulation, competition, and firm and consumer behavior. She analyzes a range of economic issues, including those involving energy markets, transportation, and the environment. Professor Langer has testified on issues related to class certification and economic damages, including in such high-profile class actions as Guzman et al. v. Polaris Inc. et al. and Garcia et al. v. Volkswagen Group of America Inc. et al.

Professor Langer has analyzed consumer decisions, including those related to the automotive and oil industries. She has evaluated decisions on which vehicles to drive, how preferences form, when and where to purchase fuel, and whether to adopt electric vehicles. She has also investigated the impact of consumer demographic group preferences on vehicle pricing.

In her recent research, Professor Langer has assessed energy and environmental policy design issues. For example, she has analyzed international oil markets and the factors that influence pricing, as well as how Clean Air Act regulatory enforcement affects pollution levels and firms’ investment decisions. Further, she has studied the impact of energy policy on durable goods such as automobiles and residential solar. In particular, Professor Langer has examined how households respond to solar subsidies that change over time, how uncertainty surrounding policy enforcement affects coal power plant retirement and upgrade decisions, and how taxing vehicle mileage (rather than fuel consumption) changes Highway Trust Fund revenues. Her earlier work includes assessing the effect of congestion tolling on urban land use.

Professor Langer’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

At the University of Arizona, Professor Langer teaches courses in business strategy, empirical research methods, environmental economics, energy and environmental policy, and government regulation. She has been honored with several teaching and advising awards. In addition, Professor Langer presents on industrial organization and empirical research methods, as well as transportation, energy, and environmental topics, at professional conferences and universities in the United States and internationally.

Professor Langer previously taught at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia Business School and the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago.

Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.

Daniel Sumner

Frank H. Buck Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
Chair, California Agricultural Issues Lab,
University of California, Davis

Daniel Sumner is an expert in national and international competition in agricultural markets as well as agricultural economics and policy. His research and writing focus on the consequences of farm and trade policy for agriculture and the economy. Professor Sumner has analyzed markets for beef, dairy, wine, olive oil, rice, wheat, cotton, and many other agricultural products.

He has testified in numerous matters involving agriculture, including cases related to antitrust, false advertising, class certification, and cross-border trade. Professor Sumner has experience as an expert witness in depositions and trials in state and federal courts in the United States, with regulatory agencies, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, and dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization.

As chair of the California Agricultural Issues Lab, Professor Sumner oversees and conducts a university outreach program related to public issues concerning agriculture. Prior to his current positions, Professor Sumner was the assistant secretary for economics at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he was involved in policy formulation and analysis on the whole range of topics facing agriculture and rural America, from food and farm programs to trade, resources, and rural development. In his role as supervisor of the Department of Agriculture’s economics and statistics agencies, Professor Sumner was also responsible for data collection, outlook, and economic research. He has also served as a senior economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Professor Sumner is the author or coauthor of more than one hundred academic publications, including articles in the Journal of Political Economy, Agricultural Economics, and the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He has also coauthored and contributed to a number of books and has written widely for industry outlets.

Our extensive network includes top experts from academia and industry.

Gautam Gowrisankaran

Professor of Economics,
Columbia University;
Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Research

Gautam Gowrisankaran is an expert in industrial organization, healthcare economics, and energy and environmental economics. Professor Gowrisankaran has analyzed issues of market definition and market power, the competitive effects of mergers, and claims of attempted monopolization. He has also addressed allegations of tying, foreclosure, and other exclusionary practices arising in such industries as healthcare, consumer goods, high-tech products, payment services, and transportation.

An experienced expert witness, Professor Gowrisankaran has been retained by federal and state agencies as well as by private clients in numerous high-profile mergers, antitrust litigation matters, and consumer class actions. His trial testimony includes United States et al. v. UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Change Healthcare Inc.; Sidibe v. Sutter Health; In re: Purdue Pharma L.P. et al.; and Federal Trade Commission v. Hackensack Meridian Health Inc. and Englewood Healthcare Foundation. He has consulted to the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice on matters involving airlines and mergers in the healthcare space.

In his research, Professor Gowrisankaran conducts both theoretical and empirical studies of topics related to industrial organization and competition. He has particular expertise in industries that are highly regulated and exhibit rapid technological change, such as healthcare and energy, as well as markets in which prices are negotiated.

One focus of his recent research is energy, including renewable energy generation and environmental regulation. Professor Gowrisankaran has also analyzed a variety of issues in healthcare markets, such as hospital competition, the impact of countervailing market power, hospital quality, and the price impact of hospital mergers. He has also analyzed competition issues in markets involving health insurance and accountable care organizations (ACOs).

A prolific author, Professor Gowrisankaran has published research in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Econometrica, and the Journal of Political Economy. He has served on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the American Economic Review and the RAND Journal of Economics. In addition, Professor Gowrisankaran has written analyses for a legal audience, including in the Antitrust Law Journal. He has been honored with best paper awards and recognized by Who’s Who Legal as a leading competition economist.

Global Competition Review recognized Professor Gowrisankaran to its inaugural list of the world’s most important antitrust academics. He was also honored in Lexology’s 2022 Client Choice list.

Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Professor Gowrisankaran was a tenured professor of economics and the Peter and Nancy Salter Chair in Healthcare Management at the University of Arizona. He has held visiting academic appointments at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Yale University, and Harvard University, among others.

Professor Gowrisankaran serves on the U.S. Congressional Budget Office Health Advisory Panel. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

Energy and Commodities Capabilities

Cornerstone Research has been involved in many high-profile energy and commodity market manipulation investigations. The combined experience of our staff and experts in energy markets, antitrust, and finance brings a multidisciplinary approach to the evaluation of market manipulation allegations.

Our consultants 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 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.

Featured Cases

Featured Publications

18 August 2023

Counterfactual Models: A Key Tool in Energy Price Disputes

This article discuss methodological considerations in selecting an appropriate model to estimate counterfactual prices in energy markets.

10 June 2022

From Zero to 100: Crude Oil Price Changes in 2020–2022

This article provides analysis of the market microstructure implications of oil futures and spot prices for market participants.

26 October 2021

Characteristics of U.S. Natural Gas Transactions: FERC Form 552 Submissions as of July 2021

Marketed production of natural gas decreased slightly in the United States in 2020 but remained near the previous year’s record-high levels.

1 October 2021

Characteristics of U.S. Natural Gas Transactions

Cornerstone Research compiles an annual report based on data from FERC Form 552 submissions. By supplementing the data with proprietary classificat...

24 February 2021

The Legal and Economic Implications from Recent UK Spoofing Cases

The authors discuss the FCA’s increased enforcement focus on spoofing cases.

22 September 2020

Cross-Market Manipulation Under the Microscope

The authors discuss illustrative cross-market manipulation enforcement cases and their implications for market participants in the EU, UK and US.

3 June 2020

Financial Strategies for Oil and Gas Cos. During the Slump

The authors discuss how the oil price decline due to COVID-19 could lead to changes in the oil and gas industry in this Law360 article.

5 May 2020

“Contango With Me”: COVID-19 and the U.S. Crude Oil Market

This article looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on crude oil storage in the United States.

27 June 2019

Battle of the Benchmarks: Brent Crude Oil and West Texas Intermediate

This article examines the evolution and relationship between these two benchmarks and what factors have impacted their prominence as a benchmark.

18 September 2018

Natural Gas International Arbitration

Understanding the regulation, institutional framework, and demand and supply economics of natural gas is critical to assessing the issues that aris...

How can we help you?

For more information or assistance with a specific matter, please contact us.