CFES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Certified Public Accountant
- Senior Consultant
Alan B. Winikur is a Certified Public Accountant and is accredited in Business Valuation by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
In addition to consulting at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, he acts as Director of Taxation at Zelnick, Mann & Winikur, P.C., a Certified Public Accounting firm in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
Prior to becoming a Certified Public Accountant, he served for eight years as an Internal Revenue Service agent. He is a member of both the Pennsylvania and the American Institutes of Certified Public Accountants and is a member of the Forensic and Litigation Support Section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
He served as a court-appointed accountant in two national multidistrict matters - Orthopedic Bone Screw Products Liability Litigation and Diet Drug Products Liability Litigation - in addition to acting as an expert witness in numerous other federal and state civil matters.
Bernard F. Lentz concentrates on the analysis of issues in labor and employment litigation, commercial matters and personal-injury and wrongful-death claims.
He is the author of numerous articles, book reviews, translations and books, including Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession (with David N. Laband; Quorum Books, 1995), The Roots of Success: Why Children Follow in Their Parents' Career Footsteps (Praeger Publishers, 1985) and State Government Productivity: The Environment for Improvement (Pergamon Press, 1976).
He was most recently a professor of higher education in the School of Education at Drexel University and emeritus vice provost for institutional research. Dr. Lentz previously served as Drexel's executive director of institutional research. He served for ten years as director of institutional research and analysis at the University of Pennsylvania, where he conducted a full analysis of the university's employment and salary data in response to an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) desk audit, and acted as the key researcher for the analysis of gender and minority equity.
He served on the faculties of Ursinus College, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and the State University of New York at Albany.
He acted as forensic economic consultant to the Technical Advisory Services for Attorneys from 1985 to 1997.
After completing undergraduate studies in economics at Oberlin College, he attended Yale University, where he earned two master's degrees and a doctorate in economics.
Job Titles:
- Senior Analyst
- Senior Economist
- Expert
Brian Conley is a Senior Economist at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies. Since 2003, he has analyzed economic damages in personal injury, wrongful death, employment discrimination, and commercial damages matters. He works with Center clients on issues related to damages analysis, discovery, deposition strategy, and cross examination strategy.
Mr. Conley has served as an expert witness at mock trials at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and LLM Trial Advocacy Program, Villanova University's Widger School of Law, and various law firms in the greater Philadelphia area. He also serves as a guest lecturer on various damages topics at Temple University's Beasley School of Law and Drexel University's Kline School of Law. He frequently attends attorney education seminars on the Center's behalf.
Mr. Conley received his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Duke University.
Brian P. Sullivan, Ph.D., a senior economist and vice president at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, died on December 26, 2007. Since 1987, he had consulted with attorneys in Philadelphia and nationally on economic issues arising in litigation and frequently testified in court as an expert witness.
Dr. Sullivan built a reputation as a brilliant analyst of complicated issues who could express his findings in clear, simple language. His courtroom demeanor was a model of modesty and good humor, yet he was known to be merciless when cross examined by an opposing attorney.
An attorney defending the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in an employment suit found this out, to his dismay. Sullivan was testifying for the plaintiff. Cross examining Sullivan, the attorney asked Sullivan where he got his data on SEPTA finances. Sullivan replied that he was a daily SEPTA commuter and had received the information in a pamphlet passed out on the train. "You relied on a simple handout to commuters?" the attorney asked. "Why, yes," Sullivan replied. "Would SEPTA deliberately deceive its passengers?"
In the landmark 1994 election-law case Marks v. Stinson, Sullivan used statistical analysis to show that voting fraud had occurred in a Pennsylvania state senate race. The court agreed with Sullivan's findings - the analysis was characterized by Federal District Court Judge Clarence Newcomer as "eloquent."
Sullivan grew up in Avoca, Pa. and attended King's College in Wilkes-Barre. Sullivan earned his doctorate in Microeconomic Theory and Econometrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Sullivan also served as an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas, as an economist with the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and as a Senior Economist at the American Petroleum Institute.
Job Titles:
- President
- Senior Economist
Chad L. Staller is president of the Center for Forensic Economic Studies. He has extensive experience working with both plaintiff and defense counsel in a wide variety of civil matters, quantifying loss sustained by many types of plaintiffs, including union members, state and federal employees, business owners and injured children. He regularly analyzes claims brought in employment-discrimination matters, quantifying back-pay and front-pay damages and lost benefits. Mr. Staller and frequently consults on commercial matters, analyzing lost-profit and business-interruption claims. He has testified in jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations in state and federal courts.
