Experts to the Rescue
I am six week into my latest expert testimony on a pension case and generated by my new Expert Witness Team of Italian/Spanish guys who have played in this field for others and are now launching their own gig. On the first case, which started in late November, I’ve put in over 41 hours so far. I like the way the team does this in that their billing rate is half of mine and they do all the analytical and referential legwork while I use my sage wisdom gleaned from forty-five years on Wall Street, my writing skills, honed by years of business and casual writing (like this), and, of course, my very impressive (so I am told) resume or CV, which includes a decade as a Clinical Professor of Finance at an Ivy League school. I somehow feel better that we are giving the clients (whether we are talking about the law firms or the plaintiffs themselves) the most cost-effective deal for their money by taking this approach. My liberal-minded sentiment likes the way that feels, just like I like representing the meek and downtrodden whenever I can. I’m not sure they will inherit the earth as Matthew says in the Old Testament, but they should have somebody representing them when the wolves of Wall Street go after them.
The truth I suspect is that I am about as senior a guy from Wall Street that would find it worthwhile to toil on such issues or who is not otherwise enamored in staying engaged in the rocking and rolling of real-time investment management. That alone qualifies me for lots of underdog gigs representing the widows and orphans of the world even if it is by litigators who have dollar signs in their eyes over big billing rates or contingency fees representing the downtrodden of the world of investments. If money goes from bad guys’ pockets into good guys’ pockets, and a bit find its way into some lawyers’ pockets and a snick into my pocket, that’s all good with me. There are lots and lots of these sorts of cases out there and I trust that my Italian/Spanish Team will be out there banging the expert drum with all the right plaintiff bar members to find assignments.
Imagine my pleasure the other day at hearing from my team that they already have another case that I am being considered to work on as the investment expert. Getting an overlapping assignment roster is just what someone trying to work the expert witness program wants. In theory I could get too backed up and too overwhelmed with work, but that seems a long way off at this moment. What people heading into retirement want is the ability to stay active and engaged and have some degree of freedom to work from where they choose and when they choose to do it…not to mention wearing mostly what they choose to wear. If I can get this practice going in this nice direction, I will be very pleased. I am sitting under my big Eastern Palapa in my morning sunny spot. There is a breeze and sunshine all-around, but I sit in the shade so neither me nor my iPad will overheat. In the afternoon I can shift to my Western Palapa on the deck and be there for the same sensations and the setting sun. There is no running water on the deck like there is next to me here, but I can work on that if it seems important enough.
This morning I was sent a news story and several witness transcripts for this new case to prepare me for our conversation tomorrow morning with the law firm. Presumably, this is like an interview process and they will use our discussion to decide if I seem to be the right kind of expert witness that they want for their case. Like I said, I have a strong resume/CV so I enter the conversation with a strong sense of confidence. I am sixty-six years old and technically left Wall Street in 2007, but taught the subjects until 2017 and worked extensively for the dozen years with my own hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds since then. Given my investment management, derivatives, alternative and teaching experience, I have most of the goods these people should want. This case involves AI (artificial intelligence) and what amounts to high-frequency trading issues, the likes of which led to the flash-crashes of the last few years. This high-tech set of issues is technically a bit beyond my experience. I read Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis, but will admit to only being somewhat engaged in the story due to it being slightly out of my milieu.
The amazing thing about this new situation is the drama of the story. This is a case where there appears to be no side of the angels on which to stand. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a side I would be willing testify on behalf of or that there isn’t a right and wrong, but it is a case of dueling rich guys who play in the waters of the fast and furious international playboy set. This story has people meeting on yachts (four or five at last count) all around the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean (and a bit in the Persian Gulf). It all takes place in London, Monaco, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily (Taormina, not doubt), Croatia, Dubai, the Maldives and Hong Kong. The story line reads like a Netflix series when one day there’s a meeting at a party on the two top floors of the ritzy Hong Kong hotel and the next you are in a hot tub on a 200 foot yacht in the Adriatic. And the amounts are quite sensational as well. Nothing so plebeian as hundreds of millions, this involves a multi-billion dollar investment in the newest leading-edge AI-assisted trading algorithm generated by a kluge of weird Eastern European numismatists who have recently settled a multi-million dollar regulatory action with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Whoever said that life is more dramatic than fiction had this story about right.
So I will be looked at to give expert testimony that nothing done by the alternative investment manager was either inappropriate or infeasible when it came to what was represented versus what was delivered. The amount of money involved in this case is not particularly impinging on the life styles of either the European or the Asian combatants in this case. Both could go on about their yachting pleasures with no interruption even if they totally lost their case. I doubt either would be particularly chastised by the verdict and it would be sluffed-off as just another injustice of an unfair world with all sorts of normal ups and downs. Win some, lose some.
Nonetheless, we, as experts in the arena, will come forth and propose to set the record straight about what is or is not righteous and we will rescue our client from the ignominy of this paltry possible defeat. It’s good to see the global justice system being so well served.