CRA International

Paul Maleh has been President and CEO since 2009; he joined the firm in 1989 and led its finance practice before becoming CEO. As a publicly traded company on Nasdaq (CRAI), CRA is governed by a board of directors and reports quarterly financial results. Senior practice leads manage individual consulting segments, and the firm discloses revenue by practice area, which is unusual among expert-services firms.

CRA provides economic analysis, expert testimony, and management consulting for litigation, regulatory proceedings, and corporate strategy. Its core work involves building damages models, assessing market power in antitrust cases, valuing intellectual property, and conducting forensic accounting investigations. In a representative engagement, CRA advised Celanese on the $1.3 billion breach-of-contract arbitration against Blackstone.

CRA recruits heavily from top PhD economics programs—Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Chicago—supplemented by lateral hires from government agencies like the FTC and DOJ. The firm also acquires specialized consultancies to deepen its expertise in areas like life sciences and management strategy. Its academic lineage traces directly to founders who were faculty at Harvard and MIT.

CRA is a pure consulting and expert-services firm, not a law firm. It provides economic and financial analysis that attorneys use in litigation, but CRA does not practice law or represent clients directly. Its experts testify as independent witnesses, which requires maintaining distance from the legal teams that hire them.

CRA operates from over 20 offices across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Key US locations include Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco. Internationally, it maintains a strong presence in London, Brussels, and Munich, reflecting the firm's deep involvement in European competition matters before the European Commission.

CRA's top line is closely tied to the litigation cycle and regulatory calendars—large antitrust reviews like T-Mobile/Sprint or high-stakes pharma disputes can swing quarterly results significantly. The firm's forensic accounting and management consulting practices provide some counter-cyclical balance, but antitrust and competition economics remain the dominant revenue engines. CRA's public filings show revenue can fluctuate 10-15% year-over-year depending on case timing.

CRA competes directly with NERA Economic Consulting, Cornerstone Research, Analysis Group, and Brattle Group in the economics consulting market. Unlike Cornerstone and Analysis Group, CRA is publicly traded, which mandates financial transparency but also subjects it to quarterly earnings pressure. NERA is a subsidiary of Marsh McLennan and does not report standalone results. CRA's diversified practice mix—spanning management consulting alongside litigation—sets it apart from peers that focus almost exclusively on litigation support.