Brooks Applies Finance Expertise to Consulting Endeavors

Turner Business recently visited with Turner College finance professor Joshua Brooks to discuss his consulting work.  As he explained, some of this work involves acting as a testifying expert, while at other times he acts as a consulting expert.  In both cases, Josh’s experiences serve as examples to his students of the practical applicability of concepts covered in his finance courses.   

TB: What types of cases do you provide your professional opinion/work on?

JB: I’ve worked on a wide variety of cases as both a testifying expert and as a consulting expert (non-testifying). These cases include investments, econometrics, and derivatives valuation.  Some of my earliest cases as a master’s degree s
tudent were on derivatives valuation including credit default swaps and interest rate swaps.  These closely paralleled my work in the master’s program that was focused on derivatives and financial engineering.  Another line of work has been the evaluation of mathematical models used by other experts to show statistical relationships or how returns can be attributed to different sources.  This line of work corresponded closely to the statistical work I did as a PhD student.  Most cases in these categories also involve not only the calculation of damages at a particular point in time but also some assumptions about how damages have accumulated an appropriate return over the years.  Since moving to Columbus, I’ve had several cases where my primary role was financial statement analysis including a publicly traded firm and a municipal bond issuer.  The key ideas in these cases are some of the first concepts we cover in our Introduction to Finance class.  Later in that same class, we discuss the role of interest and compounding, which is termed the time value of money.  In the category of cases that focus on time value of money, there are a variety of calculations that include life care plan valuation, damage calculations related to GNMA mortgage securities, capital budgeting, and issues related to company-sponsored employee retirement funds.  I’ve also worked as a consultant on enterprise financial risk management and currently serve as a scientific adviser to a fintech startup.

TB: Do you usually represent plaintiffs, defendants, or both?

JB: As a consulting expert, I usually don’t know which side I am working for, and I prefer to maintain this pattern.  The mathematical tools used to evaluate financial problems shouldn’t vary based on the side with which you are working.  Even though financial damages cases don't often make it into the public eye, it is important to me to maintain neutrality in my computational work as a subject matter expert.  I’m grateful for the fact that we live in a country where people can pursue justice.

TB: Do you ever pick up any ideas for the classroom in doing this work?

JB: Certainly.  Completing this type of work outside the classroom has given me a great opportunity to tell students more about the practical applicability of concepts we cover in class.  Acting as a subject matter expert also grants me a higher degree of credibility in the classroom that students seem to enjoy.  I had a professor years ago that said, “Running water is better than a stagnant pool.”  When you are testifying or acting as a consulting expert, you’ve got to be exactly right in your use of data, concepts, and analysis.  This line of work allows me to exercise the years of knowledge and experience I've gained as a professor on real world problems in a way that can make a difference in people’s lives.