Mark A. McGrath

Mark incorporates data analytics with his skills, expertise, and experience to consult with clients in a variety of areas including complex internal and regulatory investigations; risk management, governance, and control matters; business disputes; legal and litigation spend management; and general litigation support. He has conducted numerous fact-finding accounting investigations involving whistleblower allegations, SEC enforcement and reporting issues, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and has led Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) lookback reviews and alert investigations. He has also managed multidisciplinary teams addressing regulatory and management concerns pertaining to risk management and governance.

Mark has advised corporate law departments (CLDs) of industry-leading companies on legal operations, enterprise legal platforms, data, and reporting practices, and was designated as a legal spend and legal invoice analytics expert on one of the largest legal fee disputes in history, where he testified at an international arbitration hearing. He also acts as a trusted CLD partner to faciliate and manage e-discovery and other litigation support needs. Mark has led or participated in high-profile and complex projects spanning five continents.

Mark’s professional experience includes:

• SIPA Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities: Core member of global team that provided investigative and litigation support to the trustee and his counsel. Worked closely with counsel and led teams of consultants performing forensic investigation, data analysis, and litigation consulting regarding the massive Ponzi scheme.
• Audit Committee & Whistleblower Investigations: Assisted outside counsel for the audit or special committees of public company boards on numerous engagements investigating allegations of employee misconduct and fraud surrounding issues including the re-aging of customer loan accounts, calculation of allowance for loan and lease losses, improper recording of revenue via channel-stuffing, sham transactions, consignment sales, bill-and-hold sales, sales returns, acquisition accounting, and earnings management. Evaluated root causes and remedial actions, Item 9A disclosure, treatment of accounting changes, SOX Section 302 and 404, and SAB 99 materiality assessments. Interfaced with and presented findings to the companies’ auditors, shadow forensics teams, boards of directors, and SEC enforcement staff.
• Expert Witness Matter: Retained by outside counsel to one of the world’s largest multinational energy corporations as its legal spend and legal invoice data analytics expert in a multi-billion-dollar international arbitration before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Led team of consultants and data scientists to examine data and documents regarding legal spend management practices, evaluated and applied data analytics to 15 years of legal invoice data, submitted an expert report in support of nearly $800 million in legal fees and costs analyzed, testified at hearing, and rebutted respondent’s expert reports.
• BSA/AML Consent Order Matter: Retained by management of a large regional full-service community bank as the co-leader of a team of consultants and investigators to conduct a two-year lookback review of deposit account and transaction activity, assist client to update BSA/AML/KYC/CDD policies and procedures with industry best practices, and conduct BSA/AML independent testing and training in accordance with a FDIC consent order.
• Regulatory Compliance Matter: Retained by a leading retail mortgage lender to assist with preparations for regulatory oversight by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Supervised team that helped establish an enterprise-wide risk management (ERM) framework, document policies and procedures, implement risk control self-assessments (RCSA) throughout the business, evaluate and test the design and effectiveness of key controls, and support the transition towards an in-house internal audit function.
• FCPA and Anti-Corruption Matters: Assisted outside counsel for international public medical device and diversified technology companies and a large multinational private equity firm investigating allegations of inappropriate business practices and suspected violations of the FCPA in Europe and Asia. Conducted independent reviews of FCPA compliance and investigated alleged self-dealings and bribes paid by a third-party property management service provider to government officials. Interviewed employees, examined accounting, reporting, and recordkeeping practices, and performed transactional testing to identify possible control or conduct issues and assess compliance with the FCPA’s books and records and internal controls provisions.
• Legal and Litigation Spend Management Matter: Retained by a leading retail mortgage lender on a multi-year engagement to advise the General Counsel and in-house legal team regarding its legal and litigation spend management system and practices. Supported transition between and implementation of e-billing and Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) platforms. Solved data migration issues, directed external vendors on behalf of client, recommended improvements to outside counsel billing guidelines and legal ops processes, and faciliated onboarding of more than two dozen affiliate companies to ELM platform. Utilized legal invoice data to create customized analytics and dashboarding solutions to enhance workflow transparency, improve matter management, optimize relationships with outside counsel, and enhance legal spend decision-making, cost savings, and overall value.
• Litigation Matter: Assisted outside counsel in defense of a large bank against claims brought by a special deputy receiver and state guaranty associations to recover damages approximating $600 million related to the bank’s role as trustee over prearranged funeral assets misappropriated by funeral company personnel in the largest Ponzi scheme in Missouri history; resulted in very favorable settlement.