Quantifying Financial Loss: Strategies and Techniques for Attorneys

Chaka M. Patterson | Alston & Bird LLP

Chaka Patterson has over three decades of experience in corporate government and private practice. He served as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at a global education corporation where he led a team of 30 and guided the business development, M&A transactions, investor relations, corporate governance, risk and compliance, and litigation functions.

He was the chief of the Civil Actions Bureau for Cook County’s State’s Attorney in Illinois where he managed a team of 100 lawyers defending the county and its officeholders and employees in civil suits. Chaka also served as an assistant attorney general and chief of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Special Litigation Bureau, where he prosecuted civil and criminal fraud cases, including health care fraud, securities fraud, complex consumer fraud, charitable trust fraud, and False Claims Act cases.

Chaka’s private practice experience as a partner in two Am Law 100 law firms includes representing clients in complex business and commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense involving state attorneys general investigations, and internal investigations.

Chaka’s background includes:

• Partner at Alston & Bird
• Former General Counsel of a Fortune 1000 Global Education Company
• Former Treasurer & VP for Investor Relations of a Fortune 100 Energy Company
• JD from Harvard Law School and MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business

I. Learn about the most common types of financial losses in legal cases | 2:00pm – 2:30pm

• Actual damages
• Consequential (special) damages
•  Punitive damages
• Restitution

II. Discover data collection and analysis techniques | 2:30pm – 3:00pm

• Gathering and analyzing data to quantify financial losses accurately
• Techniques include, forensic accounting, business valuation, market analysis, and income/employment records

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

III. Apply loss quantification models to determine the damages your client has suffered | 3:10pm – 3:40pm

• Models used to calculate financial loss by projecting income or cash flow and adjusting for economic factors
• Net Present Value (NPV), Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), But-For Analysis, Benchmarking against similar businesses

IV. Identify and collaborate with damages experts more effectively | 3:40pm – 4:10pm

• Financial experts & economists
• Vocational experts
• Actuaries