Neil Kaplan and Prof. Doug Jones hosted Richard Boulton QC, Andrew Flower, Brent Kaczmarek, Liz Perks and Neill Poole in a Conversation Special on Quantum Experts. The recording is available here.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Professor Doug Jones AO (chair)
Doug Jones AO is a leading independent international commercial and investor-state arbitrator with over 40 years’ prior experience as an international transactional and disputes project lawyer. Doug is a door tenant at Atkin Chambers London and has offices in Sydney and Toronto. Doug is also an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He has been involved in over 140 arbitrations spanning over 30 jurisdictions in disputes of values exceeding some billions $US. In addition, Doug has held appointments at several international professional associations, including as President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA).

Richard Boulton QC
Richard Boulton QC is the Honorary Chairman of Berkeley Research Group (UK) Ltd and a commercial barrister at One Essex Court. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Fellow of the Academy of Experts. As an expert, Mr Boulton advises clients on economic, accounting and valuation issues, specialising in the calculation and communication of complex damages. He has been engaged as an expert in over 300 cases, including many of the world’s largest commercial disputes. He has given oral evidence on more than 60 occasions in the English High Court, the Copyright Tribunal and the European Commission (Competition Directorate), and before over 30 international arbitration tribunals. Mr Boulton was with Arthur Andersen for 20 years, including 11 years as a partner. He spent three years (1997-2000) as the number-two executive, responsible for over 70,000 people worldwide. Mr Boulton has expertise in multiple jurisdictions. For four years, he spent half his time in the USA (principally Chicago and New York). He has led major client assignments in the USA (Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, New York, Minneapolis, Midland), Eastern Europe, the Bahamas, the Middle East, Libya, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Japan. As a barrister, Mr Boulton specializes in commercial disputes, particularly those involving valuations and large damages claims. He has cross-examined over 50 experts across a range of professional disciplines.

Andrew Flower
Andrew Flower is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Disputes and Investigations in Paris. He has more than 25 years of experience in forensic accounting and in providing expert evidence in international arbitration (commercial and investor state). He has been listed as a leading expert witnesses in international arbitration in Europe by “Who’s Who Legal,” since inception of the list and is equally recognised as a Thought Leader in International Arbitration. Mr. Flower has provided expert evidence in arbitrations conducted under the auspices of institutions including ICC, ICDR, ICSID, DIAC, NAI, DIS, and under UNCITRAL rules. He has provided written evidence in over 150 disputes, and has testified and been cross-examined on his evidence before tribunals in New York, Washington DC, London, Paris, Stockholm, The Hague, Geneva, Zurich, Dubai, Singapore and Brisbane. Throughout his career, Mr. Flower has also provided advice to parties in post transaction disputes, both in connection with arbitrations and in the context of expert determinations.  He acted both as an advisor to one of the parties and as the appointed determining expert. Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Flower was the global head of the disputes practice in one of the Big Four accounting firms working out of their Paris, New York and London offices. Mr. Flower has also been appointed as an independent expert by the ICC Centre of Expertise and as a tribunal appointed expert in an ICC arbitration. Mr. Flower has also acted as mediator in a royalty dispute.

Brent Kaczmarek
Mr. Kaczmarek has been appointed as a financial and valuation expert for private companies as well as sovereign states in more than 160 disputes including more than 120 international arbitrations between investors and states, more than 30 international commercial arbitrations, and 5 foreign and 5 US litigation matters.  These disputes include many of the largest and most contentious international disputes to arise between investors and states and as well as significant commercial arbitration matters.  Mr. Kaczmarek has given oral testimony on more than 110 occasions in international arbitration, 4 times in US courts or depositions, and once in foreign court (Sweden) for 5 days. Mr. Kaczmarek received the internationally-recognized designation of Chartered Financial Analyst from the CFA Institute in 1998. The disputes Mr. Kaczmarek has helped clients and arbitral tribunals resolve have required valuations (or valuation impairment analysis) of companies, real estate, or financial securities located in more than 65 countries.

Liz Perks
Liz Perks, FCA, is a Managing Director in Haberman Ilett.  She has been working in the forensic accounting field since 2000 and is recognised as a Global Elite Thought Leader in the Arbitration expert witness category of Who’s Who Legal. She has been involved in over 80 cases, including contractual disputes, investment treaty arbitrations, claims for breach of warranty, earnouts, expert determinations and other disputes arising out of transactions, accounting irregularities, intellectual property disputes, shareholder disputes, assessments of solvency of companies and valuations. Liz has extensive experience in advising clients on the financial aspects and quantification of loss in commercial and contractual disputes before the English Courts and LCIA, ICC and UNCITRAL tribunals.  She has acted both for parties and as a tribunal appointed expert in arbitration. She also has experience of valuing loss in bi-lateral investment treaty claims under ICSID and acts as the expert to determine completion accounts, earn outs and other disputes subject to an independent determination process. Liz is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.  Liz is a trustee and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee of the British institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL).

Neill Poole
Neill Poole is a Senior Managing Director based in Hong Kong and has worked in Asia for 19 years. He has accumulated extensive regional experience in dispute services, forensic accounting, and financial investigations. Prior to relocating to Asia from the United Kingdom, Neill trained as a Chartered Accountant on the audit team of a Big 4 accountancy practice and, soon after qualifying in 1988, specialised in forensic accounting. Neill has been involved in a number of complex and high-profile dispute cases in the Asia region, and elsewhere, and has given expert accounting witness evidence on more than 25 occasions in tribunals in Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In addition to Neill’s expert witness roles in disputes, he has led many investigations into fraud and corruption in the APAC region, North America and in the UK.  Neill has also advised prosecutors and defendants in criminal proceedings and given expert evidence in criminal cases. Neill has also taken appointments as a liquidator and was heavily involved in the wind-down and realisation of the assets of Lehman Brothers entities in Asia following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in August 2008.

Find out more about Neil Kaplan, Chiann Bao and the In conversation with Neil series here, and browse past ‘conversations’ here.