He serves on the faculty of Temple University's Beasley School of Law LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program and lectures regularly at Villanova University School of Law and Drexel's Earle Mack School of Law. Mr. Staller is a Certified Trial Advocacy instructor through the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He frequently presents seminars and speaks on forensic economic topics at law firms, accounting continuing education seminars, and before professional organizations.
Mr. Staller received his Masters in Business Administration from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his Master of Accountancy from Villanova University. He is certified as a Certified Valuation Analyst by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.
Job Titles:
- Director of Management Information Systems
- Senior Economist & Statistician New Jersey
- Senior Economist / Statistician / MIS Director
David R. Adams is a senior economist / statistician and the director of management information systems at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies. He analyzes damages issues in personal injury, wrongful death, employment discrimination and commercial matters. He has developed models for forecasting the extent of future loss for businesses in a variety of industries and has testified on damages issues. He has worked closely with Center clients on planning deposition strategy, cross examinations and the scope of direct testimony. He serves frequently as an expert witness at mock trials conducted at Temple University School of Law's Academy of Trial Advocacy.
As director of management information systems, he specializes in the application of computer technology to forensic economic analysis. Mr. Adams has extensive experience in the field of computer science both in hardware and software. His experience includes application programming on a variety of hardware and software platforms in both mainframe and PC environments.
A Viet Nam-era U.S. Navy veteran, Mr. Adams held an E-5 rating in electronics. He received training in the Navy's advanced electronics program for highly classified cryptographic communication systems.
Mr. Adams is a magna cum laude graduate of Ursinus College, where he concentrated his studies on economics and business administration. He has presented a number of lectures on statistical programming and applications before senior seminar classes at Ursinus.
Job Titles:
- Psychologist
- Senior Consultant
- Psychologist Expert New Jersey
Dr. Charles L. Sodikoff is a psychologist specializing in workplace issues. He has particular expertise in job-search concerns and employee-selection criteria. He has over 20 years' experience as a counselor, consultant and outplacement specialist. At the Center, Dr. Sodikoff is most often called on to assess and testify on plaintiffs' efforts at mitigation in employment-termination matters.
James Markham, a Senior Economist at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, concentrates on the analysis of issues arising in labor and employment litigation, commercial matters, personal-injury and wrongful-death claims and insurance coverage and claims matters.
Prior to joining the Center, he served as Senior Vice President and head of the curriculum department at the American Institute for CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter), where he developed many of the Institute's academic courses and programs. He has also worked as a liability claims examiner and has practiced law.
He is the author and editor of numerous texts on insurance topics. These texts include Property Loss Adjusting(Insurance Institute of America, first edition, 1990, and second edition,1995), Medical Aspects of Claims (Insurance Institute of America, 1991), Principles of Workers Compensation Claims (Insurance Institute of America, 1992) and The Claims Environment (with Kevin M. Quinley and Layne S. Thompson, Insurance Institute of America, 1993).
He taught economics courses at Temple University, The University of Delaware and Villanova University.
He received his doctorate in Economics from the University of Delaware, his MSBA (a joint master of business administration and master of science degree) from Temple University and his law degree from Villanova University School of Law.
Jerome M. Staller, founder and president of the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, died August 1, 2008 of complications arising from kidney dialysis. He was 62.
The Center was one of the very first economic consulting firms to focus primarily on the analysis of damages and liability in civil litigation. While working as a senior economist for with the U.S. Department of Labor in the late 1970s, Dr. Staller was asked by Bernard Siskin, his former statistics professor at Temple University, to help analyze liability and damages issues on behalf of the plaintiffs in the landmark case Pennsylvania v. Local 452 Operating Engineers, an ultimately successful action against the union for discriminatory hiring practices.
Finding that he preferred the excitement and intellectual challenge of litigation-related analysis to working within the federal bureaucracy, Dr. Staller, along with Siskin, opened the Center in 1980 in Philadelphia. The small, two-man firm provided attorneys with analysis of damages in personal injury matters and statistical analysis of liability and damages in labor and employment matters.
Job Titles:
- Senior Economist
- Senior Economist / Statistician
Stephen M. Dripps, a senior economist / statistician at the Center for Forensic Economic Studies, analyzes economic damages in personal injury, wrongful death, employment discrimination and commercial matters. Since 1997, he has worked closely with Center clients on discovery, damages analysis, deposition strategy, cross examination strategy and the scope of direct testimony.
Mr. Dripps also manages the analyst staff at the Center. He serves as an expert witness at mock trials conducted at Temple University School of Law's Academy of Trial Advocacy.
Mr. Dripps received his Bachelor's Degree in Statistics and his Master's Degree in Finance from Pennsylvania State University.