COMPASS and Lexecon Combine Operations

Compass Lexecon Will Have the Preeminent Competition, Finance, and Energy Practices in the United States

Competition Policy Associates (COMPASS) and Lexecon are pleased to announce the creation of Compass Lexecon with the consolidation of their respective operations. As a result of the combination, Compass Lexecon will have the preeminent competition, finance, and energy practices. In addition, the combination will allow Compass Lexecon to serve clients with additional resources in each of these core practice areas, as well as on multifaceted matters that bridge these areas.

Compass Lexecon will be led by an executive committee comprised of the current senior management of COMPASS and Lexecon: Dan Fischel, Meg Guerin-Calvert, and Jon Orszag. Fischel will serve as Chairman and President of the combined firm, Guerin-Calvert will serve as Vice Chairman. The executive committee will be advised by Compass Lexecon's principal academic experts: Bobby Willig, Janusz Ordover, Dan Rubinfeld, Rich Gilbert, Joe Kalt, and Michael Katz.

With five former chief economists of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, as well as numerous other high-profile academic affiliates, including three Nobel Prize winners, Compass Lexecon has been involved in the most complex, most challenging, and highest-profile cases in the competition, finance, and energy areas. Compass Lexecon experts have a long history of contributing to significant victories for major clients across a wide range of industries and matters before regulatory agencies, in state and federal courts, in jurisdictions around the world.

In Dan Fischel's view: "Everyone at the new Compass Lexecon is thrilled about this combination because we all share a commitment to the highest-quality standards and believe that the combined firm will allow us to serve even more effectively our competition, finance, and energy clients."

Meg Guerin-Calvert and Jon Orszag affirm: "This is an exciting extension of each of these two great firms – the combination will allow us to continue our commitment to provide the best team at the right scale and scope to address client needs in the most efficient manner possible. We look forward to working with Dan and the management teams in each of our local offices to blend the strong capabilities of each firm in order to create an even better combined organization."

Compass Lexecon experts have provided counseling and sophisticated economic and econometric analyses on hundreds of mergers with prominent examples including the Chicago Board of Trade-Chicago Mercantile Exchange merger and the AT&T-SBC merger. Experts from Compass and Lexecon have testified in numerous major antitrust litigation matters involving class certification, claims of monopolization and collusion, and damages.

Compass Lexecon experts have pioneered the application of modern finance theory to issues related to valuation, securities fraud, insider trading, market manipulation and other issues arising in financial markets. The firm has been deeply involved in the most prominent issues facing corporate America in recent years, such as major civil and criminal securities litigation matters; subprime lending cases; options backdating cases; other executive compensation cases and IPO allocation cases.

Compass Lexecon has also provided expert witness services on a diverse range of issues in the energy, transportation, and utilities sectors. For example, in a recent case where gas stations sued Shell Oil Company, the Judge granted a directed verdict in Shell's favor after considering the testimony of a Compass Lexecon witness.

With a staff of more than 200 people – including 60 highly skilled Ph.D. economists and econometricians and more than 60 other individuals with advanced degrees – and offices in seven locations throughout the United States, the combined firm will be able to more effectively deploy project teams that are tailored to meet client needs with intellectual excellence, experience, and efficiency.

Bobby Willig says, "COMPASS has always prided itself on producing top-notch economic analyses. From my first-hand experience on a number of recent cases, an integrated Compass Lexecon will extend the highest standards of economic consulting to an even broader and more diverse universe of projects."

Joe Kalt comments, "It is exciting for all of us to be part of such a dynamic, growing, and high-profile group of economists. The shared commitment to world-class work is unsurpassed."

The firm will have offices in Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Tucson, AZ; and Oakland, CA.

COMPASS and Lexecon are both owned by FTI Consulting, Inc. and have operated independently as separate subsidiaries within the FTI group of companies for the past two years.