Economic Damages Analysis Expert Witnesses: 23

Michael G. Kaplan has nearly 50 years of experience in the areas of Forensic Accounting, Business Valuation, and Litigation Consulting. Mr. Kaplan is a Forensic Certified Public Accountant who is regularly called upon to testify as a qualified expert witness in federal and state courts. He has participated in approximately 300 trials. Mr. Kaplan has also served as a court appointed expert accounting referee.

Mr. Kaplan has served as a university professor for approximately 24 years (including 18 years at the University of Southern California). He created and taught courses for the National Judicial College, American College of Business Court Judges, National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts, and presented sessions for various Bar Associations, various CPA societies, and other professional organizations. His professional affiliations have included local, regional and national CPA/Advisory firms.

Areas of Expertise:

Awards and Honors:

• Circle of Light Award (1998) - National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (first recipient of this award presented annually recognizing one's contributions and performance as an instructor; highest award bestowed upon an instructor in NACVA's educational programs for Business Valuation and Financial Forensics experts.) 
• Magna Cum Laude Award - National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (2017) - Recognizes one's contributions to the fields of Business Valuation and Financial Forensics.

JOHN A. WILLIAMS, PhD, PE, ASA, MBA, CFEI, AIChE Fellow

Dr. Williams is an International Engineering and Energy Technology Expert in the engineering analysis and financial appraisals of energy, power, and manufacturing technologies, related intellectual property (patents, trade secrets, trademarks), licensing, royalty structures, market analysis, infringement, contract breach, fraud, compensatory, taxation, and lost profit damages. Dr. Williams provides engineering analysis, forensics, financial appraisals, and quantification of economic damages for oil & gas production, solar, wind, manufacturing, oil refining, chemicals, power generation, electrical distribution, steam, RNG biogas, biomass, ethanol, biodiesel, bioprocessing, food ingredients, geothermal, coal, nuclear, steelmaking, glassmaking, storage, pipelines, water treatment, and waste-to-energy technologies, equipment, construction, and facilities.

With over 40 years of industry experience in operations, R&D, cost estimating, finance, and construction (EPC, EPCM), Dr. Williams offers a unique synergy of engineering expertise and business acumen. His exceptional ability to analyze complex technical and financial matters and express them in understandable terms has made him a sought-after expert witness in litigation risk and exposure, dispute resolution and high-stakes litigation.

Dr. Williams has led EPS, a full-service engineering firm, since 1995. Since 1996, he has been recognized by AIChE, ASME, and ASA for developing and instructing courses in technology development, project management, cost engineering, financial evaluation methods, and financial appraisals of technologies and intellectual property. His credentials include:

• Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) by the American Society of Appraisers in Machinery & Technical Specialties: Energy, Environmental, and Manufacturing Technologies.
• Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) by the National Association of Fire Investigators.
• Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
• PhD in Chemical and Fuels Engineering from the University of Utah
• MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago
• BS in Chemistry from the University of Delaware
• Licensed Professional Engineer in over 20 states

Malcolm S. Cohen, PhD, President of Employment Research Corporation, has over 30 years of experience in the field of Economics and Employment specializing in Labor Markets and Statistical Analysis. 

Dr. Cohen founded the firm in 1997, after retiring as the Director of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan, which he directed for 13 years. With a PhD in Economics from the MIT in 1967, his research interests include labor market information, labor turnover, employment forecasting and labor shortages. He has directed several major studies to identify national shortage occupations and measure labor turnover using administrative records. 

Dr. Cohen's book, Labor Shortages as America Approaches the Twenty-first Century, was published by the University of Michigan Press. His most recent book, Global Skill Shortages, written with Professor Mahmood A. Zaidi, is published by Edward Elgar Publishing. He has had articles published in a large number of journals, including: Journal of Human Resources, Monthly Labor Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Statistics, Journal of Economic Theory, and The American Economic Review. 

Litigation Support - Dr. Cohen has either testified or been a consultant in over 1,000 audits or cases and has testified over 150 times. He has also served as an expert to the EEOC and U.S. Department of Labor in discrimination cases, and has directed many research projects sponsored by government agencies. 

Areas of Expertise:

View Dr. Cohen's Consulting Profile.

Eric Forister, PhD, is an expert Economist with testifying experience on market definition, market power, and damages. His expertise includes applying advanced statistical techniques to datasets, synthesizing information from documents, and designing and evaluating surveys. A Senior Economist at Econ One, he focuses on relevant questions to tackle complex issues with an efficient and effective style of communication. Dr. Forister also has extensive experience consulting on issues including royalty rates, irreparable harm, sampling, survey design, common impact, and materiality.

Ideal Client Engagement: For litigation-related matters, an ideal engagement would be providing an opinion on economics, damages, market power, or market definition; or providing pre-litigation advice on the economics of potential claims, or the merits of a survey. For non-litigation matters, an ideal engagement would be helping to explain the economics of different business models or consulting to those considering buying or starting an optometry office.

Experience: Dr. Forister has acted in a support/consulting role on over 100 matters. His support work has been a mix of plaintiff and defense work. Dr. Forister has designed and evaluated surveys for IP and marketing cases and worked on a wide range of other matters, including:

• Antitrust - price fixing, exclusionary conduct, monopsony, unfair competition, Robinson-Patman
• Intellectual Property - SEP, FRAND, patents, trademark, irreparable harm
• Marketing - false advertising, product labeling
• General Damages - breach of contract, bankruptcy

Education/Training:

• PhD in Business Administration (Field: Economics), Stanford Graduate School of Business
• BS in Mathematics / Economics, University of California at Los Angeles, magna cum laude

View Dr. Forister's Consulting Profile.

