Expert Support
Independent expert analysis and litigation support
Independent analysis in disputes over valuation, model validation, servicing, margining, and the design and operation of risk functions — including the information, models, controls, escalation and governance that would ordinarily be expected in the circumstances. Grounded in having built and led those functions rather than having studied them.
The question counsel has to answer about any expert is whether he has done the work being disputed, at the level being disputed, and can be tested on it. I built and led the risk functions whose adequacy is usually the question, owned model validation firm-wide at a global investment bank, and served as primary regulatory liaison through a Federal Reserve examination.
Salomon Smith Barney · Proprietary Trading Division · 1998
Presented as an independent assessment to the executive board. The division's management disagreed with the conclusion; the division subsequently reported losses in excess of $1 billion during the LTCM crisis, as was widely reported.
One case is set out above because its outcome is a matter of public record. I have separately served in four outsourced or independent risk mandates, including an engagement directly from a chief executive. Those engagements are governed by confidentiality, so I describe the work and not the client, and I do not publish the findings.
Subject matter
- Credit derivatives and structured credit. CDS valuation, CDO valuation, synthetic-CDO strategies — four published chapters, written at the peak of the market on the instruments that subsequently defined the crisis.
- Mortgage origination and servicing. ResCap origination pipeline and mortgage servicing rights at Ally Financial; CMO and structured-product investing at Western Asset Management.
- Model risk and model validation. Global ownership of model validation at Salomon Smith Barney; executive oversight of firm-wide valuation models at Credit Suisse First Boston.
- Prime brokerage and margining. Risk-based dynamic margining for prime-brokerage operations.
- Risk-management standard of care. I have built and led these functions rather than studied them — so I can speak to the information, models, controls, escalation and governance that would ordinarily be expected, and when.
- Regulatory expectation. Federal Reserve examinations, CCAR, Basel 2.5, Market Risk Rule; primary regulatory liaison at several firms.
- AI and algorithmic decision systems. Whether an automated or AI-assisted decision was adequately validated, controlled, monitored, and evidenced.
Engaging
I take instruction from counsel directly, and I am equally comfortable being retained to test a position rather than support one — that is the work I have done for most of my career. Available for consulting-expert engagements, independent review and report preparation. Testifying assignments considered where the subject, the record and the procedural requirements are appropriate; I have not previously served as a testifying expert, and would expect counsel to weigh that.