• Artificial Intelligence - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Business Valuation in Litigation: Maintaining Accuracy and Defensibility in the Age of AI

    September 9, 2026

    In litigation, the issue is whether the expert can explain the analysis, the data, and the judgment that produced the opinion. AI can accelerate parts of that process, but it does not remove the expert’s responsibility for the conclusion. Therefore, the question addressed in this article is where AI can assist without taking ownership away from the expert. A valuation expert can arrive at the stand with years of experience, a detailed model, and a carefully prepared report. However, the expert may stumble when asked to explain an input that came from an AI tool and cannot explain why that…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Grade Me: A 30-Minute Framework for Reviewing Valuation Reports

    August 26, 2026

    The concept behind my “Grade Me” framework is straightforward: Valuation professionals can improve report quality by reviewing their work from the perspective of an informed reader who does not have the preparer’s background knowledge. A structured 30-minute review can identify issues before they become client concerns or litigation problems. Every valuation report is eventually reviewed by someone other than the person who prepared it. The reviewer may be a firm partner, a client, opposing counsel, a trier of fact, a regulator, a credentialing organization, or another valuation professional. Each reviewer approaches the report with a different perspective, but all are…

  • Case Law - Expert Witness - QuickRead Top Story

    Legal Update: Rosenthal v. Erber

    January 24, 2024

    Rosenthal v. Erber illustrates the pressure and perils of dueling experts. The expert is charged with assisting the court ascertain the facts, rather than furthering the client’s ambition. The case is a reminder to business valuation professionals that ethical considerations are paramount and that doing the contrary leads to courts’ suspecting the role of experts in the process. In the main, valuation experts pride themselves on reasoned analysis and well supported use of professional judgement. As a profession, valuators are confident that most reports uphold the demanding standards of the profession. Judges, on the other hand, do not always view…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    A Contrarian View of Report Writing

    March 29, 2023

    A Minimalist’s Suggestion on How to Lose the Boilerplate What level of detail should valuation analysts include in a detailed report? In this article, the author shares six practices he follows to answer the above question. You probably remember that college professor who said they graded term papers by throwing them down the stairs and giving the ones the farthest down the highest grade. This is how I feel many valuation reports are written. Recently, I was asked by an attorney on a malpractice case to review a valuation report. It looked like a reasonable, professionally done valuation report. But…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Practical Advice on Rebutting and/or Defending a Valuation Report

    March 7, 2018

    While valuation may generally be part art and part science, rebutting and/or defending a valuation introduces additional types of art and science. The stakes are often higher because interested parties are affected by the contested valuation’s outcome, and the narrative can become more nuanced due to conflicting views on a variety of issues. This article endeavors to cut through the clutter and provide practical tips to address some common themes that arise in rebutting and/or defending a valuation report in a contested situation.