Defamation, Reputational Harm, and Brand Valuation

Matters that involve reputational or brand harm often require analysis of whether certain communications or actions affected perceptions of consumers or other market participants. We have deep experience using well-established methodologies to isolate the challenged conduct’s impact (if any) on such perceptions.

• Consumer Surveys: Our experience includes designing and evaluating surveys, including likelihood of confusion and brand dilution studies, to test if the challenged conduct influenced the public’s perceptions or influenced consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a good.
• Content Analysis of Challenged Statements: Using court-accepted techniques, our experts can analyze large datasets of media, advertising, or other corporate communications to evaluate the scope, tone, and reach of challenged statements, including whether certain messages are more or less likely to be shared, elicit reactions, or go viral.
• Sentiment and Perception Analysis: Our experts can analyze social media and other data sources to evaluate shifts in public perceptions. We deploy state-of-the-art tools, including AI and large language models (LLMs), to analyze large volumes of consumer data efficiently. These analyses can support conclusions about the potential impact (or lack thereof) of challenged statements.

Our experts specialize in analyzing economic losses arising from defamation, disparagement, trade libel, and related actions. We bring proven methodologies to assess financial and economic harm in matters across a range of case needs, including:

• Brand and Intangible Asset Valuation: We have experience assessing the permanent or temporary diminution in brand equity and enterprise value resulting from defamatory claims, product disparagement, and reputational crises. We apply techniques from finance, marketing science, and economics to analyze the effects of challenged statements on reputation, goodwill, or enterprise value.
• Lost Earnings/Profits: We have experience analyzing a wide variety of sources, such as internal company documents, external forecasts, market research, and academic literature, to assess the impact of the challenged conduct on an individual’s earnings or a company’s profits.
• Reputational Harm: Our experts can assess multiple types of reputational damage, including evaluating difficult-to-quantify harms such as assessing the investments required to rehabilitate a damaged corporate brand or personal image (e.g., corrective advertising, public relations expenditures).
• Mitigation of Damages: We analyze the plaintiff’s efforts, or lack thereof, to mitigate the claimed financial losses and assess the economic reasonableness of any corrective measures taken.

• Food and Beverage: Cornerstone has extensive experience working on product disparagement claims, ranging from matters involving agricultural food products to alcoholic beverage brands to the restaurant industry.
• Entertainment and Media: We have evaluated defamation claims allegedly affecting celebrities and public figures. In addition, Cornerstone has experience on matters involving news media, TV shows, and documentaries alleged to have made defamatory statements, including assisting counsel with evaluating whether those statements are consistent with journalism and media production standards and ethics.
• Healthcare: We have assessed whether allegedly defamatory information such as consumer reviews and professional evaluations have affected the business performance of healthcare companies.  We have also quantified the impact on healthcare companies’ revenues and brand valuations, assuming statements were defamatory.
• Private Equity: We have evaluated defamation and breach of contract claims involving loyalty and non-disparagement clauses. Our experience includes assessing the reach of allegedly defamatory statements and evaluating the potential impact of the challenged conduct on an investment principal’s reputation.
• Real Estate: Cornerstone Research’s experience in real estate defamation matters includes our work in Move Inc. et al. v. Zillow Inc. et al. Working with an expert in survey design, Cornerstone Research successfully identified basic design flaws and implementation inconsistencies in Zillow’s initial and subsequent surveys.
• Other Consumer Goods: Our experience includes analyzing the impact of celebrity endorsements on a brand’s reputation and value. We have analyzed breach of contract claims relating to brand endorsement agreements and evaluated lost profits and potential brand damage.

Our work leverages our expertise across core litigation practices to address the multifaceted nature of reputation and brand value disputes:

• Consumer Fraud & Product Liability: Our team of professionals provides the foundation for analyzing false advertising, product disparagement, and consumer-facing reputational damages. Our experts leverage our deep expertise in social media and advertising to produce critical case insights and evidence.
• Commercial Disputes & General Damages: Our experts and staff bring deep experience in damages assessments from extensive work on business-to-business contract disputes, tortious interference claims, and labor disputes. Our experts have experience applying and assessing a wide set of damages methodologies, including lost income, lost business opportunities, and brand damages.
• Labor Disputes: Our professionals and experts have extensive experience assessing counterfactual earnings in the context of labor disputes—experience directly relevant to assessments of lost earnings alleged in the context of reputational harms.