Clients - Law Firms, Legal Departments, Regulators

CMRA Institutional Investor clients settled their Allianz Structured Alpha litigation

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CMRA is a thought leader in Best Practice. The breadth of our client base, (including hedge funds, money managers, funds of funds, investment banks, commercial banks, derivatives companies, institutional investors) as well as geographic diversity (We have clients on 6 continents) gives us a unique cross industry perspective on best practices.

CMRA provides expert services in both investigations and litigation. As true “experts” who have extensive hands on experience and whose practice is balanced between sharing our expertise with clients who are trying to avoid/solve problems and those who are litigating/investigating problems, we are uniquely qualified to provide advice and testimony.

CMRA has been involved in investigations and disputes arising from most of the financial meltdowns in the past 30 years.  We have prepared expert reports and/or testified in numerous high profile cases involving complex financial instruments and have participated in several high profile investigations. 

CMRA was called "The Red Adair" of financial engineering by Grant's Interest Rate Observer and was hired by the Fed as an advisor on the LTCM aftermath.

Examples of meltdown related experience include:

Selected Assignments in Lawyers

Services for Lawyers

• Testifying Expert Witnesses

  • Expert Reports, Court Testimony, and Trial Preparation on both liability and damages by seasoned experts with many years of market background as well as academic credentials and testifying experience.

• Consulting Expert Services and Pre-litigation Support Analysis

  • Crisis management, pre-litigation analysis and advice, trial strategy analysis and review by experts with expensive hands on OTC Derivatives and Structured Finance trading, structuring, risk management, valuation, and risk governance experience.

• Valuations of Complex Financial Products and Transactions

  • Valuation of complex or less liquid instruments is a core compentency of CMRA. We have valued thousands of OTC derivatives ranging from plain-vanilla swaps to CDS to exotic options and synthetic CDO cubed transactions.

• Transactions and Derivatives Terminations and Unwinds Advisory Services

  • Independent evaluation of OTC Derivative and Structured Finance pricing, structuring, documentation, collateral valuation

  • Transaction pricing and risk evaluation

  • Assistance in effective execution

• Internal and Regulatory Investigations

  • Experienced in conducting internal investigations and in conducting investigations/reviews for the Fed, SEC, FINRA, NYSBD, DOL, GAO, etc.

• Crisis Management and Mitigation (Derivatives and Structured Finance 911)

  • Swat team to assist in quickly assessing problems, evaluating alternatives and solving problems by experienced experts in order to rapidly assess the pitfalls and maximize the value of OTC derivatives and structured finance transactions and collateral issues including close out under the ISDA master agreement and global portfolio analysis assessment, cross default, valuation benchmarking and options available with respect to timing and valuation of entire portfolios including CDOs, CDS, energy, FX, rates, all ISDA transaction types and complex quantitative and legal risk management assessment.

• Risk Governance Advisory

  • Advice on policies, committee structure and charters, Risk Appetite Statements, and Benchmarking of Board Risk Practices

  • Risk Education

Selected CMRA in the Press – Lawyers

How to recognise and benefit from a financial bubble - Morningstar - Jan. 2019

Six Women Honored With Outstanding Women in Performance & Risk Measurement Award - The Spaulding Group - June 2018

The Quants May Not Be Able To Prevent The Next Meltdown - Forbes - Jan 2012

What Is a Chief Risk Officer, and Should Hedge Fund Managers Have One? - Hedge Fund Law Report - Aug. 2009

Risk Inverse - The Journal of Portfolio Management - Spring 2009

In Modeling Risk, the Human Factor Was Left Out - The New York Times - Nov. 2008

Cascades, Contagions, and Death Spirals - CFA Magazine - July/August 2008

VaR Enough? Market turbulence tests the limits of Value at Risk - Institutional Investor - June 2008

Citibank responds, sues for breach of contract in credit default swap case - Debtwire - April 2008

Don’t Trust the Wall St rally - Fortune - March 2008

Subprime and Hedge Funds: Hard Lessons to Learn Here? - HedgeWorld - Sep. 2007

Market volatility puts risk at forefront - Pensions & Investments - August 2007

The Pain Moves Beyond Subprime - BusinessWeek - August 2007

The calm after the storm - or the eye of the hurricane? - Investment Dealers’ Digest

UP THE VOLGA WITHOUT A CALCULATOR At this point, banks can’t figure their exposure - Business Week - Sep. 1998

Post-LTCM, most funds ignore VAR - IDD - June 2000

“Orange County didn’t know how much trouble its investment fund was in until Leslie Rahl spent her weeks sorting it all out from both coasts last fall.“ - Frobes - May 1995

PICKING UP THE PIECES The Critical Blunder That Brought Down a British Institution - Los Angeles Times - March 1995

“In the forbidding corner of the Wall Street jungle known as the derivatives markets, where the locals are known as hard-quants, rocket scientists or just plain nerds…Leslie Rahl is widely considered among the best of native guides for wary travelers.“ - New York Newsday - Jan. 1995

But No Cigar:  How a Rescue Mission Failed, Just Barely, In Orange County---It’s a Tale of Secret Codes, All-Nighters and Conflicts Amid a ‘Siege Mentality’ --- An Odd Kind of Government - WSJ - Dec. 1994

ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY Asking for Help Advisers:  Orange County turns to a New York firm for expertise in handling its imperiled fund.  The holdings may be sold piecemeal. - Los Angeles Times - Dec. 1994