Stephanie Chapman Weishaar applies economic and statistical methods to complex consumer behavior, marketing, and labor and discrimination issues. Dr. Weishaar specializes in surveys, survey rebuttal, and conjoint analysis. She has conducted sophisticated survey analysis in matters related to consumer class actions, regulatory investigations and proceedings, and intellectual property. Her industry experience includes automobiles, consumer goods, education, healthcare, and technology.
Surveys
Dr. Weishaar has substantial expertise designing, conducting, and analyzing various types of surveys in multiple litigation contexts. Her experience includes:
- Online consumer surveys to assess consumer substitution patterns across music streaming services in royalty-setting proceedings
- Online consumer surveys to evaluate the relative importance of product attributes and patented features in intellectual property litigation
- Telephone-based surveys of hard-to-reach consumers to quantify grey market purchases in ongoing mediation
- Internal company and third-party surveys to inform market definition, consumer purchase reasons, and consumer satisfaction in antitrust and product liability consumer class actions, and in regulatory investigations
Consumer class actions
Dr. Weishaar has worked on prominent consumer class actions involving allegations of false advertising, product misrepresentation or omission, product defects, and antitrust violations. Her experience spans multiple industries and includes:
- Designing, conducting, and evaluating consumer surveys to assess the purchase factors and information sources that drive consumer decisions to buy automobiles
- Assessing consumer heterogeneity and economic harm across proposed class members
- Evaluating the use of conjoint surveys and conjoint analysis methods to measure economic harm and damages to a class due to alleged product misrepresentations or omissions
Labor and discrimination
Across a diverse range of cases, Dr. Weishaar consults on issues arising in labor and employment matters. For example:
- Dr. Weishaar analyzed the potential procompetitive benefits of no-poach clauses in franchise agreements in multiple matters, including in Deslandes et al. v. McDonald’s USA LLC et al.
- In Brown et al. v. Madison County, Mississippi, a pro bono matter, Dr. Weishaar analyzed the location of roadblocks and other actions taken by the police to evaluate the extent of racial discrimination in policing by the Madison County Sherriff’s Department.