As Co-Author of Anatomy of Credit Scores and Founder / President of Easy Credit Relief, Inc., Doug Minor focuses on helping and teaching people how to understand the credit system. Showing them the best ways to use credit and maximize their score. Doug has been reviewing personal credit reports and financial profiles of individuals for more than 30 years. He has happily been quoted and interviewed for articles appearing in FoxBusiness.com, Yahoo! Finance, and Entrepreneur Magazine. During this time he has enjoyed answering thousands of questions regarding credit scores and the information contained in credit reports. Having a pragmatic disposition as well a broad base of experience in business he has the unique knowledge and academics to assess damages. He has performed training classes to audiences of all levels of sophistication including Professional Groups, Lenders, CEO’s, and Consumers. As a respected Expert in Credit Related Damages, Credit Reporting, and Scoring he serves as a litigation consultant / expert witness for those involved in credit reporting, credit scores and quantifing the associated damages.

Donald M. May PhD, CPA, Managing Partner at DMA Economics, LLC, possesses over 30 years of Valuation and Economic Damages experience. He implements a broad range of damage analyses and valuations for clients, including billion-dollar investment funds under SEC investigation as well as multi-national firms involved in intellectual property disputes, consumers in product mislabeling cases, and small to mid-sized businesses involved in complex commercial litigation. 

Background Experience - Prior to founding DMA Economics LLC, Dr. May was Managing Director at Berkley Research Group and the Principal in charge of valuation and litigation support services for a regional accounting firm, a Managing Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management. He has performed over 200 valuations of closely held businesses across numerous industries for financial reporting and estate planning. Dr. May has been published in several distinguished academic and practitioner journals such as The Journal of Finance, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Hedge Fund Law Review, and is currently an editorial board member of The Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis. 

Litigation Support - Dr. May is a world class expert in the Valuation of Damages. Dr. May has prepared expert reports and testified in federal and state courts as well as AAA, JAMS, and FINRA arbitration hearings, and has also effectively communicated as an expert witness testifier and consultant in several multi-million dollar cases. 

Recent Litigation Matters:

• Misrepresentations in Leveraged Buyout (“LBO”) Financing Practices
• Theft of Trade Secrets, Trade Dress, and Intellectual Property
• Food Product Mislabeling
• Securities Fraud Under SEC Section 10b-5 and Section 11
• Accounting Misstatements in Public and Private Company Acquisitions
• Lost Profits and Lost Enterprise Value Associated with Product Defects and Breach of Contract

View DMA Economics' Consulting Profile.

Bryan L. Parker, CPA/PFS, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, FCPA, is a Certified Forensic Accountant with over 30 years of experience in his field. Background - Prior to founding Bryan L. Parker, CPA, LLC, Mr. Parker held the position of CFO at McPherson Oil Company ($300 million + annual revenues) where he was responsible for advising and negotiating banking relationships, acquisition review, acquisition integration, financial reporting, and interaction with external auditors. His experience also includes serving as VP of Mergers & Acquisitions for Citation Corporation (Public Co.) and CFO of TIC United Corp., Dallas, TX ($300 million + revenues).

Mr. Parker has performed business valuations for more than 100 businesses in a variety of industries including manufacturing, trucking, printing, fuel oil distribution, motor/lubricating oil distribution, professional services, restaurants, fast food franchises, metal foundry, metal forge, machining, and plastic injection molding.

Litigation Support - Mr. Parker provides expert witness services to attorneys representing both plaintiff and defendant. He offers Forensic Accounting services, written reports, deposition, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

View Bryan Parker's Consulting Profile.

Dr. Pavithra Kumar has over 16 years of experience in Economic Consulting and specializes in the application of economic and financial theory to questions arising in business disputes, securities / derivatives, transfer pricing and corporate finance litigation. She has expertise in damages quantification spanning a variety of contexts and industries, business valuation (including startups and companies across several niche industries), securities and structured finance litigation. Dr. Kumar is proficient in the use of sophisticated statistical modeling and econometric techniques, including event studies, analysis of options, swaps and other complex structured products.

Litigation Support - Dr. Kumar has been engaged several times as a testifying expert in securities, valuation and damages-related matters, and as consulting expert in a wider range of litigation including tax and transfer pricing, financial antitrust, statistical sampling and wage and hour-related suits. She has issued expert reports and participated in several intensive expert witness testimony training courses (including one-on-one deposition and trial coaching).

Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Kumar’s work has contributed to several high-profile wins, including a multibillion-dollar hotel acquisition dispute in which she led teams supporting academic experts in their assessments of the post-transaction performance of the acquired hotels and the resultant decline in value. In other matters, she has led teams in the preparation of economic, financial, and statistical analyses through all stages of the litigation process.

In previous consulting roles, Dr. Kumar led cross-office teams in cases spanning securities class action, transfer pricing, M&A and business valuation-related matters, damages estimation in a variety of contexts, including trademark infringement, securities class actions and private equity disputes, and ERISA suits. She has supported industry experts in fields including sports and entertainment and fiduciary process, and academic experts in areas including corporate governance, assessment of inter-company transactions, class certification and market efficiency, securities lending, banking and solvency.