Overview
Bates White’s Energy and Finance professionals have been involved in an array of commodity, securities, and derivatives markets cases, including alleged manipulation, fraud, and other trading practices. We are known for our ability to combine our vast energy industry expertise, state-of-the-art analytical tools, and rigorous economic and financial analyses into easy-to-understand, compelling terms that provide our clients with the support and defensible expert testimony necessary in high-stakes litigation.
We provide expert consulting and testimony to evaluate a wide range of situations where questions of competitive behavior might arise, such as transactions between regulated and unregulated affiliates, mergers and acquisitions, access to transportation systems and other constrained facilities, and market-based pricing. We advise clients on the economic, financial, and regulatory implications of mergers and acquisitions in energy markets, and we provide rigorous and defensible quantitative analyses of market power issues. We have extensive experience providing market monitoring on behalf of the FTC, as well as consulting services and expert testimony in proceedings before the Courts, FERC, and state public utility commissions.
Selected Work
- Provided prefile, deposition, and trial testimony as a rebuttal on behalf of FERC Enforcement Staff in FERC proceedings in the Amaranth market manipulation case.
- Submitted testimony on behalf of Constellation in a complaint proceeding related to an auction for electric power supplies.
- Provided expert testimony related to the California power markets during 2000–2001 and allegations of improper bidding behavior.
- In a case involving the alleged participation by multiple investment banks in Enron’s downfall, developed an econometric basis for estimating the contribution of numerous complex financial transactions to both causation and damages.
- In a case stemming from fraudulent actions by a hedge fund manager, analyzed due diligence efforts of a large financial institution in approving certain investment vehicles for its clients, including the analysis of the plausibility of claimed returns given the hedge fund’s stated strategies.
- Submitted expert testimony regarding liability on behalf of an energy trading company in a NYMEX commodity futures market manipulation case.
- Providing advice and analysis for a securities exchange related to the surveillance of high-frequency trading and detection of market manipulation.