Subscribe(Text for those without flash or javascript) Fulcrum's professionals are experienced CPAs, MBAs, ASAs, CFAs, affiliated professors and industry specialists Our expertise encompasses damages analysis, lost profit studies, business and intangible asset valuations, appraisals, fraud investigations, statistics, forensic economic analysis, royalty audits, strategic and market assessments, computer forensics, electronic discovery and analysis of computer data.
Firm Overview Arbitrator/Special Master
In disputes in which the damages, accounting, or valuation are the most important items at issue, Fulcrum’s skills are more helpful than, or can be a useful supplement to, what legal-based judges, arbitrators and mediators typically address. Fulcrum’s personnel have performed several cases in each of the following categories:
Court or party appointed appraiser to establish the purchase price of a company either because of a statutory liquidation such as California Corporations Code Sections 2000 or 16701, or a shareholder/partner buyout agreement.
Court appointed appraiser or accountant regarding the amounts that should be distributed to shareholders/partners in a liquidation - Such matters generally involve analysis and potential restatement of existing accounting records.
Arbitrator involving the amount of a contractual purchase price adjustment relating to the sale of a company – Such adjustments have typically been based on (i) changes in working capital, (ii) earnings during a stub period, or (iii) the amount of tangible net worth.
Court or appointed analyst – In each of these cases, the Court determined that complex financial liability or damages issues could be better analyzed by having an independent party address certain issues in which the parties faced severe disagreement.
Court or party appointed referee to break deadlocks involving (i) management disagreements and (ii) valuation and sale of business assets, or (iii) use and distribution of funds in a business – These assignments generally involved appointment as a receiver, or appointment as a third (and tie-breaking) member of the board of directors.
Court appointed bankruptcy examiner - Each of these engagements investigated allegations of fraud, assessed the opportunities for the debtor to reorganize, and addressed other financial matters specified by the court.
Court or party appointed discovery master – These engagements typically involve allegations of thefts of trade secrets. The parties are interested in comparing the plaintiff’s and defendant’s information (e.g. a customer list), but neither party is tolerant of producing significant proprietary data to its competitor. In such cases, we compare the two parties’ information (usually using electronic means) and report on overlaps in the data.
Court or party appointed computer forensic analyst – These engagements typically involve privacy or relevancy objections of a party producing and entire disk of forensically-captured electronic information. To avoid issues of disclosure to an adverse party, we acquire and review the information, and determine what should be produced to the requesting party based on joint or court instructions.