Christopher V. Lau

Christopher Lau consults on antitrust and competition matters, with a focus on mergers, merger investigations, and related litigation.

Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Lau worked as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In that role, he served as lead economist on many merger investigations in a variety of industries, including hospitals, medical devices, retail, and distribution. He has supported experts and has also served as an expert witness on behalf of the FTC.

While at the FTC, Dr. Lau was involved in the US Foods/SGA investigation and was a member of the FTC’s litigation team in the challenges of Staples/Office Depot (2015) and Otto Bock/Freedom Innovations. In the challenge of the proposed acquisition of two Memphis Area hospitals by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, he supported the FTC’s testifying expert in a novel analysis of competitive effects. In a separate proposed hospital merger, Dr. Lau served as the FTC’s economic expert, providing qualitative and quantitative analyses that helped the FTC to issue a complaint, which resulted in the parties abandoning the merger.