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ZOLLINGER FINDS HER NICHE IN LEGAL-ECONOMIC CONSULTING
Although Cindy Zollinger, ’79, isn’t free to discuss details,
she’s something of an expert on the topic of the recent NASDAQ
antitrust litigation, in which investment firms have faced lawsuits
alleging price fixing. She’s similarly well informed–and tight
lipped–on the Lotus v. Borland copyright infringement case, in which Lotus charged Borland with
copying parts of its Lotus 1-2-3 software.
There’s a good reason Zollinger is highly familiar with these
and dozens of other recent high-profile court cases. She is the
managing director of Cornerstone Research, Inc., of Menlo Park,
California, a 130-employee company that serves America’s top-echelon
law firms by analyzing the complex business problems that arise
in litigation.
“We work with a group of world class experts in finance and economics
to outline areas requiring expert testimony in litigation and
to help identify the types of experts and analyses needed,” she
says. “We first work attorneys to help identify the types of expert
analyses needed. Then we work with testifying experts to identify
appropriate analyses, and the results of those analyses are presented
in a court setting.”
Zollinger launched her career in 1979 with assistance from Roman
Weil, V. Duane Rath Professor of Accounting at Chicago. As Zollinger
approached graduation, Weil suggested she contact the MAC Group,
a Palo Alto consulting firm (since acquired by Gemini Consulting)
that had close ties to faculty at graduate schools of business
throughout the country.
Zollinger found a position at the MAC Group, where she discovered
a niche in litigation-related finance and economic consulting,
a then minor subset of the company’s business. “I started working
in that area and found it was a terrific fit for me,” Zollinger
reports.
“Jim Malernee [a colleague at the MAC Group] and I saw an opportunity
to expand the business, and in 1986, we set up a separate profit
center to focus on litigation consulting. We felt there were certain
differences between litigation consulting and general consulting
that needed to be identified to grow that side of the business.”
Grow it they did, from three employees in 1986 to about thirty-five
by the end of 1988. Believing that greater potential existed in
litigation consulting, they left the MAC Group and established
Cornerstone Research, Inc., on May 1, 1989, with a staff of about
three dozen employees. Around the same time, Zollinger gave up
her part-time position at Stanford University as a teacher of
financial accounting, which she had held for much of the previous
decade.
Founding their own company posed several challenges for Zollinger
and Malernee. The most notable hurdle proved to be sustaining
on their own the rapid business growth the pair had helped generate
at the MAC Group. But there were also plenty of the kinds of rewards
savored by all entrepreneurs, including the chance to forge a
distinct corporate identity based on the founders’ own priorities.
“Something we paid a lot of attention to was establishing core
values that would be reflected in the company,” Zollinger says.
“We wanted a firm that would be dedicated to quality, that would
have a high level of integrity, and that would treat its employees
well. One of the exciting things about starting a company is you’re
able to establish a culture consistent with your own beliefs .
. . and attract people who share those beliefs.”
Today, Cornerstone Research has offices in New York City, Washington,
D.C., and Cambridge, Massachusetts, in addition to its Menlo Park
headquarters. As her company has grown, Zollinger has watched
the litigation consulting field expand and become increasingly
competitive. Much of the industry growth has come about because
law firms increasingly view litigation consulting firms as partners
crucial to their courtroom success.
“Twenty years ago, law firms tended to look to individual expert
witnesses for help in cases,” she says. “Now they’re looking to
firms that have dedicated resources to help them in these matters,
rather than only [relying on] a group of individual experts.”
Those who know Zollinger well aren’t surprised by her success.
William H. Beaver, Ph.D. ’65, who served on the GSB faculty from
1965 to 1969 and is now Joan E. Horngren Professor of Accounting
at Stanford University, met her at Cornerstone Research while
working on a class action litigation. Zollinger, he reports, “treats
everyone as a valued colleague and keeps both the attorneys and
the experts focused on the issues, which
is a formidable challenge at times. Cindy is an outstanding manager
[and] most of all . . . is someone whom you can place your trust
in. She’s a role model for us all.”
Abundant opportunities lay ahead for Cornerstone Research, Zollinger
believes. Chief among them is an anticipated surge in intellectual
property litigation, a trend that, given Cornerstone Research’s
Silicon Valley location, is likely to provide the firm with a
decided competitive advantage in the years ahead.–Jeffrey Steele
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