Lindsay Schick focuses on matters involving investment management, consumer financial products, and consumer behavior. Ms. Schick has more than a decade of experience analyzing issues related to class certification, liability, and economic damages. She has substantial expertise with advanced statistical analyses of complex data. Ms. Schick consults during all phases of litigation and government and regulatory investigations, including expert discovery, data production, mediation, arbitration, and trial.
Ms. Schick is actively involved in the firm’s research on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions and publishes regularly on this topic. Her other research interests include consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), CFPB enforcement activity, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.
Investments and ERISA
Ms. Schick has evaluated the performance and fees of investments in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) class actions against retirement plans, Section 36(b) mutual fund excessive fee lawsuits, SEC investigations, and other matters. Her experience includes:
- Analyzing the performance of mutual funds and other investment products relative to benchmarks
- Evaluating the reasonableness of investment fees and retirement plan costs
- Analyzing the ESG ratings of portfolios and individual securities, ESG scoring methodologies, the construction of ESG indexes, and ESG investment processes
- Modeling factors affecting mutual fund flows
Consumer finance
Ms. Schick has analyzed lending practices and consumer behavior related to consumer financial products, such as mortgages, credit cards, and personal loans. Her experience includes:
- Evaluating methods of testing for alleged discrimination in mortgage lending, servicing, and foreclosure practices, in violation of the Fair Housing Act
- Quantifying exposure and addressing loss causation issues related to credit card repayments and bank overdraft fees
- Analyzing personal loan Truth-in-Lending (TIL) disclosures, data on consumer behavior, and consumer complaints
- Analyzing issues related to property valuation (automated valuation models [AVMs] and appraisals), securitization due diligence practices, and loan origination and underwriting in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) cases
Economic damages
Ms. Schick has analyzed economic damages in breach of contract, intellectual property, and other commercial disputes. She has expertise with a variety of sophisticated analytical methods, including valuation and financial models, discounted cash flow (DCF) analyses, regression models, and other econometric analyses. Her experience includes:
- Evaluating damages claims in matters involving alleged theft of trade secrets and intellectual property
- Analyzing damages for complex and data-intensive contractual disputes, including quantifying required payments and lost revenues from alleged contractual violations and valuing an asset management contract for a real estate investment trust (REIT)
- Estimating lost wages for wrongful termination in an employment discrimination matter
Consumer fraud and product liability
In consumer class action lawsuits, Ms. Schick has evaluated class certification and loss causation issues related to disclosures, allegedly misleading advertising, and product defects. Her experience includes:
- Analyzing financial data to assess whether a consistent price premium existed for a group of cosmetics products
- Addressing allegations that “hidden fees” affected consumer purchase decisions in an online marketplace
- Evaluating the impact of additional product disclosures on consumer decisions regarding vacation properties
- Analyzing damages and price impact claims for a large automobile recall
Pro bono
Ms. Schick is active in Cornerstone Research’s pro bono practice. She estimated lost wages for an army veteran who was unable to complete his degree because his financial aid paperwork was not properly processed. The settlement reached in the matter was within the range of the damages amounts calculated by the expert she supported.
